Ocopa Sauce

Ocopa is a traditional dish from Arequipa that has black mint -or huacatay- as its main ingredient. Ocopa is very similar to papa a la huancaína, but with added peanuts and huacatay, which completely change the flavor. In some places they still make the sauce with a stone mortar. Imagine all the extra work of turning those ingredients into a sauce just by the power of the stone and your own force! It’s well worth the effort though; connoisseurs believe this technique actually improves the taste and texture. We trust them, but we like to be practical too, so here you go with a simpler blender-friendly preparation. Serve it with boiled potatoes or with fried yucca sticks.

Thanks to celebrity chef Flavio Solorzano -owner of El Senorio de Sulco– who gave us permission to post his recipe for this delectable sauce.

Ocopa Sauce
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 55 mins
 
Ingredients
  • **Sauce:
  • 4 oz Mirasol chili pepper (or 3 tablespoons of Mirasol chili pepper paste)
  • 2 tablespoons Ají Amarillo (or 2 tablespoons Ají Amarillo paste)
  • 6 oz onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 4 oz peanut, toasted
  • 2 oz nuts, toasted
  • Huacatay leaves (black mint/optional), or 1 teaspoon huacatay paste
  • 6 soda crackers
  • ½ cup evaporated milk
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup queso fresco (white cheese, diced)
  • Salt
  • **To serve:
  • 1 lb Peruvian yellow potatoes, boiled and peeled, and sliced (or any potatoes, if you can't find yellow)
  • Lettuce leaves
  • 10 black olives
  • 2 hard boiled eggs, in quarters or slices
  • ½ cup queso fresco (white cheese) finely diced
  • Salt
Instructions
  1. **To make the sauce:
  2. Roast the onion and garlic in a clean saucepan. Reserve.
  3. Boil the ají Mirasol, changing the water three times. Peel and discard the seeds.
  4. In a blender process chili peppers, garlic, onion, peanuts, nuts, milks, queso fresco, soda crackers, huacatay leaves or paste. Season with salt.
  5. **To serve:
  6. In a dish put lettuce leaves, potato slices, cover with the sauce, and decorate with hard-boiled eggs, white cheese, black olives.

 


Comments

  1. The recipe calls for peanuts and “nuts”. Will any type of nut do, or do you have specific recommendations?

  2. About how many huacatay leaves?

Trackbacks

  1. […] these plant-based dishes will be punctuated with a lively array of sauces, including the ocopa, a creamy, peppery relish made with Peruvian black mint and peanuts, and a dairy-free, queso-like […]

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