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Ají dulce

Sweet perennial peppers found in Latin America and the Caribbean

Field	Value
name	Ají dulce
image	Puerto Rican Ajicitos.jpg
image_caption	Puerto Rican ajicitos
species	Capsicum chinense
origin	Latin America and the Caribbean
module	{{Infobox pepper
embed	yes
heat	Mild
scoville	0–500}}

Ají dulce, ají cachucha, quechucha, ajicito, or ají gustoso is any of a variety of sweet perennial peppers found in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is most widely known in Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela, where it refers to a specific native variety of Capsicum chinense that is related to the habanero but with a much milder, smoky flavor. In the English-speaking Caribbean, it is known as seasoning pepper and is essential to a variety of traditional dishes.

Name

In South American Spanish, ají means 'chili pepper' and dulce [] means 'sweet', so the name translates to 'sweet chili pepper'. Cachucha is the Latin American Spanish word for 'cap', so ají cachucha means 'cap chili pepper' and refers to its cap-like shape. Gustoso means 'tasty', so ají gustoso translates to 'tasty chili pepper'. Ajicito is the diminutive of ají and translates to 'little chili pepper'.

Use in cooking

In Venezuelan cuisine, ají dulce is a key ingredient in many traditional dishes, like the national dish pabellón criollo. The Venezuelan ají dulce is classified as non pungent, between 100 and 500 in the Scoville scale.

In the Dominican Republic it is known as "aji gustoso". In Cuba, it is known as ají Cachucha.

In Puerto Rico where it is called ají dulce or ajicito, it is grown commercially and used for sauces, such as recaíto, sofrito, and mojito isleño, other fish or meat sauces, as well as stews, rice, and other local dishes.

References

Weaver, William Woys. (2000) 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books.

References

Romero, Alejandro. (27 April 2020). "¿Por qué comemos ajíes?".
Yonekura, Kaoru. (11 November 2020). "Ají dulce: identidad venezolana en un ingrediente inmigrante".
"Ají dulce". UMass Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

chili-peppers puerto_rican_cuisine culture-of-venezuela capsicum-cultivars

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