Featured recipe

Pique

Chilli vinegar

Every Puerto Rican kitchen, and every roadside kiosko along the beach at Luquillo or Piñones, has a bottle of pique on the counter: an old bottle stuffed with tiny ají caballero or bird's-eye chillies, garlic, oregano, peppercorns and often strips of pineapple peel, topped up with vinegar. A few shakes go over arroz con habichuelas, alcapurrias and bacalaítos, mofongo, sancocho and the Christmas pernil, and the bottle is refilled with fresh vinegar over and over. It is thin and sharp rather than thick like a sauce, fiercely hot, garlicky and herbal, and the pineapple gives a fruity, faintly sweet note. The mistake to avoid is loading the bottle with garlic and fresh herbs, watering down the vinegar and leaving it in a hot kitchen for months: garlic and herbs need full-strength vinegar and a cold fridge to stay safe. It is ready after about five days, when the vinegar has turned pale orange, smells of chilli and a single drop on your tongue is hot. Chef's tip: slit a few chillies and leave the rest whole, so the heat keeps building as you top up the bottle.

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