Aji Amarillo

My favorite chilli is aji amarillo, long and thin peppers, about 3-5 inches in length. Don’t be fooled by the name – amarillo means yellow in Spanish – because ripe aji amarillo are bright orange and unripe ones are yellow. The seeds inside will make a dish very spicy so just remove them to lower the heat level. The aroma and its fruity, somewhat sweet flavor add to the spiciness, making it unique from other hot peppers.

Aji Amarillo is consider the most important ingredient in Peruvian cooking by the famous Peruvian chef Gaston Acurio.

Here at Sabor we use aji amarillo in dishes such Papa a la Huancaina, potatoes with a yellow creamy sauce; Causa, a cold potato dish colored and flavored with yellow aji; and as a garnish on Escabeche, pickled fish. Another common use is as a side dipping sauce that can accompany any meal.

In addition to flavor, aji amarillo has health benefits as well due to its high levels of capsaicin, a natural ingredient in hot peppers located in the pepper’s ribs, which is good for pain relief, as a digestion aid, and in fighting inflammation.

In the UK the supply of this Aji is very irregular, so when we get it, we buy a good quantity and make a paste that we can use later in various recipesj, and we would advise anyone to do the same.

Pasta de Ají Amarillo

This chilli paste is use in many peruvian recipes especially in ceviches (we have even done a sorbet and is great with pasta). It can be freeze in small containers so that it can be easily thawed when needed.

Ingredients:

• 1lb (½ kg) ají amarillo

• ½ cup sugar

• ¼ cup vinegar

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Preparation

Wash, stem, seed and devein ají amarillo. Place in a large pot of cold water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes until ajíes are soft. Strain ajíes and place in a blender or the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the other ingredients. Blend to form a creamy paste. Press through a fine mesh sieve to remove any pieces of skin.

Chillies at South American kick to the world food

Ajíes (Capsicum)

Ajies mean hot chilli peppers in Spanish (also spelled chili), is the fruit of the plant capsicum of the nightshade Solanaceae family, in their various forms are what give every dish its essential flavour.

Ajíes feature prominently in pre-hispanic mythology; one of the legendary brothers who were the forefathers of the Inca Empire, Ayar Uchu, is named for ají in Quechua. Cultivated since prehistoric times in Peru and Mexico, it was discovered in the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus. He thought them as a more masculine version of Old World peppers, so he named them pimento in contrast with pimenta. Diego Alvarez Chanca, a physician on Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, brought the first chile peppers to Spain, and first wrote about their medicinal effects in 1494.

Ajíes are used in two basic forms; as an aderezo which is a seasoning or dressing included in the preparation of a dish or as accompanying sauces or salsas. Just add a little aji to soups, stews, meats of ceviches to give a wonderful kick to the food. They are used dried or fresh and can be blanched to reduce spiciness. The various ajíes can also be bought in jars ready made in markets and specialty food stores. Here at Sabor we used a different types and always get asked about to describe the differences, I’ll be posting on many different types of aji in this blog since they are intrinsic to South American cooking .

Sabor 2010 Highlights

Colombian Food

I get asked very often "what is Colombian food like"!!! Let me start by answering this by giving you a background about Colombian food, and South American food generally. Colombia is just North of the equator, and well within the tropics, so of course our climate is very different to Europe. Although we have two short rainy seasons each year, this usually just means that it rains torrentially for half an hour a day, then the sun comes out brilliantly again. The temperature depends entirely on altitude. My own origins are in the coffee-growing region of Risaralda, a mountainous area west of the capital Bogota. Where I grew up (the small town of Quinchia), you could hitch a lift in a jeep and be down by the lush banks of the Rio Cauca in a hour, basking in hot sun (>30C) any day of the year. If you went up the mountains into Los Nevados del Ruiz instead, you could be throwing snowballs within a couple of hours - as long as your chest could stand the altitude!

