Curiosities about chili pepper in Peru

Transcription of a podcast episode on Learn Peruvian Spanish.

Hello, welcome to Learn Peruvian Spanish. Today we’re going to talk about ají, ‘chili pepper’.

We’ll start this podcast with the most important thing: food. You probably already have your list of things to eat in Peru, so words and phrases related to food will be part of the first episodes.

Ají: a, j, i, with an acute accent. An ingredient that adds spiciness to food.

Let’s start with the meaning: Ají can be the plant or the fruit. The scientific name of the plant is Capsicum. The ají’s fruit, which is also called ‘ají’, is a hollow fruit, very variable in shape and size, but generally conical with a sharp point, smooth on the surface, with red, yellowish, or greenish tones; it’s usually used as a condiment, dried, in pasta or fresh.

In other Spanish-speaking countries, it’s known as chile picante or simply as chile.

Now let’s go to the context. When is the word ají used?

It is a word frequently used in restaurant menus, and recipes of typical dishes prepared with some kind of ají, such as Papa a la huancaína, which is prepared with yellow pepper.

And now… examples:

1. The combination of pepper and potatoes formed a fundamental part of the Incas’ diet.
2. In a pan with hot oil, brown the onion, the garlic, and the clean yellow pepper, and cook for 5 minutes over low heat.
3. The pepper gives that little touch of spiciness to meals.
4. Controlled intake of pepper could help lower insulin levels in the blood.

And now some extra information:

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The most popular varieties of ají are as follows:

• Arnaucho: it’s small, very spicy, yellow, red, white, or purple in color. It’s grown mainly in the provinces Barranca and Huacho, in Lima. It’s used to prepare cebiche, for example.
• Another type of ají is aji amarillo or aji escabeche: It’s not really yellow when ripe, but orange. It isn’t really spicy, it’s thin and somewhat long, about 10 to 15 centimeters. It’s the most used one, used in different popular dishes, such as Ají de gallina, Papa a la huancaína and Tacu tacu.
• Another type of ají is cerezo: This one is round, small, and resembles a cherry, but it’s quite spicy and deep red when ripe. It’s grown in Lambayeque. It’s used to prepare many typical dishes, such as Sudado, Arroz con pato, Cabrito con frijoles, Sopa de choros and others.
• Ají charapita: It’s the smallest of all, but it’s also very spicy. It’s yellow. It’s cultivated in most of the Peruvian jungle. It’s used to prepare Juane, Patarashca and Tacacho.
• Ají limo: A little smaller than ají amarillo, it has a very variable shape and color. They’re round peppers, others are long, some are red, and others are yellow, green, or orange. Ají limo is used to prepare Cebiche, which is the most popular dish on the Peruvian coast.
• Ají mochero: From the Moche valley, in La Libertad. It resembles the ají limo, a little, in size. But this one is yellow or green. It’s used to prepare the famous Shámbar.
• Ají panca: This is a pepper that’s consumed when dry. When ripe it’s reddish, then it gets darker.
• Ají ayucllo: It’s the most common in the jungle of the regions of San Martin and Ucayali. It’s used to prepare Juanes. It’s light in color and mainly purple.
• And finally, we have rocoto: Rocoto is the spiciest of all the ones mentioned here. It’s generally red and is the only one with black seeds. There is rocoto serrano and rocoto de la selva, from the central jungle, the latter one used to prepare Rocoto relleno. And rocoto serrano is generally consumed fresh.

And well, that’d be all the information regarding ají and how the word ají is used in Peru, with a few extra details. Thank you very much for listening and reading this post of Learn Peruvian Spanish. Until the next episode!

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