Spicy Guide: How to Use the World's Most Popular Chili Peppers, Chilies and Chili Peppers

"Being Peruvian, spicy was always present in my life. Almost all our traditional dishes have chili, but in my house there was not much spicy eating. Chili peppers were used but taking away most of the itching, taking away their soul!" This is how the writer, cooking teacher and illustrator Anilú Cigüeñas describes her first relationship with the chillies of her country. When she came to study in Spain she began to become more fond of spicy: first, because she had to start cooking herself – "I didn't even know how to fry an egg," she smiles – and, above all, when she met the cuisine of Southeast Asia. "There I discovered how satisfying it can be to eat it with much more intensity. The beauty of this, and it's something I'd like to convince everyone about, is that when you develop a relationship with spicy, it can only grow. It's a romance forever!"

His is so intense that before being asked "and the ring for when" he decided to formalize the relationship by publishing Mejor si pica: un viaje por el mundo de los ajíes, chiles y chilli peppers (Planeta Gastro, 2023), in which he puts everything that itches on the map of the world, teaches how to manipulate it, turn it into sauces, fermented, pickled or dehydrated. When asked about the absence of African chili peppers, Cigüenas reflects: "Africa is a continent where you eat quite spicy, and I cover the northern part a little talking about the harrissa or with some recipe of Tunisian influence; However, I did not intend to cover the entire planet but made a selection of the gastronomies -and chilies- that I consider most representative". The finishing touch is 90 recipes prepared by 50 cooks, chefs and bartenders from around the world, who prepare with different types of chilies from breads and breakfasts to desserts and cocktails, through main dishes, meat or fish. But before putting on the apron, let's see some of the options to enchilarnos that nature offers us.

'Better if it bites' and the chilies I had in the fridgeMònica Escudero

Mexico

Anilú defines it as "the great center of origin and diversification of Capsicum annuum, the most widespread species on the planet", and he is right: there they bite from sauces to chocolate, chelas -beers- or sweets. Here are some of the most popular:

• Jalapeño: quite spicy, with herbaceous profile, it is fresh, canned -pickled or pickled- or in sauces. It is used in stews, stews, roasted, fried and stuffed. With it you can prepare red chilaquiles -here is our version- or a Creole sauce mixing them with onion cut with feather, lime, salt and pepper. "Chipotle is the jalapeño matured in tree, dried and smoked," says Anilú, and is used to marinate, or in stews, sauces, tacos such as the campechanos of the Lima Casa Nixtamal or the shrimp ceviche of Paco Méndez in Come (Barcelona).

The shrimp ceviche of Come de Paco MéndezCorina Landa

• Poblano: with a herbaceous and fruity profile and little spicy, which makes it perfect to fill -with them the chiles en nogada are made- or used in stews, sauces, soups or rajas (cut into strips and sautéed with onion, to mix with cheese and cream or fill tacos and quesadillas). If ripened on the tree and dried, it becomes chile ancho, widely used in moles and tamales.
• Habanero: fruity and very spicy, it is relatively easy to find in well-stocked markets and Latin food stores. "It is a little fleshy chili and with a very intense itch, not recommended for beginners," says the author. "I think it's great for sauces and especially if they are fermented, which is when their most incredible aromas emerge while their itching is attenuated, making it more pleasant and balanced: in addition, they are colorful and beautiful." With them we can prepare nouc cham, a sauce with a clove of garlic, two tablespoons of sugar, 45 ml of fish sauce, the same of lime juice and 150 ml of water, which can be used "to dip some Vietnamese rolls, season a salad or bathe a white rice".
• In addition: the serrano pepper, fresh and with a medium-high spiciness, according to Cigüeñas "a little more difficult to get compared to jalapeños, but it is gaining ground: it is used fresh and with a sharp and delicious itch and an herbal aroma that combines incredible with cilantro and lime in aguachiles and ceviches or in a guacamole or any other sauce ". Also the guajillo, dry and earthy, basic in the mole and the tree, very spicy and used in the famous taquera sauce.