tropical fruits are available all the year round, not just mangoes, papaya and pineapple (which we eat super-fresh by the slice from street vendors all the year round), but also guava, maracuya, and tomatillo. We love meat, and our beef (usually from zebu cattle, herds of which cover the mountain sides in some parts of the country) is every bit as good at Argentinian - though it tends not to get exported. Like the Spaniards, we also make full use of our pigs, and chorizos, morcilla and chicharron (fresh hot crispy pork belly pieces) are hugely popular. Colombia also has two coastlines - the Caribbean and the Pacific, and many huge rivers, including a stretch of the upper Amazon, so fish is excellent, very varied and always fresh. Trout is particularly popular, cooked with a variety of sauces, whilst various types of white fish are ideal for ceviche, the classic South American dish of raw fish marinated in citrus juices, mixed often with mild onion slices and a little sliced chili pepper, and garnished sometimes with fresh 'popped' corn kernels. This is an ideal party dish, as it can be prepared a couple of hours in advance, can be eaten just with a fork, and is zingy and appetising. On the Caribbean, coconut milk is often added to ceviche to give it a mild and fruity flavour. On the Pacific a stronger flavour of lime juice is typically preferred.

Like all cuisines, Colombian food has a starchy base. Potatoes come orginally from South America of course, and we have many types. Yuca - an African import - is another staple root vegetable. However rice is served with very many meals, and corn is particularly important. Instead of bread (at breakfast for instance) we usually have arepas - thick discs of reconstituted dried corn kernels, mashed with a little salt and then simply griddled. These are delicious straight off the griddle, spread with homemade butter or buttermilk, and perhaps topped with a slice or two of cheese, or some just-laid eggs from the chicken in yard which will typically have been cooked 'en caserola' - a bit like a cross between frying and poaching. If you have a stronger palate, some people swear by minced kidneys on top of arepas for breakfast. For a special treat, we enjoy arepa de choclo - these are made not with dried and reconstituted corn kernels, but with fresh sweetcorn which has been boiled, mashed, seasoned, then formed into thick patties - sweet, soft and slightly salty all at the same time, absolutely delicious when freshly grilled and buttered.

As in the UK, Christmas and the New Year are the time of year when families are reunited, though unlike you we usually have the benefit of doing this in lovely weather! Hence for us December and January are like Christmas, the New Year, July and August all rolled into one. Early in January, once the New Year celebrations are over, festivals and carnivals are held all over the country, but especially in Baranquilla, Manizales, and Pasto. The holidays seem to go on for weeks sometimes and large family groups seem to roam the country visiting far-flung relatives in all parts. Outdoor swimming pools and amusement parks all over the country are as busy as the beaches - and the bars. Personally I love to get out into the countryside horse-riding, especially it if means I can reach one of the more remote valleys, to enjoy swimming in one of our many natural thermal springs, or to eat fresh grilled trout fished out of the stream.

Everyone cooks. Many of the traditional Christmas specialities are ideal for getting children involved with their mothers, grandmothers and aunties in stirring natilla (a thick corn-based custard, flavoured with cinnamon). When set, but ideally still warm, natilla is served with bunuelos, fluffy sweet doughnuts with a slightly 'tangy' flavour which comes from being made with fresh (often homemade) mild white cheese. Tamales are another tradition at Christmas, and again ideal for sharing the effort. People 'muck in' to mix the corn dough, prepare the filling which is most often of chicken and vegetables, and wrap the assembled packages in banana leaves ready for steaming. Empanadas are also made in vast quantities - small 'pasties' which can be filled with shredded beef, or mushrooms and cheese, or almost anything! encased in a crispy fried cornmeal shell or a light flaky baked wheat pastry crust (very typical of Chile, but now also popular in the more tropical countries of the continent). These are always served with aji, a fresh relish of tomatoes, onions, chilis and lime juice which really gives these snacks some kick!

Parties are big of course. More than in the UK (it seems to me), all age groups get together collectively, to talk, to eat, to drink, and often to sing and to dance! Live musicians often come to people's homes - it's very easy to hire a mariachi band in the big cities of the country. There will always be food, and in my experience there will always be a full hot meal for anyone who wants to sit down for that. Small groups will form to catch up on gossip over a plate of braised beef with potatoes, yuca and vegetables, crispy fried chicken, or mondongo (delicious spicy tripe stew), which will arrive unprompted like magic from the kitchen. Meanwhile most people will be chatting (or flirting) over drinks, whilst a continuous stream of snacks circulates - empanadas, chorizos, tamales, bunuelos, and maybe small plates of ceviche. The most traditional beverage in colombia by the way (apart from beer) is aguardiente, a aniseed-flavoured clear spirit, usually drunk neat. It can be an acquired taste for foreigners - thankfully the Latin American classics like Margaritas, Mojitos, and Caipirinhas are well known and usually expertly prepared.

