Recipes with ají dulce

13 recipes that use ají dulce, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Guasacaca, takes 15 minutes. It is most often cooked with garlic, onion and cumin.

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Pisillo llanero

Cattle country cooks in Apure and Barinas turn salted dried beef into pisillo: desalted, boiled, pounded into fine threads and fried with onion, ají dulce and garlic until almost dry and lightly crisp. It's eaten at lunch with white rice, black beans, fried ripe plantain and an arepa, the plate the llaneros call their own. The common mistake is not soaking the beef long enough, so it comes out too salty. Chef's tip: taste a strand after boiling; if it is still salty, simmer it in fresh water for another 10 minutes.

90 min

Venezuelan Meat

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Consomé de chipichipi

On the beaches of Margarita and the Sucre coast, vendors ladle steaming cups of consomé de chipichipi, a clear, salty broth of tiny clams with garlic, ají dulce and coriander, famous as a cure after a long night. Chipichipi are hard to find outside Venezuela; small clams such as palourdes or Manila clams are a good stand-in. The common mistake is boiling the clams too long, which makes them rubbery. Chef's tip: let the clams soak in salted water first so they spit out their sand.

55 min

Venezuelan Soups

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Sopa de cazón

In Porlamar and the beach kitchens of Margarita, cazón (small shark) is simmered into a golden soup with pumpkin, potato and lots of ají dulce and coriander, eaten for Friday lunch and during Lent. Shark should only be bought from a sustainable, legal fishery; firm white fish such as pollock, hake or monkfish gives a very similar soup. The common mistake is overcooking the fish until it turns to threads. Chef's tip: poach the fish first, set it aside and only return it to the pot in the last 5 minutes.

60 min

Venezuelan Soups

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Guasacaca

Every parrilla in Caracas puts a bowl of guasacaca on the table: avocado crushed with green pepper, onion, garlic, coriander and parsley, sharpened with vinegar until it is looser and tangier than guacamole. It goes on grilled meat and chorizo, but just as happily on arepas, empanadas, boiled yuca and grilled vegetables. The common mistake is blending it to a smooth mousse; it should keep a little texture. Chef's tip: make it no more than an hour ahead and press cling film onto the surface, so it stays bright green.

15 min

Venezuelan Chutneys & Dips

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Quinchoncho guisado

In Lara and across eastern Venezuela, quinchonchos (pigeon peas) are cooked during Holy Week and on ordinary weekdays alike, stewed with a sofrito of onion, sweet ají dulce and garlic and thickened with pumpkin that melts into the broth. It's eaten with white rice, arepas or a wedge of fried plantain, and many homes add pork; this version keeps it meat-free. The common mistake is adding the pumpkin too early so it disappears. Chef's tip: put the pumpkin in for the last 20 minutes, then mash a few pieces against the pot to thicken the stew.

105 min

Venezuelan Curries

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Arepa pelúa

Late at night in the areperas of Caracas, the pelúa is the order for the hungry: a split corn arepa packed with carne mechada (slow-cooked shredded beef in sofrito) and a heap of grated yellow cheese that melts into 'hairy' strands, which is what pelúa means. The beef can be made a day ahead, and many families cook a big pot to fill arepas all week. The common mistake is a dry arepa dough that cracks on the griddle. Chef's tip: the dough should feel like soft play-dough and leave your palms just damp; add water a spoonful at a time until it does.

135 min

Venezuelan Snacks & Starters

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Polvorosa de pollo

Polvorosa is the pie that comes out for family birthdays and Sunday gatherings in Caracas: a melt-in-the-mouth, slightly sweet shortcrust (polvorosa means 'crumbly') around chicken stewed with leek, peppers, olives, capers and raisins, so each bite is salty, sweet and savoury at once. Serve it warm with a green salad. The common mistake is filling the pastry with hot stew, which melts the butter and makes a soggy, torn crust. Chef's tip: make the filling the day before and fill the pie straight from the fridge.

120 min

Venezuelan Chicken

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Bollitos pelones

Bollitos pelones are proper home cooking from central Venezuela: little balls of corn dough tinted with onoto, stuffed with a spoonful of spiced minced beef and simmered in a light tomato sauce until the dough firms. Mothers make them for school-day lunches with white rice, and they reheat well. The common mistake is stirring the pot, which breaks the balls apart. Chef's tip: give the pan a gentle shake instead of stirring, and don't touch them for the first 10 minutes.

75 min

Venezuelan Meat

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Chivo en coco

Goats graze the dry scrub of the Guajira peninsula, and in Zulia the meat is stewed in fresh coconut milk with a sofrito of onion, ají dulce and garlic until it falls from the bone. It's party and Sunday food in Maracaibo, served with fried ripe plantain, white rice or arepas to soak up the sauce. The common mistake is boiling the coconut milk hard, which splits it into a greasy sauce. Chef's tip: add the coconut milk only for the last 40 minutes and keep the pot at a gentle bubble.

180 min

Venezuelan Meat

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Mojito en coco

Around Lake Maracaibo, 'mojito' means not a cocktail but a home dish of poached fish flaked into a sofrito of peppers, onion and ají dulce and finished with coconut milk. Families serve it at weekday lunch with white rice and tostones. Any firm white fish works. The common mistake is leaving bones in the flakes. Chef's tip: flake the fish with your fingers rather than a fork, so you can feel and remove every pin bone.

45 min

Venezuelan Fish

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Pastel de chucho

On Margarita island, pastel de chucho is the pride of fishing villages like Juan Griego and El Tirano, and a fixture of Holy Week: shredded stingray (chucho) cooked in a rich sofrito, layered with fried ripe plantain and white cheese and set with beaten egg. Stingray can be hard to find and is not always sustainable, so a firm white fish such as hake, pollock or responsibly caught skate wing works well. The common mistake is a watery sofrito, which makes the bake soggy. Chef's tip: cook the fish sofrito until the pan is almost dry before layering.

120 min

Venezuelan Fish

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Patarashca

Wrapping fish in leaves and cooking it over embers is how the riverside towns of Loreto and San Martín have always cooked their catch, and in Iquitos patarashca is sold on Belén market grills and in the restaurants along the Malecón. A whole fish or thick fillet is smeared with garlic, ají dulce, tomato, onion, cumin and sacha culantro, folded in large bijao leaves and grilled until the parcel chars and the fish steams in its own juices. When you open it, the flesh is soft and fragrant with herbs. Banana leaves from Asian shops are the best swap for bijao; foil works at a pinch. Too thin a parcel is the usual mistake: the leaves burn through and the fish dries out, so use two layers. Chef's tip: serve it in the opened leaf with boiled plantain or cassava and spoon up every drop of the juices.

45 min

Peruvian Fish

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Inchicapi

From the riverside kitchens of Iquitos and the Peruvian Amazon comes inchicapi, a festive chicken soup traditionally made with a free-range hen for birthdays and fiestas. Raw peanuts and a little maize flour are ground and stirred into the broth, which turns it creamy, pale and nutty, and pieces of cassava, garlic, ají dulce and sacha culantro (a long, serrated, strongly flavoured coriander) finish it. It is served with rice, boiled plantain or cassava. If you can't find sacha culantro in Asian or Latin shops (sold as culantro or ngo gai), use a big handful of coriander. The pitfall is adding the peanut paste dry: it clumps and catches on the bottom, so loosen it with broth first and stir often. Chef's tip: use raw, not roasted, peanuts; they keep the soup pale and give it the right fresh, milky taste.

75 min

Peruvian Soups

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Goes well with ají dulce