Food By Franz

To go along with the Recipe of the Month (ROM) Chili’s are this months veggie de jour. Chili peppers are actually a fruit (but don’t tell them!) from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Peppers are commonly broken down into three groupings: bell peppers, sweet peppers, and hot peppers. Peppers are used in most non-European cuisines, but are essential to Indian, Asian, Spanish, American Southwest and South American cooking from Mexico to Patagonia.

Easy to cultivate (yes, they even grow here in Utah), tasty, from warming to insanely hot depending on the variety – chili peppers add a whole new dimension to your dishes. They have a lot of nutritional value, including calcium, iron, magnesium, Vitamin A & C. No wonder most of the world’s cook use peppers in some way, fresh, dried, ground or smoked.

Here’s a rundown of the most common, locally available chili peppers.

Anaheim: Mild. Six to eight inches in size and bright, shiny green. Can be roasted and peeled, often stuffed or added to salsas.

Ancho: Anchos are mild to moderately hot and often soaked and ground for use in sauces. Sold dried (fresh they are poblanos). Dried anchos are flat, wrinkled, and heart shaped. They range in color from very dark red to almost black.

Cayenne: Hot – comes in a variety of colors green, yellow, orange, or red. Long, skinny, and wrinkled in appearance, 4-12″.

Cherry: Mild to medium hot. Round and red like a cherry. Sold fresh or pickled in jars.

Habanero: Insanely Hot! Typically orange but they can be green, red, or yellow. Uniquely shaped like a lantern and typically about 2 inches long. Can irritate skin on contact – use of gloves is recommended to handle these hot babies. Can be dried, sometimes called scotch bonnett.

Jalapeno: Hot with a bite – most often a deep green when mature but sometimes red. Use whenever recipe simply calls for hot chili peppers. They can be fresh or canned. When smoked, jalapenos are called chipotles.

Poblano: Medium. Poblano peppers are the deepest green, almost waxy looking. Great for stuffing. They can range to hot.

Serrano: Medium Hot to Very Hot. Sold red or mature green and about 1 to 3 inches in length (looks like a miniature jalapeno). Can be found canned, pickled, or packed in oil with vegetables. Often served in Thai or Mexican dishes.

Chili peppers have been used in cooking for a long time – there is archaeological evidence at sites located in southwestern Ecuador that chili peppers were domesticated more than 6000 years ago and is one of the first cultivated crops in the Americas that is self-pollinating. They were originally grown in the America’s – transported to the rest of the world through Asia, chili peppers spread rapidly into the islands on shipping routes and then to India, China, Korea, etc.

igourmet 1-lb. Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce