Grilled Beef Brochettes

I have the bad (though some would call it good!) habit of purchasing random food items from my local grocery store or farmers' market on nothing more than a whim - because they look interesting, or because I've always wanted to try them... Who can blame me? The selection of "ingredients" available these days can be absolutely intoxicating. A bunch of fresh and mild green garlic, a creamy wheel of soft Queso Blanco, a mountain of sweet smelling and sunset-colored mangoes... It can all be so irresistable! Recently, aji panca peppers were one of those purchases. I bought them a couple of weeks ago while I was shopping for dried New Mexico chiles to use in an enchilada sauce (Did I mention that early May means Mexican food in my house? More on that later...). Ever since Kevin and I had that amazing meal at Andina in Portland, I have been curious about Peruvian food. So when I saw the dark, wrinkled, mahogany-colored Peruvian aji panca next to the New Mexico chiles, I had to buy them. Never mind that I had no idea what I would do with them!

Fast forward a couple of weeks - Destined for a Friday night on my couch with my box of tissues, thanks to a nasty cold, I picked up the latest copy of Gourmet magazine on my way home. Imagine my excitement when I realized that not only did the May issue include a whole meals-worth of Peruvian recipes, but one that used aji panca to boot! I made the Grilled Beef Brochettes tonight, and they were absolutely delicious. Since I did not have the aji panca paste, but rather, dried aji panca, I reconstituted them in a little water and blended the mixture to form a thin paste, which worked quite well. The resulting robust marinade was absolutely mouth-watering. I served these with Caribbean Black Beans with Sauteed Plantains from Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen, and it made for a delicious meal.

The recipe for Grilled Beef Brochettes can be found at epicurious.com