Peru

"It is the ingredient that runs through its gastronomy and that explains it and cheers it in equal parts," explains Cigüeñas, who plays this game at home. These are some of its protagonists:

• Yellow pepper: "It is a chili pepper whose flavor surprises: I make my students try the homemade yellow pepper paste and they all freak out: its spiciness is very friendly and has a sweet flavor and very elegant fruity notes." It is difficult to replace, especially for some preparations such as the cause, and the color they bring to the dishes is spectacular. It is easily found in pasta or frozen in Latin stores. He is the protagonist of up to 24 of the recipes in the book: one of the simplest, from Lima Jimena Angois, is to open them, denervar and remove the seeds and cover with a mixture of mozzarella and parmesan, thyme, salt pepper and a little oil and roast them in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, until they soften and brown. Dehydrated is known as mirasol (not to be confused with the Mexican of the same name).
• Ají limo: fruity and very spicy, the most used in ceviches and tiraditos (they are those thin slices that enchilan you when you least expect it). It can also be used in salsa criolla.
• Rocoto: very spicy, fleshy and large that allows you to eat it stuffed with different meats, sofrito and cheese, usually blanched before to soften it. It is also used in ceviches, salads or sauces (and Anilú even uses it to enchilar a cheesecake).

The rocoto cheesecake of Anilú CigüeñasRayo Verde

• Ají panca: quite spicy, consumed dry and has a smoky touch, it is used in marinades, stews such as sudados de pescado and sauces.

Asia

The author defines this section as "a trip to hell itself", so the thing comes strong with capsaicin. "After America, it is the region that has the most integrated spicy in its meals," says Cigüeñas, "and adopted it with such force that today it would be impossible for us to imagine many of its most representative gastronomies without it."

• Red chili pepper (hong gochu): fruity profile, there are softer and spicier versions even if it is the same species: Capsicum annuum. It is used for kimchi and gochujang paste in Korea, in Turkey it is called urfa biber and in India it is dried and used as chili powder (with kashmiri on the front in its less spicy version).
• Green chili: It is known as put gochu in Korea, prik in Thailand or hari mirch in India, and comes in different sizes, thicknesses and – most importantly – levels of spicy (so better try it before). How to do it? "I think the best way to understand what a chili pepper or chili tastes like – remembering that spicy is not a flavor – is to taste the tip that is the furthest area from the plasma, the 'factory' of capsaicin (the chemical responsible for itching)," recommends the expert (by the way, we will avoid a possible unwanted experience: who got it wrong, he knows.) It is one of the most common chili peppers in Asia and is consumed fresh or in sauce, sautéed, pickled, in stews ... in a thousand ways.
• Bird's eye: fruity, floral, not very fleshy and very, very spicy. Common in Southeast Asian cuisine, it is consumed both fresh and dried in curries, sauces, soups or marinades.
• Naga jolokia: one of the first hybrids that were created in the race to climb the Scoville scale to infinity. "Putting on the medal of the hottest chili has become an obsession for some people and seems to be a source of entertainment for many others," says Anilú. "If you notice, that hobby is more popular among Americans, Australians, English – the term they use is chiliheads – in whose gastronomic cultures these ingredients are not present: the focus is on entertainment and not on gastronomic enjoyment." In short: it burns like hell, it does not potentiate any flavor and drive basically to chulear of endurance (the Carolina Reaper, also hybrid, dethroned it in 2013 as the hottest chili in the world).

A bunch of chili peppersAnilú Storks

Europe

"Here, the mill makes its appearance on the scene to turn them into spices and takes advantage of their powerful coloring and preservation power," says the author. And there is life beyond cayenne.)

Padrón peppers: with a herbaceous flavor and a potency that can vary greatly - "some sting and others not", as the saying goes-, they are usually served fried as an appetizer or accompaniment.

Pimentón de la Vera: friendly profile and with a smoky touch, it is actually composed of three different peppers; Ñora, jariza and Jeromín, in different proportions (only the latter is spicy). Dried and ground are one of the most popular ingredients in our cuisine, both in stews and in sausages and salted meats.

