C.baccatums

[Tracydr]

What’s your favorite variety? Any favorite hot sauce,pickling,fermenting or just plain good eating recipes? I’m loving my aji Amarillo’s this year and they are productive beasts,too. Super early too, even earlier than my early jalapeno!
I also like biquinos and peppadews. I have Brazilian starfish growing but none to taste yet. I also have sugar rush peach. Can’t wait to taste those two!
I’d live to find a traditional Peruvian hot sauce recipe using the aji Amarillo.

[Shule]

My favorite C. baccatum is Aji Habanero. It's very hardy. It's prolific. It tastes great. It dries easily. It has about a Cayenne level of heat (it's not actually a Habanero; that's just the name; it's very different from a Habanero). It's great as a seasoning pepper, in cooked dishes, I think. It sets fruit in heat well, and although it has a large plant, the stems are thin, the branches are many, and it grows well in containers.

I like them with a baked Kikinda Competition Strain gourd recipe that I made up, with summer savory, tomatoes, cheese, and plenty of other things. It tastes sort of like lasagna.

[pepperhead212]

I can't tell you yet - I'm growing 6 baccatum varieties this season, and hadn't planted any for many years because they were about the most prone plants to pepper maggots, and the two I planted back then (before I learned about how to prevent them by covering) got covered with the seeds. The two I had then were Aji Crystal and Aji Amarillo, and I liked the amarillo better, though I got very few. Here are the ones I have now, I think!
Aji Amarillo
Aji Colorado
Aji Mango
Aji Melocoton
Aji Panca
Aji Pineapple

They are growing in Earthboxes (along with jalapeños, and other prone varieties), covered with light Agribon. The first EB has the Aji Panca on the left, with the amarillo behind it, with the smaller mango behind in the middle, and two Hanoi Market on the right. As I noted on another thread, the amarillo has the largest leaves of any other pepper I have grown! No fruits yet, but some blossoming (but then, this was a week ago)
Aji Panca on L, 2 Hanoi Market on R, both grown up to the top, about 3 ft. 6-25 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Aji Amarillo with the large leaves, Aji Panca with the smaller leaves in front, both about 3 ft tall by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's the EB uncovered a few days earlier, with the Pappadew (the fairly large leaves here), the Aji colorado, and I'm not sure the others. They all grew up to the top - almost 4 feet, so I topped them, to get them to bush out.
One of the pepper covered EBs uncovered, 6-20 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The peppers in the third covered EB finally grew to the top, and I would have uncovered them today, to check them, and top them, but it was too hot! The peppers I grow under cover obviously like heat! In fact, I think all of them do, being from tropical areas.

[worth1]

What’s your favorite variety? Any favorite hot sauce,pickling,fermenting or just plain good eating recipes? I’m loving my aji Amarillo’s this year and they are productive beasts,too. Super early too, even earlier than my early jalapeno!
I also like biquinos and peppadews. I have Brazilian starfish growing but none to taste yet. I also have sugar rush peach. Can’t wait to taste those two!
I’d live to find a traditional Peruvian hot sauce recipe using the aji Amarillo.

What aji Amarillo’s are you growing the little ones or the ones you get from Peru that are way bigger and almost always sold orange.
I like the big ones not so much the small ones.

[Tracydr]

I’m growing Aji Chinchi Amarillo from Southern Exposure.

[Tracydr]

Pepperhead212-I’ve never heard of some of those!
I like your cage idea,have thought about doing that for blueberries. I’d also love to cover the tomatoes somehow to keep the leaf-footed bugs and fruit worms out.

[roper2008]

I am also growing Aji Amarillo (big one), Aji Guyana (first time), and Aji Lemon. Aji Amarillo always takes a long time for me, so I start them early. I have peppers but still green.

[zendog]

I'm growing Aji Colorado, Aji Lemon and Aji Pineapple. I grew Aji Mango last year, which was nice and very productive, but I didn't really have a lot of ways to use it.

