South American style dressing (tomato, onion, vinegar, etc.)???

[Mr. Mack]

I've had this twice now, once at a Brazilian place and the other time a Colombian place.

Its comes in a container like tartar sauce would. Its very vinegary, and there is minced onion, tomatoes, possibly peppers too I can't recall. Its not like a salsa where it has some body to it, it looked like basically vinegar with minced veggies. Both times it was served with a grilled chicken & steak plate.

I want to know if anybody knows what this is called, and possibly how to make it. I'm trying to eat healthy so grilled chicken breasts would be great but I never have anything to put on them. I could eat this stuff everyday.

[jvanderh]

If I could piggyback, does anyone know what the vinegary stuff on the middle of the table in Nicaragua is?

[Cheese Boy]

Neighbors just north of South America make a variation of this called pico de gallo. The further south you travel the thinner it gets it seems. In Mexico it actually starts out rather chunky.

[ChiliDude]

Pico de gallo is wonderful. It only tastes good with fresh homegrown tomatoes at peak ripeness. When made with chiles with more pungency than jalapenos, it is even better.

[itaunas]

The Brazilian version is "vinagrete" (molho vinagrete, molho a vinagrete, molho de vinagrete). Its tomato, onion, green pepper, "tempero verde," vinegar (fairly plain), salad or olive oil, salt/peper, and some water. "tempero verde" is a generic term for your personal preference of green onion, parsley and/or cilantro (some regions use both and sell the three together, others hate one or the other; the green part of the green onion is preferred). There are variations, so you can see it with olives, some kinds of hot peppers and it can be made more like "vinaigrette" fancier herbs, even mustard to get an emulsification. I like to prep and salt it ahead of time, then add the vinegar and water to taste when ready to serve. Brazil does have chimichurri and people often mistake vinagrete for that, but its a completely different thing, vinagrete being much less herb driven.

[fourunder]

I think you are looking for Chimichurri sauces....

http://www.google.com/search?q=chimic...

[nasv]

I am Colombian and my suspicion is that you are looking for either "hogao" or "ají" (my suspicion is the latter).

Here are a couple of links that may help:
hogao - http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/colombian-tomato-and-onion-sauce-hogao
ají - (there is spicy and non-spicy... Colombian cuisine is typically non-spicy): http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/col...

I hope this helps!

[Mr. Mack]

Yes the "aji" is it! Just made it and it came out delicious, threw some yellow onion in too.

The hagao looks terrific albeit similar as well. I will be trying that next.

Thanks.