Cayenne / chilli pepper / piri piri: quite spicy, very fine and slightly smoked, consumed dried whole, flakes or ground. It serves, among many other things, to prepare the Portuguese sauce that bears one of its names.

Alegrías riojanas or villanos: fruity and fleshy, they could be the spicy cousins of piquillo peppers. They are usually sold roasted and canned, they can be filled and in the book Nuria Escarpa de Tres letras: pan uses them as an ingredient in a rich loaf, making a paste in which he mixes them with olive oil and garlic. Chopped into stuffed eggs they are delicious.

Basque chilli peppers (piparras de Ibarra): a green, thin, elongated, fleshy and thin-skinned pimientito. Pickles are very easy to find; Fresh and fried, an unusual delicacy outside the Basque summer. They usually don't itch too much, but there are exceptions.

Also: Calabrian peperoncino is used to prepare any dish all'arrabiata or flavor the oil that accompanies pizza. If you get them whole, fresh or dried, you can take out the seeds and try to germinate them. Paprika is the most iconic spice of Hungarian cuisine and there are up to eight different types (fruit of drying, mixing and powdering different combinations of peppers).

Not just spicy

There are people who believe that chilies only provide spicy, and it is not so: there are smoked, sweet, fresh, herbal and even citrus peppers, although it seems that not all palates can perceive it. "The 'fault' is probably because when you talk about chili peppers, the conversation focuses on the level of itching – let's stop talking so much about the Scoville scale!-, and then it seems that that's the only thing that differentiates one from the other," reflects Cigüeñas. But these peppers provide more than heat: color, flavor and aromas.

X-ray of the chili pepper Anilú Storks

A good way to see it is to gather chili peppers or chilies of various types, and better, of various colors, because there the differences will be more evident, or experiment with the fermented ones, which the author likes so much that she dedicates a part of the book to them. "There is still much to explore about chili peppers, not only in the aromatic part, but also in the part of the itching, because that it stings a lot or little also has different nuances such as in which part of the mouth does it itch?, how long does that sensation continue?, is it perceived immediately or when you have already swallowed?, is the itching superficial or is it as if you had stuck a needle in your tongue?". A whole world to discover, and much more than a sensation.

Beyond the kitchen

When he started with the book, Cigüeñas did not have contemplated having chefs. "I made a list of recipes that I wanted to include that demonstrate the versatility of chili peppers and that there is representation of the most relevant gastronomies." But, while I was developing it, I was telling the project to different people, including chefs, and people were getting excited and joining the project, notifying other colleagues and the thing got out of hand.

From Peru to Spain, Mexico or Hungary: "this is how the 50 chefs and bartenders from all over the world who participate in Mejor si pica were added: some very famous (Michelin stars, Repsol suns, members of the 50 Best lists), but also very talented friends of mine or people who I was detecting along the way that I saw that they could help me in this crusade to open minds and hearts to the spicy, with an anthology of recipes of all kinds." But Cigüeñas clarifies that his book is not just for cooks. "It's for anyone who is curious about these ingredients, who likes to read and wants to expand their food culture: there are simple recipes, and a few a little more complex, but all are accessible so they can be made at home."

It also includes the stores where the ingredients are found: it makes everything easy to put into practice the book proposals, where there are classic recipes, but also very current ones. "That is, you can prepare at home dishes that are present in the menus of fantastic restaurants around the world: this seems to me a luxury," he concludes proudly (and no wonder).

The creation process

This book began to take shape when the author was doing a job for a Master in Editorial Illustration. "At that time I was really focused on developing my artistic side: I started researching and reading about it." At the same time, he taught cooking classes and realized that not much was known about chili peppers, which are really peculiar ingredients, with impressive versatility and a very relevant impact on many gastronomies. When she finished the graphic work she said: "Now I'm going to do the inside thing: it was spontaneous, but at the same time it made sense because it was a project in which I could combine my craft as a communicator, with my passion for food and art." Both the part of the illustrations and the structure of the content are the result of many hours contemplating the peppers, asking questions about them and investigating. "I was detecting gaps in the sources I consulted and I was organizing the information as I would have liked to be told: in a summarized, practical way and with a little humor."

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