Chilis
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Buying & Storing Chilis
Fresh Chilis - Green or Red
- These should be crisp and bright and without wrinkles when purchased,
and have no spots that might be going bad.
- Leave them out on a counter for a couple of hours to make sure they
don't have excess surface water, then bag loosly in plastic (the bag
should be able to breath) or paper. Store in the refrigerator.
- Bell peppers I bag separately in small bags open at the top. This
keeps them well and isolates any one that goes to rot.
- Stored as above, green bells should keep at least two weeks in a good
refrigerator, some hot green chilis for three to four weeks. Red ripe
chilis will generally not keep as long as green ones. There are
exceptions, such as Thai chilis, where the reds last longer.
Dried Red Chilis
- These should be bright red to black red depending on type and should
be shiny on the surface. A dull surface indicates excessive age. They
should be somewhat flexible rather than brittle.
- If you see the surface become dull or red color fading to orange, or
evidence of bugs, discard and buy new ones.
- Store in a sealed container in a cool place away from light and they
should keep a year or so.
Working with Chilis
Chilis are used unripe (green, or sometimes other colors), red ripe,
and dried red. Dried green bell peppers are used as a flavoring additive
in the food industry. Chilis are at their hottest when mature green and
about to turn color. Some hotness is lost in drying.
Caution: After working with hot chilis,
especially fresh ones, immediately wash your hands, tools and work
surfaces with strong detergent, soap or cleanser. Until then do not
touch your eyes or genital areas - or anyone else's, if you ever
want to be allowed to touch them again. If you accidentally do, the
sting goes away in 10 to 20 minutes and will do no actual harm.
I need Releif! For the mouth, Ice Cream is the
treatment of choice. Other milk products will help. Water doesn't help
at all and alcohol very little. For external burn, wash with strong
soap solution and wait for it to go away. In neither case is any real
harm being done (unless if you've been eating million Scovile chilis).
Chilis are Safe: Cookbooks telling you hot chilis
will severely burn or blister you hands (so wear rubber gloves) are
either blowing smoke or have extrordinarily tender hands. Exception:
hands with injuries will feel pain. Chili hotness is a nerve receptor
thing and does no physical damage. Being a guy who works hard, my hands
are too tough to have ever felt chili sting, but society ladies or
fashion models might have hands that tender (but wouldn't likely be
chopping chilis anyway). Of course, when working with chilis over
500,000 Scoville, more caution is in order, but you won't be buying
any like that at your local market.
Cleanup: The hotness in chilis is oil
soluble and not water soluble. Just rinsing won't get rid of it, you
have to use detergents, cleansers or other potions you'd use to clean
oily things.
Where the heat is: The hotness of a chili
resides in oil droplets clinging to the internal membranes that hold the
seeds, not in the seeds as many cookbooks tell you. If your chili is too
hot you can cool it by carefully removing these membranes. In a dried
chili, or one that has been abused, the hotness has been smeared onto the
seeds and flesh.
Chopping Fresh Chilis: Cut the cap off,
then cut it in half lengthwise. Remove seeds and membranes if you want
it milder. Squish each half flat, skin side down, and, with a very
sharp knife, slice lengthwise into thin strips. Finally, arrange the
strips into a bundle and slice crosswise very thin. No further chopping
is required in most cases.
Chopping Dried Chilis: This can be a
problem. They are tough and don't grind in a mortar and if you try to
chop them the pieces jump all over the place. If I don't want them too
small I use a pair of scissors and cut them into thin slices. A couple
of presses with a knife blade through the stack of slices is probably
all the chopping you will need. Most of the time, though, I just run
them to flake or powder in a whirling blade coffee/spice grinder (be
careful not to breath the dust).
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