Moan, moan, moan----get it off your chest or have a chat

[TheOnionMan]

Lesley, also watch out for the seeds.  I frequently cook Pablano peppers (mildly hot) best known in the Mexican dish Chile Relleno, and while the pepper flesh is not that potently hot, after touching or handling the seeds, I have to be careful, even after thoroughly washing my hand several times, a touch near the eye or lips can be a painful hot experience indeed.

I suspect even with chillies, the seeds are much more potent than the pepper flesh.

[ranunculus]

Over the recent summer and autumn I have been gradually training myself to eat (or rather, use in cooking) chillies; first very mild then working up to the really hot kinds and over all I've succeeded quite well and now frequently add even very hot kinds to this or that dish.

A Lancashire lad begs the question; 'Why'?
Imagine what these infidels are doing to your stomach lining - stick to carrots, please!   

[johnw]

A Lancashire lad begs the question; 'Why'?

A hundred million Sichuanese might be able tell you.  

johnw

[johnw]

Lesley, also watch out for the seeds.  I frequently cook Pablano peppers (mildly hot) best known in the Mexican dish Chile Relleno, and while the pepper flesh is not that potently hot, after touching or handling the seeds, I have to be careful, even after thoroughly washing my hand several times, a touch near the eye or lips can be a painful hot experience indeed.

I suspect even with chillies, the seeds are much more potent than the pepper flesh.

Seeds are much hotter. Many recipes say to discard the seeds to reduce the heat. Last week I was snipping dry Facing Heaven Chilies in half and inadvertently wiped an inch or two below my eye, it stung for an hour. The chilies themselves are hot but quite edible with a smokey taste.

johnw

[mark smyth]

How plants shouldnt be sent in the post

[ranunculus]

A Lancashire lad begs the question; 'Why'?

A hundred million Sichuanese might be able tell you.  

johnw

Possibly eaten to enhance the taste of chow (and I don't mean 'food').   

[Anthony Darby]

Over the recent summer and autumn I have been gradually training myself to eat (or rather, use in cooking) chillies; first very mild then working up to the really hot kinds and over all I've succeeded quite well and now frequently add even very hot kinds to this or that dish.

A Lancashire lad begs the question; 'Why'?
Imagine what these infidels are doing to your stomach lining - stick to carrots, please!   

Stick to carrots and turn orange!

[johnw]

Possibly eaten to enhance the taste of chow (and I don't mean 'food').   

Cliff - You're barking up the wrong tree. I consider Sichuan Cuisine one of the world's greatest.  Our second authentic Sichuan restaurant opened up here this month - excellent.

johnw

[maggiepie]

Lesley, you should wear gloves when you are handling hot chillies.
I know the pain of chilli burn.
We have been growing habaneros the last few years as well as others and last year we had lots of chillies. We ended up buying a dehydrator. Unfortunately, we were using it inside the house, bad idea.
The fumes were very bad. Had to take it out to the garage to finish.
If you are now enjoying hot chillies, you must try jamaican jerk chicken. It has the most fantastic flavours.
We make triple batches and freeze them in the marinade, just have to thaw and cook when you want some ( which is often)

[Anthony Darby]

Jamaican jerk chicken - yeh man. From a half oil drum barbecue in Papine market!

[SusanS]

I find the easiest way to prepare chillies without the suffering the burning sensation is to get Darren to do the cooking. 

[johnw]

Helen - Sounds great, would you post the Jamaican jerk Chicken recipe?  I picked up a scad of Mexican dried peppers in variety at Kalustyan's in NYC last autumn and could use a good recipe or two. It's a wonderful store by the way - http://www.kalustyans.com/

johnw

[maggiepie]

John, will post the recipe to cook's corner.

Thanks for the link, my daughter will be in NYC at the end of August but unfortunately it will be after she has left our place.

[Lesley Cox]

I find the easiest way to prepare chillies without the suffering the burning sensation is to get Darren to do the cooking. 

Sound advice Susan. If only I could persuade Roger!

Thanks for the advice from everyone here, (except Cliff ). I think I was my own worst enemy as I did, in fact, scrape out the seeds with my finger nail instead of the tip of a knife. Asking for trouble. I started with chillies this summer because the ones at the market were so beautiful and I had a small bowl of different sizes and shapes on my kitchen bench. Stands to reason I'd cut up and cook some. No regrets, the lesson is well learned. Now that they're finished at the market, I'm missing them.

[Lesley Cox]

I took a while to reply because last Thursday morning I took my hard drive for some cleaning out-type surgery (among other things they deleted 6 Gb of temporary internet files!) and to get a scrolling problem fixed as it wasn't the mouse which was the problem after all. Everything fine now but after 2 days away then 2 more days on which I found my password had vanished (from my memory) and I had been signed out with the surgery, I had to sign in again but couldn't do it. As always, Maggi and Ian to the rescue so everything back to normal and much quicker than before.