I really like Aji Colorado and don't think enough people grow it. It is a smaller plant (still thin stemmed like the others) and productive for its size. The red peppers it forms have a nice sweetness and are probably Cayenne heat or lower. I made a very nice hot sauce with them last year, although it was on the milder side. I actually like milder hot sauces instead of the super hot since I can really pour it on and enjoy the actual taste of the sauce. But it would be easy enough to toss a hotter pepper into the mix to push up the heat if that is your preference.

[mention]Shule[/mention], please share your recipe for the baked Kikinda with peppers since I'm growing Kikinda this year and I'm sure I'll be looking for interesting ways to prepare them. Extra points if you can make it vegan-friendly.

[Shule]

[mention]zendog[/mention]
Cool!

My recipe isn't vegan, but it is meat-free. It uses cheese to pair with tomatoes and summer savory for umami flavor and substance. There are a few surprising things about this recipe that I recomend adhering to before trying it elsewise (including the temperature and the lack of garlic). Here it is (I don't list exact measures for some ingredients):

Ingredients:

* 1 long Kikinda Competition Strain edible gourd (at least a couple inches in diameter), sliced
* The equivalent of about five medium-sized tomatoes, cut up
* Lots of summer savory, both leaves and stalks (if you don't think it's too much, it's probably not enough; cut it into small pieces, or you could probably blend it up; I used it from plants I had grown)
* Parsley
* Cayenne pepper
* 3 Aji Habanero peppers, cut up, including the calyxes
* Onion powder
* Black pepper
* A fair amount of Tajin seasoning
* Avocado oil
* Cheddar cheese

Oil the pan with avocado oil.

Other than the cheese, mix the rest of the contents into a 15" cast-iron skillet. Bake it uncovered at 500° F. for about 40 minutes. Yes, that is not too hot for the gourd.

When the time is nearly complete, add cheddar cheese to melt on top.

Let sit for a little while before eating. (This improves the flavor.)

The result tastes much like lasagna (the large amount of summer savory contributes a lot to that). There's a lot of umami flavor in it.

Warning: Zucchini does not work as a substitute in this recipe! I tried it with a big zucchini, and it was too foamy to absorb much of the flavor; the slices were too firm, too.

Warning: This recipe is one I like a lot, but you may or may not like it. I haven't had many other people sample it. It has a decent amount of tang to it, thanks to the lime in the Tajin seasoning, the cayenne pepper, and the tomatoes, which may or may not be too tart for some people (especially after it becomes leftovers).

I don't recommend ommitting the cheese!

If you don't have Tajin seasoning, you could probably instead use add a little bit of lime juice, and some salt. Tajin seasoning is made out of limes, salt, and cayenne pepper, I believe. I wonder if it might be good without lime flavor cooked into it, but with a little squeezed on fresh afterward. I'd have to try it. Unfortunately, I'm not growing any Kikinda Competition Strain gourds, this year.

Yes, I didn't think there was enough cayenne pepper in the Tajin seasoning by itself, for the flavor.

[Shule]

[mention]zendog[/mention]
They're also excellent in stir fry type dishes, IMO.

[pepperhead212]

I experiment with new varieties by drying a couple of each, to see how that turns out, and I try them in SE Asian dishes, since they have a large number of chile varieties in their markets there. Who knows what might work out! And I often try those kaffir lime leaves with different chiles, instead of or in addition to regular limes.

[pepperhead212]

I'm starting to get a bunch of peppers on my ajis, but nothing even full size yet. This is about average for around here, however - usually, I consider it early to get anything ripe before August 1st, except Superchili and Thai types. I'll go out and uncover them, to look closer, once it gets a little cooler, later this week. And I just put a few yellow sticky traps out there, to see when pepper maggot flies are gone, so I can uncover for good!

[Tracydr]

I just harvested about 5 pounds of aji Amarillo’s. Drying two trays, saved a bunch for fresh eating. I have a bunch of peppadews, biqhuinos and Brazilian starfish that aren’t quite colored yet but will be real soon. I planted those rows a little later.
This species seems to give me the fruitiness I love from habaneros and scotch bonnets with a mild enough hear hear I’m able to really enjoy plenty of them even fresh.

