Chili peppers are varieties of capsicum pod which are hot and spicy. They range in taste from only flavoring types to really hot chili peppers.
The name of peppers can vary from region to region, hence the different spellings. It is either “chili pepper”, “chilli pepper”, or “chile pepper”.
“Chilli” is more commonly used in England and Europe. “Chile” is the most commonly used in America’s Southwest regions and particularly in New Mexico. “Chile” is actually the Spanish spelling and pronunciation of the word. However, “chili” is more common in general usage and spelling, an Americanized spelling of the original “Chile” spelling that came out of Mexico.
The Scoville Scale is a measurement of the heat and pungency of chili peppers where each pepper is recorded in Scoville Heat Units (or famously known as SHUs).The heat of a pepper is measured using Scoville units: The scale ranges from 0 as in bell peppers all the way to over 2,000,000 as in the spiciest chile in the world, the Carolina Reaper Pepper and the Trinidad scorpion.
What creates that burning sensation on our tongues and makes us sweat is the capsaicin. It’s the chemical compound found in peppers, and you can find it in the oil residing in the pepper or seeds.
When cooking with chili peppers, one must take precaution and wear gloves and ensure protection of the eyes. It’s recommended not to touch any sensitive part of your skin or your eyes when preparing chilies. Wearing gloves can help protect your skin when chopping chli peppers.
After slicing or chopping the peppers, use cold water to wash your rubber gloves, the chopping board, knife, and any other utensils that came into contact with the pepper or its seeds. This is important: if you're not careful, they can cause some serious irritation.
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Moroccan spiced chickpea soup
Serves: 4
Preparation time:45 minutes
for the samosa pastry:
2 cups maida or all purpose flour
4 tbsp ghee or oil
5-6 tbsp water (i added 5 tbsp + 1 tsp water)
1 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
salt as required ( i added ¾ tsp salt)
oil for deep frying
For the samosa stuffing 1:
3 medium sized potatoes/aloo
¾ to 1 cup green peas/matar, fresh or frozen
1 green chili + ½ inch ginger crushed to a coarse paste in a mortar and pestle
½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
¼ tsp red chili powder (lal mirch powder)
a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
½ tbsp oil
salt as required
whole spices to be ground:
¼ inch cinnamon (dal chini)
2 black peppercorns (kali mirch)
1 clove (laung)
1 green cardamom (hari elaichi or choti elaichi)
½ tsp cumin (jeera)
½ tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp dry pomegranate seeds/anardana or 1 tsp dry mango powder/amchur * check notes for mango powder
For the samosa stuffing 2:
3 medium size potatoes
¾ to 1 cup peas/matar, fresh or frozen
1 green chili and ½ inch ginger made in a paste or chopped finely
¾ tsp garam masala powder
¼ or ½ tsp red chili powder
1 tsp dry mango powder (amchur)
1 tsp fennel powder (saunf powder)
1 tsp coriander powder (dhania powder)
¾ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (dhania patta)
2 to 2.5 tsp oil
salt as required
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Vietnamese dipping fish sauce