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.
- **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
- **To make the sauce:
- Roast the onion and garlic in a clean saucepan. Reserve.
- Boil the ají Mirasol, changing the water three times. Peel and discard the seeds.
- In a blender process chili peppers, garlic, onion, peanuts, nuts, milks, queso fresco, soda crackers, huacatay leaves or paste. Season with salt.
- **To serve:
- In a dish put lettuce leaves, potato slices, cover with the sauce, and decorate with hard-boiled eggs, white cheese, black olives.
