Puerto Rican-Style Ají Dulce Sauce (Ajilimójili)

Name: Puerto Rican-Style Ají Dulce Sauce (Ajilimójili)
Yield: Makes about 2 1/4 cups
Ingredients: 12 Caribbean sweet peppers (ajíes dulces); 1 cubanelle pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped; 1/2 Scotch Bonnet or habanero chile, seeded; 7 garlic cloves, peeled; 1 small yellow onion (about 5 ounces), coarsely chopped (about 1 cup); 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil; 1/3 cup distilled white vinegar; 1 bunch cilantro, leaves stripped from stems (about 2 cups); 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, or to taste; 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano; 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

By Maricel Presilla

October 30, 2013

Editor's note: Use this with Maricel Presilla's Boiled Yuca (Yuca Hervida) .

Ajilimójili (ah-hee-lee-MOH-hee-lee) is the wonderful whimsical name for this Puerto Ricaninspired sauce. How to translate this tongue-twister? It seems that it is a composite of the words ajo (garlic) and moje (sauce), but much more can be drawn from it. In Cuba and the Mexican state of Tabasco, ajilimójili is a colloquialism for the Castilian Spanish intríngulis, a hidden reason that is suddenly revealed, or the workings necessary to pull something off, or the key to making a difficult feat look simple. Why was this sauce called ajilimójili? Perhaps because it has its own ajilimójili—the "inner workings" to make any food it touches splendid. Serve with Puerto Rican Pasteles .

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