Huancaína sauce is a Peruvian sauce made with yellow chili pepper (“Ají Amarillo”) and fresh cheese. It is really smooth and creamy and has a spectacular flavor that the yellow pepper gives it. All you need is a blender to make it and it's great over boiled potatoes, eggs, and lettuce as a starter. You can also water it down a bit and use it as a salad dressing.
Huancaína sauce was created in the Huancayo area, in the Junín department in central Peru. Originally, this recipe is made with a batán: like a giant mortar. Over the years the recipe has evolved and you can find many different versions of the Huancaina sauce. In my case, I am showing you the sauce that my mom made and that is STELLAR and very uncomplicated. This sauce was famous among many of my friends and is characterized by being VERY creamy and smooth.
The base of the huancaína sauce is yellow chili paste. The Peruvian yellow pepper is incredibly tasty and not very hot. In addition, since we use it, in fact, it does not sting at all, because the seeds and veins are removed before use. Only that spectacular and particular flavor of the yellow chili remains. Now, if you don't get fresh or even frozen yellow pepper, you can substitute packaged yellow pepper paste, just consider that it does sting because they don't clean them before processing. Alternatively, I have also seen yellow chili powder in some countries that you can also use there, I don't know the quantities, but you can try adding 1 tablespoon at a time.
The other thing used in the huancaína sauce is fresh cheese. It is ideal that you use one that is very tasty, the richer it is, the richer your sauce will be. If you don't get it where you live, you can replace it with a piece of very dry ricotta cheese. It works quite well because the queso fresco is like pressed ricotta. This sauce is typically served over cooked potatoes and is served with a boiled egg and olives.
Ingredients
For the Huancaine sauce
200 g yellow chili paste from around 5 chili peppers (instructions below*)
200 g fresh cheese can be replaced by rather dry ricotta cheese or ricotta cheese and no longer add milk
200 ml canola oil or vegetable oil
salt to taste
as needed evaporated milk
Accompaniments
500g boiled potato
4 chicken eggs
12 black olives
2-6 lettuce leaves, washed and dried
Step-by-step preparation
To make the yellow pepper paste, remove the seeds and veins from the pepper and boil it for 10-15 minutes. Peel it and blend it with a little oil, just enough so that it can be blended. If you can't find fresh chili, you can look for ready-made chili paste at specialty stores or even on Amazon. It's spicy but it works just as well.
Blend the chili and cheese on high speed. Add the oil to the blender in a thread form. Adjust the texture at the end with a splash of evaporated milk if necessary. The idea is that it is not super heavy but that it can still cover the potatoes with a thick layer. If it is too liquid, add a little more cheese and oil, it will depend on the humidity of the cheese.
To cook the eggs, put them in a pot over medium heat with cold water. Once the water starts to boil, it takes 8min time for chicken eggs. Once ready, give them a shock in ice water and peel them.
Arrange the lettuce, then the potato on top, and cover them with the sauce. Finish by decorating with the halved egg and the olives.
¡A disfrutar!
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