A love of chillies
I can trace my love affair with the chilli pepper back to my late teens when I made my first trip outside of Europe, a trip casually taken with a girlfriend that, unbeknownst to me, would shape my entire adult life.
I was mad about cooking so landing in Mexico, with its extraordinarily diverse cuisine and massive diversity of ingredients, was a revelation. The more local and regional the food, the more I wanted to try it. The more ingredients I came across, the more I wanted to understand how and when they were used. I was particularly intrigued by the chillies.
In the beginning my heat tolerance was like a badge of honour (I was 18 after all), and I was as macho about chilli heat as I am now passionate about chilli flavour. Long nights in cantinas and bars slamming as much tequila as fiery salsa was a great way to travel. A decade later I came to live in Mexico, and then went onto to open Wahaca, prompting many more research trips to this fabulous country, and perhaps a better understanding of this complex fruit.
There were 200 varieties in Mexico and I wanted to understand how you chose the right ones in recipes whether fresh chilli-spiked ceviches, fiery hot salsas, richly spiced braises or heady marinades that used 5 or 6 different chillies to strike rich back notes of taste.
The dried chillies in the markets came brick reds and deep crimsons, dark browns and even blacks whilst the fresh were in a kaleidoscope of brilliant greens, yellows, oranges and scarlet colours. They came with smooth skins and wrinkly skins; they were the size of a fifty pence piece or longer than your hand, straight as a rod, crooked like a hunchback, round as a grapefruit or wizened as a prune.
I started to learn about the nuances of flavour with each distinct variety and how a fresh chilli might delicately pep up a salad of sliced tomatoes and pineapple whilst dark, fruity ones could add deep, mysterious notes to molten chocolate.
I came to realise that when talking about chillies you can’t just use ‘hot’ and ‘blinding hot’ but that there was a whole new language that needed to be learned. The chillies I tried were smoky, earthy, sweet, spicy and complex, with emerging notes of molasses, tobacco, grass, citrus and chocolate.
I was soon to learn about all the health benefits to my love of chilli-eating. Chillies are packed in nutrients, bursting with vitamins A & C, with iron, magnesium and potassium, making them the perfect tonic if you are feeling tired and overdone (there is a reason why Bloody Marys and spiced eggs taste so great the morning after). Studies have also shown that they lower cholesterol and possess anti-carcinogenic, anti-bacterial, analgesic and anti- diabetic properties.
Eating them both revs up your metabolic rate and releases endorphins, creating that wonderful chilli ‘high’ when one eats really hot food. It is no wonder that chillies were seen as a natural aphrodisiac in ancient Aztec and Mayan societies. The list below is a selection of my favourite ones, mostly available from larger supermarkets and online (try https://www.mexgrocer.co.uk/ and https://www.coolchile.co.uk) For recipe ideas go to the chilli section on this website… Happy sleuthing! Love Tommi xxx
Some favourite types of chilli
Ancho chillies are dried poblanos and are round, dark red chillies with fruity, sweet and rounded notes. They are not amazingly hot but add amazing depth of flavour to marinades, salsas and moles.
Chile de árbol have a wonderfully versatile heat that adds a touch of peppery seasoning to stocks, stews and sauces. When they are toasted their flavour develops and becomes delicious nutty. They are the go-to chilli for making chilli oils.
Chipotles (either mora or morita), are smoked jalapenos, and are one of Mexico’s best- known varieties (its name comes from the words chilli and smoke in the native Indian language Nahuatl). They have an intoxicating fiery heat and cooking them down into an adobo gives you the an amazingly versatile and thoroughly deliciously smoky, hot relish to add to mayonnaises, salsas and sauces.
Habaneros (similar to Scotch Bonnets) are from the Yucatan and have protected denomincation of origin. They look like brightly coloured Chinese lanterns, are ferociously hot with wonderfully fruity, citrussy notes. Roasting them makes for a great salsa.
There are many more varieties, including Spanish, Chinese, Turkish and Indian varieties that I love; I could talk about them forever but if you should ever find yourself in the wholesale market in Oaxaca City than make it a mission to buy as much pasilla mixe (or pasilla de Oaxaca) as you can. These smoked chillies have a strong, vaguely petrol-like flavour and are about as addictive as a chilli can be.