Your Peppery Pepper Guide

Without peppers our diets would be bland and our palates bored. They  liven up any recipe, with both color and zing. Yet there are so many. It can be confusing to a home chef about what to use and in what dish. They're easy to figure out once you know what they are.

First of all there are bell peppers namely green and yellow and hot peppers. The bells, those brightly colored gems, have zero heat,on the Scoville Scale which measures the heat of capiscums. It came about to measure and in a way warn home and professional chefs about a pepper's fire. Keep this in mind when using the very hot sort.. Also keep hands that have handled them away from your eyes. It can cause damage and pain. Flood the eye area with milk, (some swear by a mild shampoo) and completely rinse out. The same goes for hands stung by the heat. Rinse with water. Soak in cold milk. As for the peppers ,there are many out there.It depends on what you're making.So many  cuisines rely on this hot fire for their signature dishes. The Szechuan province of cuisine was one of the first to introduce super fiery dishes to the American public. Surprisingly there not peppercorns but dried berries from a cousin of the rue tree. They can bring a tear to the eye Hungary , one of the few European countries with a fiery cuisine, gives us the Hungarian pepper. a waxy  jalapeno looking capiscum that can be used to spike up salads and marinades.Of course there is paprika which comes in eight different varieties and levels of  very mild heat (they're actually dried  red bell peppers that have been  ground up).Try the famed Chicken Paprika for a tasty dish that'll warm you up on a chilly fall night. Paprika can also be used in beef and poultry rubs too.

 Mexican cuisine seems to have the most variety of peppers. There are many to choose from and it depends on the recipe - and also your taste. Serrano chiles, are small and green,It's used for spice and flavoring as well as garnishing. Jalapeno is the one that Americans know the best. It can either be red or green but the red has a sweeter taste.Poblano is seen in authentic Mexican restaurants and is a dark medium green chile. They're usually stuffed with chorizo and different Mexican cheeses -perfect for holiday appetizers. Habaneros are also popular but they are lethal. They can be interchanged with the five alarm Scotch Bonnet, one of the hottest peppers on the planet.It's a tiny lantern shaped bulb that can change any chili or fajita recipe. Approach these with caution. A better pepper would be the chile de arbol which is used to make red pepper flakes. Another "cooler" alternative is the chipotle. This is medium-small wrinkled brown chili that has a unique smoky flavor that's been compared to bacon's.It's a dried jalapeno but with less heat.If you're thinking about making mole sauce, then use the chile negro or pasilla, a long dark brown chile that's ground up. For milder flavors try the ancho .It's a dried poblano with a mellow , earthy flavor, not unlike the chile negro or pasilla pepper.

Peppers are a wonderful addition to bland dishes. They heighten the other ingredients while maintaining their own taste. Try them in various dishes now.