Eating Chilli's

[hubgearfreak]

Scotch bonnets (of which Habanero is just one variety - there is a bewildering range of different cultivars of capsicum, more than any other edible plant I believe) impart a more earthy, drier sort of flavour to the dish than the more usual pointy (serrano) chillies. Difficult to describe in words but after a while you tend to recognise the flavours of the main types.

yes, 4000++ or so, but how many are duplicates with more than one common name, we'll never know.. still a lot though

i know what you mean about the difference between annuums and chinenses. learnt it a few years ago and now only grow habs/SBs/chineneses

here's a brilliant website, with a database of all (or most) types.

http://www.thechileman.org/

 

[Pete]

That is not reassuring. I've just been looking at a recipe for Sheekh Kebab which requires capsicum. How on earth do I find out which kind?

Don't know. Most British supermarkets will have only half a dozen or so fresh ones, ranging from the familiar large red, green and yellow sweet peppers, through (if you're lucky) the narrower and more pointy (and more expensive) red pimentoes which can be slightly hot in parts (and from which paprika is made), on to perhaps three or four different varieties of small hot chillies. You need to guess. See also the Wiki article.

 

[Mr Celine]

I once had a flatmate who cooked some fantastic curries. He would always test the heat of the chillies he was using by munching away on a raw one.

I have never heard as awful or blood curdling a sound as the scream from the bathroom after he went for a piss without washing his hands first.:

 

[gary r]

i went to a lebanese restaurant,& they put a small plate of crudities (sp?) which contained chilli's i bit one of the chillis in half, i couldnt breath in or out!! & had to rush to te toilet to compose myself,My girlfriend eat a carrot that had touched the half eaten chilli & her mouth was on fire.I called my mate who loves hot food & he came down in a taxi to eat the offending chilli!!!! He nibbled it Bugs Bunny style,shrugged his shoulders & said it wasnt too hot!!!!!