Peruvian yellow chili paste — Capsicum baccatum blanched, peeled, blended to bright orange. Mild-fruity heat, the color of causa and aji de gallina.
Aji amarillo (botanically Capsicum baccatum var. pendulum, Quechua "uchu") was domesticated in the central Andes ~6500 BCE, predating Capsicum annuum. The fresh-paste form is Lima criollo cooking, codified in Nicolini-era restaurant kitchens of the 1950s.
Gastón Acurio's Astrid y Gastón uses three cultivars side-by-side — Cusqueño (smokier), Norteño (fruitier), and the standard Lima paste. A jar of true fresh paste lasts 4 days fridge, 3 months frozen; the supermarket bottled stuff (Doña Isabel, Inca's Food) is cooked-down and shelf-stable.
Glossy orange-yellow, thick enough to mound on a spoon. Smells of mango skin and warm hay. Heat 30,000-50,000 SHU but slow-arriving and short — the fruit-sugar buffer makes it gentler than a serrano.
Three blanches in fresh water ("despepitado") strip capsaicin from placental tissue; peeling after blanch removes the bitter cuticle. Final blend with neutral oil emulsifies the carotenoids — that's where the orange glow comes from.
Variations
Pasta de aji amarillo (the cooked-blanched paste), aji amarillo molido (raw-blended, sharper), aji amarillo seco (mirasol, dried, used in stews like carapulcra), and the Cusco smoke-dried cultivar used in northern adobos.
On the Palate
Where Aji Amarillo Paste sits in the Peruvian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
3 steps · 5 min active + 10 min waiting
- 110 min
Blanch 200 g fresh aji amarillo chilies in boiling water 5 min; peel and deseed.
Watch outBlanch until the flesh softens and the peel loosens; the point of the boil is to draw out the harsh heat, so change the water if you want it milder.
- 23 min
Blend with 2 tbsp oil and 1 tsp salt to smooth bright-orange paste.
Watch outBlend until the paste turns glossy bright orange and no flecks remain — the oil pulling the color out is what gives that glow.
- 32 min
Store in airtight jar in fridge up to 1 month or freeze portions.
