Category: Basic Recipes

On Hot Peppers

A number of recipes in this folio call for habañero or Scotch Bonnet chiles, varieties of Capsicum chinense. These are simply the hottest peppers around and their flavour is outstanding in our estimation. Unfortunately, they are dangerous to handle, and minute traces of their juice enough to burn unwary eyes and lips.
Wash carefully with a soft brush and drain well.
Put your hand inside a plastic bag or a glove to handle the cut fruit. Or use a leaf or carrot or whatever to manipulate the stuff.
In our kitchen we split and remove the seeds from twenty or thirty peppers at a time, and chop them up into very fine dice. This is then put into a jar with a few drops of vinegar or lime juice or even nothing at all and kept in the freezer compartment. Use as required. It will keep this way for several months.
Any other fresh hot pepper can be treated in the same way.
There are twenty or thirty cultivars of Capsicum annuum that are 'hot.' The names displayed at point of sale are often misleading. Buy some and try them out for flavour and strength.
As far as dried peppers are concerned, the produce of México is unsurpassed. Favourites in our kitchen are pasilla (the dried form of the chile negro,) long, black and wrinkled; and the mulato, triangular and deep brown. These both have a rich and substantial flavour. Gentle toasting intensifies it. The chile mirasol from Perú is also both hot and tasty. It is bright orange and shows deep longtitudinal wrinkles.

Notes:

To prepare dried peppers for use: wipe gently with a dry cloth. Roast briefly over high heat just until flexible. Wipe with a damp cloth. Slit the fruit open and remove all the seeds and central stalk. Put the flesh into cold water to soak.
When the rehydration is complete, either rub the raw flesh through a sieve until only skin remains, or simmer in the soaking liquid until the skin separates and rolls free. (It wil float.)

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On Sprouts | Polenta | Hand Cut Noodles | Pizza Dough | Steamed Rice