Lulo, an exclusive Andean fruit

As a person that was brought up in the Andes in Colombia, I learned to love fruits from a very early age, thanks to my father’s passion and tradition of planting fruit trees, and in some cases naming the trees after kids. For me, the most delicious of South American fruits are mango, maracuya (passion fruit) and lulo. Lulo in particular has inspired me and given so much pleasure in our kitchen at Sabor, that early this year we decided to plant around 2000 trees on our farm in Quinchia, in the coffee-growing region of Colombia, and I would like to share with you all you some facts about this delicious fruit.

Lulo is an exclusively Andean which can be compared with gooseberry, kiwi and lime, and which has a floral aroma. Its scientific name is Solanum quitoense and it comes from the Solanum genus of the Solanaceae family. The Solanum genus also includes 3 food crops of global importance: tomatoes, aubergines and potatoes.

Lulo is indigenous to the tropical region of the , primarily(although it is now also grown in Central America). Its Colombian name 'Lulo' comes from the Quechua "ruru" which means fruit or egg. In Ecuador it is known as Naranjilla (little orange) for its acidity, round form and orange colour when fully ripe, although the pulp and juice remain green. The fruit's tartness is reminiscent of a Seville orange, the species used for making marmalade.

Lulo grows on a bush - it is a perennial which takes around 10-12 months to produce fruit. In Colombia it grows in warm climates between 800m and 2000m above sea level. Traditionally it is difficult to cultivate, as it is delicate and susceptible to disease and parasites, however new hybrids (not GM) are proving more fruitful. Traditional bushes are waist high, but our lulo de la selva grows 5-6 feet high, produces an abundance of fruit and retains a good flavour even after processing. The lulo used in cocktails at Sabor comes from a co-operative of luleros in Belen de Umbria, Risaralda in the coffee belt of Colombia, we hope very soon it will come from our family farm!!!!!!!!.

In South America the fruit is used widely in juices, milkshakes, jams and desserts. The juice has a floral aroma and is often blended with water (or milk) and sugar. The tartness can be subtly balanced with pressed apple or pear juice, with a dash of elderflower cordial.

In order to introduce lulo to the British palate, as part of our mission to popularise Nuevo Latino cuisine, Sabor turned to Fruto del Espiritu as a supplier. As well as Sabor, Fruto del Espiritu supplies clients such as the Dorchester Bar, where the a lulo twist on a Mojito has led to the Mulito. Another favourite is the Lulo & Amaretto Sour (which we created at Sabor), building on the natural tartness of Lulo. Fruto del Espiritu has also introduced lulo to over 50 schools and youth clubs throughout the UK as part of a Healthy Eating & Enterprise programme, where students have to create their own cocktails.

The History of Latin Music in London

We would like to share this article about Latin music in the Uk, written by Amaranta Wright from Candela Live, a London base Latin music and culture promoters.

Notwithstanding the cheesy album covers, Candela explores the rich and idiocyncratic story of Latin Music in London to celebrate LaLinea's 10th anniversary festival this year.

It was 1981. I mostly remember the legs of dark, glossy-haired, poncho-wearing folk, as I squeezed through them to get to the front. There, I had full view of Gilberto Gil as he sung his acoustic version of Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry. Perhaps it was the playful, sweet percussive serenity of his music, its simplicity and richness, or the sheer emotion it generated in the room. Whatever it was, it blew this nine-year-old away and I still thank the flaky babysitter, who ever she was, who failed to turn up that night, forcing my parents to sneak me into the Hammersmith Palais on a cold winter’s night. It was my first ever concert and it cemented my love for Latin Music forever.

The pioneer of Latin Music UK: Don Marino Barreto

Many would be surprised to know how long Latin Music has entranced audiences in the UK. Back in the 1940s Cuban bandleader Don Marino Barreto made his name playing to pilots on the Salisbury Plain during the Battle of Britain. After the war, Barreto passed his band over to Edmundo Ros who became the most successful musician in Britain, across the board.

