Aji Crujiente Chilli

Crujiente is Spanish for crunchy, and that is the whole point of this one. The pods are thick-walled and plump, closer to a small bell pepper than a chilli in texture, juicy and crisp, with a sweet fruity flavour and a strong aroma the moment you cut one. The heat is mild enough to eat it by the slice.

It is a baccatum, one of the South American ajis, and it behaves like the best of them: easy, vigorous and absurdly productive over a long season. Unlike Aji Colorado and the other tall ajis it stays a sensible medium size, so it needs no staking and will sit happily in a pot. The flowers carry the small cream or greenish petal markings that mark out a true aji.

The crunch is what you are growing it for, so use it fresh. Sliced raw into a salad, diced through a salsa, or quick-pickled to keep the snap. It will dry and grind into a fragrant powder like any aji, but drying throws away the one thing that makes it worth the space, and the aroma goes with it.