All About Peppers

[Dzynna]

For all those hot food lovers:

PEPPER PREPARATIONS

This can be used for any chile pepper and can be done up to 2 days in advance by refrigerating the finished product.

[list=]Fresh chiles can be wrapped in paper towels and stored in a
refrigerator for up to 2-3 weeks.
Dry chiles can be stored up to 2 years - but begin losing flavor and heat after only 6 months.[/list]

To prepare fresh and canned:
Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and lay peppers on it - not touching. Roast at 425 F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the skin is bubbly and brown. Remove from oven and enclose the peppers in the foil. Let stand for 20-30 minutes. When cooled enough to handle, halve them lengthwise. Use a knife to peel away the skins. Scrape away and discard the ribs and seeds.

To prepare dried:
Place dried peppers in bowl of hot water for 15 to 30 minutes or until the skins become soft and pliable. Soak small peppers whole; snip large peppers into pieces. Once pepper is soft, snip away and discard the stems and seed. Use a knife to peel away the skins.

NOTES: Most of the heat in a chile is concentrated around the stems, seeds and ribs. By scraping this away, you are removing a lot of the heat. Do not rinse your peppers after you have done this. By doing so you remove some of the oils contributing to flavor, and flavor is what you don't want to lose. Try to avoid reducing heat by reducing chiles in a recipe, remember, chiles add complex flavor, not just heat, to a recipe.

If you must substitute peppers to reduce heat, try to stay within the same 'pepper family'. The flavor will still be modified somewhat but it won't be as drastic. Replace a New Mexican with an Anaheim. Replace a Chile de Arbol with a Guajillo.

COMMON TYPES OF PEPPERS


-- Mild To Medium Hot --

Anaheim (also called California peppers)
Large, long green peppers that ripen into red, Anaheims are generally mild to moderately hot. Useful in any recipe calling for chiles; they're especially good stuffed and in sauces and stews. Anaheims are closely related to New Mexican chiles.They must be cooked or roasted before eating.

Ancho
Dried, ripe Poblano chiles, Anchos are reddish brown in color and have a broad cone shape with a long tip. They're the sweetest of the dried peppers with a mild to moderate heat. Tones of plums, coffee, and raisins give them a slight fruitiness. Use in sauces, essential in moles.

Mulato
Large, triangular dried peppers, mulatos have wrinkled, blackish-brown skins. Their smoky flavor has undertones from licorice to tobacco to cherry. Use in soups, stews and sauces.

Poblano
These large, triangular, deep green peppers look like pointed sweet peppers but become reddish brown as they ripen. Their flavor is rich and earthy, slightly sweet when fully ripe, and mild to slightly hot. Available canned and fresh, Poblanos must be cooked or roasted before eating. They are excellent for rellenos (stuffing) because of their large size. Sometimes mistaken for Pasillas.

-- Hot --

Cascabel
Thes small, globe-shape dried peppers have reddish-black skins; their seeds rattle when you shake them. Their nutty, medium-hot flavor has a pleasant tannic quality. Use in sauces, soups and stews.

Chipotle
Chipotles are Jalapeños that have been smoke-dried, much like beef jerky, which gives them a distinctive sweet -- almost chocolatey -- hot, smoky flavor. They have dark reddish-brown wrinkled skins and are available dried and canned in adobo sauce. Use in sauces, soups and dressings.

Fresno
These fresh, thick-fleshed, waxy red peppers look like Japaleños, but are hotter and slightly sweeter. They're also known as Chile Caribe. Use in salsas, stuffings and breads, or pickled.

Guajillo
These long, narrow dried peppers have thin, smooth, dark reddish-brown skin. Guajillos are actually a type of Cayenne Pepper, but their sweet-hot flavor has a distinctive complexity. Use in salsas, sauces, soups and stews.

Jalapeño
The best known of all the hot peppers, Jalapeños are small, fat, oval chiles with blunt, tapered ends. They're meaty with smooth, dark green skins that redden as they ripen. Jalapeños are sold fresh, canned and pickled. They can be eaten raw or roasted.

Pasilla
These are dried Mexican Chilaca Peppers, rarely found fresh. Pasilla are medium-sized, long and slender, with wrinkled blackish-brown skins. Their pungent flavor has an herby-fruity character. Use in traditional moles; also good for sauces and seafood dishes.

Yellow Wax
You've likely seen them called Banana Peppers, Salad Peppers or Hungarian Wax Peppers. Yellow Wax Peppers look like Jalapeños but taste like sweet peppers with a kick. Available fresh and pickled. Use in sauces and on sandwiches.

-- Very Hot --

Chile de Arbol
Another type of Cayenne Pepper, Chile de Arbols are small, slender, bright red peppers with smooth skins. Their heat is sharp and searing with smoky, grassy tones. Available dried or powdered. Use in sauces and soups.

Habanero
Habaneros are one of the hottest peppers, 30 to 50 times hotter than Jalapeños. These small, lantern-shaped peppers shift in color from light green to orange to red as they ripen. They are called Scotch Bonnet in the Caribbean. Use Habaneros in chutneys, salsas, sauces and seafood marinades.

New Mexican Chiles
Fleshy chiles with sweet, earthy flavors and a more cutting heat than their close relation Anaheim, New Mexican Chiles can be very hot. Large, long green peppers that ripen into red, they must be cooked or roasted before eating.

Pequin
Pequin have tiny oval or rounded shapes, wrinkled orange-red skins, and a fiery heat. Wild ones are called Tepin or Chiltepins and have the widest distribution of any variety of chile. They're believed to be the closest surviving relatives of the world's earliest chile peppers. Use in vinegars, salsas, soups and sauces.

Serrano
These are hotter than Jalapeños, but not as hot as Habaneros. Their heat is biting with a pleasant acidity. Serranos are slender, small, barrel-shaped fresh green chiles that become red as they ripen. Use in salsas and sauces.
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Dzynna Zol
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