The 1940s and 1950s and the Curious Case of a One Man Latin Allure

Arriving from Caracas, Venezuela, Ros became a sensation after Parlophone released Los Hijos de Buda in 1941. He went on to have several hits, including Rhythms of the South and Arriba and his albums sold briskly. His biggest hit, The Wedding Samba, even crossed over to the U.S. Top Five, selling three million copies in the process.

The charismatic Latino attracted the cream of London society to his appearances at the lavish Coconut Grove on Regent Street. The national headlines he made, when a defendant in a high-profile divorce case implicated him as a catalyst for his marriage's demise, only made him more popular. He even taught then-Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret to dance.

He owned three nightclubs in the West End, including the Coconut Grove site which he bought and renamed Edmundo Ros' Dinner and Supper Club, and was a DJ on Radio 2. His radio programmes became the ‘housewives choice’, as he tailored his Latin big band sound to the English ear by emphasising melody over rhythm. The cool society scene created by Barreto and Ros, opened the door for other Afro-Caribbean immigrant artists such as Rita Cann, the distinguished pianist who formed her own Latin Band in the 1940s. Ros was awarded the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 New Year's Honours List.

Playing to the stereotype of Latin cheese: the popular Edmundo Ros

The 1970s and 1980s and the Music of Latin Solidarity

During the 1960s, the popularity of Latin Music gave way to Beatlemania and the ascent of English pop. In the early 1970s, however, it came back in a different form, when political refugees started to flood in from the wave of dictatorships sweeping through Latin America, starting with the coup that overthrew socialist President Allende in Chile in 1973 to the US interventions in Central America of the 1980s. With the political migrants, many of whom were creative types and musicians, you had a developing interest in the Nueva Trova and Canción de Protesta (protest music) of the likes of Argentina’s Mercedes Sosa, and Cuba’s Silvio Rodriguez. The exiled years of Brazilian legends Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso in West London added much allure to this cool London sub-culture.

In these de-politicized times, it is difficult to imagine political Latin music having widespread appeal, yet Andy Wood, La Linea promoter who started his career putting on concerts for the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign describes a buzzing scene that tapped into the broader politically activity in Britain at the time. “The Nicaragua Campaign had thirty full time staff and brought loads of artists. We had support from the Greater London Council (run by ‘Red Ken’ Livingstone) who helped bring the likes of Rubén Blades, Inti-illimani and Silvio Rodriguez. This was before the dance class boom. People enjoyed dancing to live salsa, without worrying whether they were dancing on the one or the two.”

The Impact of Latino Immigrant Culture

Accompanying the influx of political refugees was an even bigger wave of economic migrants in the late 1970s, mostly from Colombia, fleeing both the political and economic terrors of a 40-year long civil war. A second Colombian wave came with the further economic slump caused by the busting of the drug cartels in the late 1980s. Today, Britain has the world’s third largest Colombian Diaspora, after the US and Spain.

Out of the spotlight, the Colombian community, known to be great salsa lovers, built their own thriving music scene in London. The Guardian writer Richard Williams remembers the Monday night in 1975 when a grungy punk-rocker pub, acted as stage for the first salsa band to across the Atlantic. A 29-year-old Héctor Lavoe, already a legend in the US and South America, played to a scrawny London pub crowd and, according to Williams “for a couple of hours made its seem like the only place to be.”

In the years to come, the sheer numbers of Latinos in London and their musical nostalgia ensured an audience for some of the salsa greats who came to play in London year after year through the 1980s– Colombia’s Grupo Niche, Gilberto Santa Rosa and El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Willie Colón and Venezuela’s legendary Oscar de Leon. to name a few.

The Colombians in London certainly played a big part in kicking off the Salsa club phenomenon. For, as well filling their own clubs, their party spirit spilled over into the mainstream Latin themed bars that were springing up all over London offering salsa classes. Paul Young, who jumped on the trend by congregating thousands of salsa fans in weekend Congresses says, “a lot of those people were introduced to Latin music and artists such as Tito Puente, purely through the dance.”

