Ají criollo

A table sauce, not a cooked dish

Ají criollo is a fresh Ecuadorian hot sauce made by blending hot peppers with cilantro, garlic and lime. It is made without cooking and is served at the table alongside many everyday dishes.

The source describes Ecuadorian food as generally mild. Restaurants often serve dishes without much heat and leave a homemade ají on the table for diners who want it, which explains why the sauce is valued as a separate condiment.

Method and the role of each part

Peppers, cilantro, garlic, lime juice and water are blended first, which gives the sauce its green base. The white part of a spring onion, or white onion, is then stirred in by hand or blended briefly. Keeping the onion coarse keeps some bite in the finished sauce.

Lime juice gives the acid that brightens the sauce. The source says a little vinegar can be added for more acidity. Water thins the blend to a spoonable texture.

Choosing the peppers

The source recommends a mix of jalapeño or serrano with red fresno chiles. Habaneros make it much hotter. Removing the membranes and seeds makes it milder, and red Korean chiles add colour without much heat.

The author reports that Ecuadorian ají peppers are hard to find outside Ecuador and that Peruvian yellow hot peppers taste closest to Ecuadorian ají común. Those are substitutions, not the local variety.

Storage

The author prefers to eat the sauce fresh, ideally the same day, and says it keeps for up to three days. A reader asked about freezing; the author replied that it can be frozen but is best freshly made.

Related sauces

The source names a tree-tomato (tamarillo) ají as another Ecuadorian version and a coastal hot salsa made with pickled peppers and vegetables. Both are separate records; neither is covered here.