Chillies

Chillies, whether mild or hot are an important everyday food item which serve to enhance the flavour of most dishes. They are used in countries around the world and very extensively in Indian cuisines. If you want to add excitement to a dish, just throw in a chilli pepper. There’s something intoxicating about the way their membranes tickle the back of your throat, or that when pickled, they offer a surprising tang to a meal. Some peppers, like chipotles, have a deep-set aroma that feels as if a plume of smoke might just escape your mouth mid-chew. Chillies range from face-melting peppers to sweet chilies, from juicy ones and bright to crisp ones too. They’re appreciated in chutneys, curries, salsas, cocktails, stir fries, soups – just about anywhere a dish or drink needs an unexpected and delicious kick.

However, not all peppers work for all dishes, and a range of cooking methods are needed to get the best out of these chilli peppers. There is a vast gastronomical world to explore with new pepper breeds being discovered and created by the day to get spicier, tangier, and more innovative flavours. It is estimated that there are over 50,000 different types of chilli peppers in the world today.

One of the great chilli myths is that the seeds contain the heat, but that is not actually true. The fire in chillis comes from capsaicin, one of several pungent compounds produced in tiny glands located between the pod wall and the white spongy ribs. When you cut a chilli, the knife ruptures capsaicin glands, and capsaicin spills onto the seeds, which can make them taste hot despite the fact that they themselves don’t contain the fiery chemical. 

Every chilli is hot in its own unique way because each variety contains a unique blend of capsaicinoids. If you eat chiles regularly, your palate will develop and, as with wine or coffee, you can actually become something of a connoisseur. 

Capsaicin is a very stable compound, so there isn’t much a cook can do to douse its fire. But by roasting a chilli, you can enhance the other flavours lingering in the fruit to complement its heat. 

Cuisines around the world have a range of favourite chillies are used in cooking. These are used in forms ranging from fresh to dried to infusions and sauces.

• Mexican food used peppers such as Pablano, Jalapeño and Habanero. Pablanos are large mild peppers. Jalapeños are the most common type in Mexico and range from mild to hot in terms of spice levels. However, they are never on the extremely hot side. Habaneros are perhaps the spiciest variety of chillies in Mexico and are now also available across America and Asia.
• Serrano peppers or the commonly seen green chillis are amongst the most common across all regions of the world. These range from medium to hot to very hot, and generally the smaller these chillies, the hotter they are.
• Caribbean cuisine uses quite spicy chillies and they are usually from what is commonly called the 7-pot range like Douglas, Primo and Barrackpore. The Scotch bonnet variety is famous for packing in quite a bit of heat.
• Thai and Chinese food use Bird’e eye chillies, which though small are extremely hot as well.
• Indian cooking uses chillies in different forms – from fresh to dried and there are over a dozen varieties of chillies in India. Use of chillies in Indian food is so extensive that Indian cuisine would seem incomplete without their use. The common ones used in Indian cooking are Kashmiri chilli peppers, which are long and deep red in colour, which add a bright orange colour to your dishes and are at a medium heat level. Naga and Guntur chillies are amongst the hottest Indian varieties, with the Bhoot Jolokia from North-East India considered to perhaps be the hottest chilli in the world.

We do hope that you enjoy your journey in experimenting with chillies, but do remember that if your mouth does end up on fire from overdosing on chiles, don’t reach for water. Water will spread the capsaicin around in your mouth, but it won’t put out the flames! Instead reach for a glass of milk or a spoonful of sour cream, yogurt, or ice cream. Casein, a protein in milk, seems to strip capsaicin from the nerve receptors in your mouth.

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