The allure of Latin rhythms allowed many British musicians such as pianist Alex Wilson and Robin Jones of Salsa King or DJs Snowboy and Gilles Peterson, to make a living off their passion for Latin music. But the influence hasn’t all been one way. You can hear the appreciation of English pop in the much of the music of Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, from London, London Veloso’s melodic tribute to the city to Gil’s stunning Brazilianisation of The Beatles’ Hello, Goodbye. Other migrating Latinos have infiltrated the English music establishment behind the scenes: Percussionist Roberto Pla, who started out with Boney M.,Venezuelan-Argentine Stereophonics drummer Javier Weyler or Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera from Colombia. As solo artists all have fused Latin rhythms with British pop and electronic styles.

The 'Latin Boom' of the 1990s

The years of Canción de Protesta and the Latino immigrant culture bubbling under London’s surface, coincided with the advent of World Music which was being promoted by mainstream music magazines such as NME. The influential music weekly displayed artists such as Bhundu Boys and Kid Creole and the Coconuts on the cover for the first time in Britain.

With his stream of chart successes in the UK such as Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy, Kid Creole in particular became hugely influential in providing the Anglo audience with the bridge into Latin Music, says Andy Wood, “Kid Creole invented World Music before anyone had a name for it. By synthesizing Latin and Caribbean music for a wider audience, I would say he did what Edmundo Ros did, but for a different generation.”

This opening of the doors, together with the revival of traditional Cuban music, according to Wood, prepared the ground for the success of Buena Vista Social Club in the nineties. “The popularity of the Buena Vista artists was not the product of some big marketing master plan, as some people think,” says Nick Gold, executive producer of the Buena Vista series, “but the live performances, great reviews and word of mouth of an already receptive audience. The Wim Wenders film then made it into an international phenomenon.”

Then, of course, came the invasion of the commercial superstars via the US - Gloria Estevan, Ricky Martin, and Shakira - who provided the Saturday night anthems of London’s now prolific Latin-flavoured venues such as Bar Salsa and Havana and added to what the Evening Standard described as “The Latin Boom.”

This English and London Latino appreciation for a common sound culminated in the Latin mega-festivals that began with Salsa 2000 in Battersea Park, which had Celia Cruz, Oscar de Leon, Ruben Blades and Alberto ‘El Canario’ sharing the stage. This was followed by the launch of La Linea, which celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year and Clapham Common’s Latin Splash, which drew 9,000 people in 2005.

The Future of Latin Music in London

The new generation: club culture taking Latin Music forward in the UK

The impact of the estimated 700,000 strong Latin American community (mostly in London) can been and in the many established yearly music festivals - Carnaval del Pueblo, Colombianamente and Colombiage - that are now part of London life.

The Latin music of choice has changed, however. “We always used to open La Linea with a salsa band,” says Wood. “But La Linea is about New Latin Music and sadly there is not a lot new happening in Salsa.”

The great bands such as Cuba’s Los Van Van that are able to reinvent themselves through the generations will always fill venues, but there is more interest now in fusion groups such as the Cuban Hip hop-timba project Orishas, or the electronic tango outfits Bajo Fondo and Gotan Project.

The new, however, still sits comfortablu side by side with the appreciation for traditional orchestras. Andy Wood remembers the double-Cuban bill he put on with Orishas and the legendary Orchestra Aragaon, which was like a passing of the baton.” When Orishas went on first, Orchestra Aragon band leader Rafael was looking distinctly nervous when he looked out to see all the girls who were throwing themselves at Orishas and said this doesn’t look like our audience. But in fact when they went on the same girls were dancing just the same in the second half, only they weren’t passing them their numbers.”

Meanwhile, a new Latin movement that London can call its very own is being created by the first generation of Latino-Brits, now coming of age and making their mark on London, mostly noticeably on the Club scene. Their music of choice is Urban Latin with its creative fusions of Afro-Latin genres Bachata, Bomba, Plena with Salsa, Hip–hop and House. The big names Tego Calderón, Calle 13, and Pitbull have already played in London to audiences that are the most eclectic yet. At La Bomba, London’s biggest Latin Urban party Jamaican, Asian, Arab as well as white and Latino Londoners. “Whereas the salsa scene began to alienate people with its obsessive focus on dance technique,” says La Bomba promoter DJ Joe Luis. ”This scene brings it back to the music and culture of the Spanish Caribbean. Its recreating that inclusive atmosphere and making it even more part of the ever broadening spectrum of British music culture.”