DANGER ZONE HOT, HOT, HOT!
In Indian food, Chili peppers gives the curry it's heat and can be used in whole fresh form, chili powder, whole or crushed dried chilies or as chili sauce or paste. In Jamaican dishes the Scotch Bonnet is the key to "Jerk Chicken". As well as heat, chilies can add some subtle dimensions of flavour which can be dramatically different from one chili to the next and from one intestine to another. In Thai food chili's are life itself.
Habanero and Scotch bonnet chilies have a beautiful buttery, oaky and vanilla tones but are so hot that most people can't really take them. Most Indian Restaurants use predominantly Long thin green cayenne or finger chillies, they have a good taste and high heat level and can be added chopped, sliced or whole as required.
SURVIVAL HINTS:
• The heat level of fresh chillies is reduced somewhat with the length of cooking so add them earlier if you like it milder and later if you prefer it hotter.
• Always add chilli in whatever form a little at a time, you can always add some more if needed but you can't take it out once you have overdone it.
• Chili powder will permeate the rest of the sauce most readily. It blends and adds heat real fast.
• If you finely chop fresh chillies, you will need to cook them for a while to add the heat to the sauce. Powder is fast, cooking is slower but more flavorful to some. I slow cook.
• Whole and sliced chillies will add their heat mainly when eaten directly. Adding chili powder to a finished dish is not a good way to add heat as the spices need to be worked in to the dish which is difficult once served.
• The top part of the chile could be cut off. I call this topping. It has the highest amount of heat producing capsaicin. Then I remove all of the seeds and veins to make the chile as mild as possible.
• I am not out to prove my manhood by eating those hot peppers straight as I have seen some Neanderthals do. I have seen everything from the ER room to quarts of Pepto-Bismol as the Neanderthals try to save their mouth, stomach and lower colon from destruction.
• In Mexico, they have Mariachis for the music-a, and marination for chiles, soaking them in lime juice. Chiles en Nogada, call for soaking the chiles overnight in lime juice.
Most Familiar Types Of Chile Peppers: (From Whats Cooking America.net)
Chile peppers are available year round and in the United States they are mainly grown in California, New Mexico and Texas.
Anaheim* Very mild. Six to eight inches in size and deep, shiny green. Often stuffed or added to salsas.
Ancho: Dried or fresh poblano pepper. Dried anchos are flat, wrinkled, and heart shaped. They range in color from very dark red to almost black. Anchos are mild to moderately hot and often soaked and ground for use in sauces.
Cayenne: From four to twelve inches in length. Deep green, yellow, orange, or red. Long, skinny, and wrinkled in appearance. Hot in taste.
Cherry* Round and red like a cherry. Sold fresh or pickled in jars, these peppers range from mild to moderately hot.
Habanero* (Scotch Bonnet): Typically yellow-orange but they can be green, red, or orange. These peppers are lantern shaped and typically about 2 inches long. The hottest pepper grown commercially; intense fiery flavor; a unique floral flavor and an extremely intense heat that affects the nasal passages.
Jalapeno* Most often green when mature but sometimes red. They are very hot, with an immediate bite. Use whenever recipe simply calls for hot chile peppers. They can be fresh or canned. When smoked, jalapenos are called chipotles.
Poblano* Poblano peppers look like small bell peppers and are mild to hot on the hotness scale. They can be fresh or canned.
Serrano* Sold red or mature green and about 1 to 4 inches in length. Moderate to very hot with an intense bite. Can be found canned, pickled, or packed in oil with vegetables. Often served in Thai or Mexican dishes.
* I live in Tampa, Florida and one source I use for food is Publix SuperMarkets. I also have access to several ethnic supermarkets specializing in Thai, Philippine, Korean, and Chinese for specialty or hard to find proprietary items. Publix usually has the asterisk marked chili's on the shelf. Most were marked products of California. Careful when cutting large amounts of chilies. Wear glasses and do not touch your eyes. Chilies contain capsaicin and onions contain sulfur. When you cut chilies or slice onions the water mixes and creates in the case of the onion a mild form of sulphuric acid. Thats why it burns delicate tissue.