[pepperhead212]

[mention]Tracydr[/mention] If you are looking for that habanero flavor, with little heat, try the Aji Dulce. This is a true chinense pepper (I grow the #2 variety, from Trade Winds Fruit), with an intense habanero aroma and flavor, even more than many habaneros I've tried. It always seemed that the more flavorful ones were also the hottest, but this one is only about maybe 500 SUs, and often I'll get some with almost none whatsoever, but still that great flavor. And years ago I grew them, but they were not productive, and very late, but it has changed - it was so productive from just two plants last season that I only grew one this year! It was way more than I could use, frozen and dried.

I just saw a bunch of peppers on those baccatums under the covers; in about a week, the covers can come off, if I see no pepper maggot flies on the yellow sticky traps, between now and then.

[roper2008]

What’s your favorite variety? Any favorite hot sauce,pickling,fermenting or just plain good eating recipes? I’m loving my aji Amarillo’s this year and they are productive beasts,too. Super early too, even earlier than my early jalapeno!
I also like biquinos and peppadews. I have Brazilian starfish growing but none to taste yet. I also have sugar rush peach. Can’t wait to taste those two!
I’d live to find a traditional Peruvian hot sauce recipe using the aji Amarillo.

Aji Amarillo’s (large one’s) are known for being late to ripen. I start my seed early because of this. Mine are still all green. Where did you get the seeds for yours?

[worth1]

What’s your favorite variety? Any favorite hot sauce,pickling,fermenting or just plain good eating recipes? I’m loving my aji Amarillo’s this year and they are productive beasts,too. Super early too, even earlier than my early jalapeno!
I also like biquinos and peppadews. I have Brazilian starfish growing but none to taste yet. I also have sugar rush peach. Can’t wait to taste those two!
I’d live to find a traditional Peruvian hot sauce recipe using the aji Amarillo.

What aji Amarillo’s are you growing the little ones or the ones you get from Peru that are way bigger and almost always sold orange.
I like the big ones not so much the small ones.

Here is a link.
https://www.amigofoods.com/aji1.html
When I get a chance I go to a place that sells a lot of this stuff.
I also work with a guy that is around 30 that was born and raised in Ecuador that loves my fermented hot sauce.
He is getting a surprise pint of my fermented ghost pepper sauce on Monday.
I made a batch of chili rellenos out of the large Aji Amarillo that were to die for some time ago.

[Shule]

Wow. They've got a whole product line just for Aji Amarillo! I didn't realize it had so much acclaim.

[indysun]

Will these peppers if left on the plant turn red or shrivel up and die? I don't know much about peppers but would rather have red ones. Also, will a green pepper like California Wonder turn red if left on plant?

Pepper1.jpg

Pepper2.jpg

[pepperhead212]

All peppers that I have grown will ripen, in some color (like red, with California Wonder), if left on the plant, and if picked green, they may ripen, but not always. Sometimes if full sized when picked green, the ripening has started, but not the coloring, and those are the ones that will ripen. And some don't really taste good green, while others are used more as green peppers, even though they can be ripened, as well as dried.

Although I have read that peppers don't get any hotter, once the ripening has started, and actually loose some heat ripening, this is not true with habaneros, and other chinense peppers. I have found that if these are picked with just a hint of ripening, and ripen on the countertop, the heat is not as much as in the ones I let stay on well after looking ripe - when cut open, the droplets of oil on the veins are much larger on the vine ripened ones! May work on some others, as well, but these I definitely see it on.

[indysun]

Pepper 3.jpg

Thanks for the info pepperhead. I have attached a photo showing near my fingers a Japanese Himo Pepper? and just to the right a Pepper that looks as if was cross pollinated with the Himo and the Peppers I posted in my previous post? I am not sure?? Can you identify any of those peppers in either post?
Thank You
Pete