Who eats hot peppers and how do you fix them or whatever do you do with them?

[Tadpole]

So, if I put a sweet bell pepper between two hot peppers, I get a sweet medium hot pepper? Do the hot peppers get sweeter and milder too?

 

[38Chevy454]

Mmmm, poblano cream sauce!

5-6 poblanos, broil to get skin off. Diced up but not real fine.
Half and half, some chopped garlic, salt and black pepper to taste.
Put in pan on stove and reduce down until thicker.
That's all there is to it.

 

[audreyh1]

5-6 poblanos, broil to get skin off. Diced up but not real fine.
Half and half, some chopped garlic, salt and black pepper to taste.
Put in pan on stove and reduce down until thicker.
That's all there is to it.

Yes, I make a version of that. Rajas con Crema: strips of roasted peeled poplanos, sautéed onions slices, and some heavy cream added at the end. So yummy!

 

[NW-Bound]

Earlier, I mentioned my volunteer pequin pepper plants, and Audrey also mentioned the chiltepin pepper.

These are both diminutive and super hot peppers. The chiltepin is round and often the size of a black peppercorn, meaning not even as large as a pea. The pequin pepper is related to the chiltepin, but slightly larger, elongated, and looks like a jalapeno shrunken down to a length of 1/4" or less.

The only way to get these peppers is by growing the plants and harvesting the peppers yourself. These are not grown commercially. As described earlier, my volunteer plants came from the sky via bird droppings. The pequin pepper is also called bird pepper for this reason. Indeed, I see birds swallowing whole miniature peppers off my plants all the time.

The ripe pequin peppers turn red in one day's time. I often pick red ones in the morning, and then again in the late afternoon. The ripe ones fall off their stem as I touch them. I guess this is nature's way to make it easy for the birds to pick them.

See an image of the chiltepin peppers linked from the Web:

This is the pequin peppers:

 

[audreyh1]

In case anyone didn’t already figure it out, birds, unlike mammals, are immune to the burning effects of capsaicin as they lack the receptors we have.

 

[NW-Bound]

One year, I was able to get some black cobra peppers from a nursery to try. Aye, aye, aye, these are HOT. Sadly, the plants died off even in the mild SW winter, and I have not seen them offered in the nursery since.

On the other hand, my pequin pepper plants are perennial, and they survive both the mild winter here as well as the scorching SW summer. They just don't flower and bear fruit when it's too hot or too cold. Occasionally, a plant just slowly died off; I guess it's old age. However, the birds keep on propagating the plants for me, and at any time, I have more than a dozen plants growing haphazardly around the house.

 

[CincyDave]

In case anyone didn’t already figure it out, birds, unlike mammals, are immune to the burning effects of capsaicin as they lack the receptors we have.

Yep, I've read you should mix hot pepper powder in your bird seed if you have trouble with squirrels getting in the bird feeders. Doesn't effect the birds. Can't say if it works or not.

 

[Winemaker]

My experience is that the squirrels/skunks in my area don't have receptors either.

 

[Al18]

I've found capsaicin works well to deter squirrels from eating bird seed. However the squirrels are patient, and wait until rain or snow cleans the capsaicin off the bird seed and then they quickly devour all the seed.

 

[threeonesix]

As a relocated Connecticut Yankee in Texas I just fell in love with Jalapeno peppers here in The Great State of Texas.

I know they are not nearly as hot as some other varieties, but I put them on/in most everything! That includes raw, pickled, sliced and diced! I love them stuffed with cream cheese too! Everything from scrambled eggs to chili, and on sandwiches. Even on pizza and in salads. When my wife was alive, she did not like them and thought I was a nut case. My new GF has similar opinions about my pepper fantasy.

My Wednesday night friends (see avatar) will not eat them (one native Texan in there too) and give me theirs if they order Nachos with them on the side. They think I'm a bit off too.

So, what's your favorite hot pepper and how do you fix/add it to your food?

Google Texas Twinkies and thank me later.

 

[Car-Guy]

Just now reading this thread because it was a joke when I first saw it. Of course I eat peppers, I also breath air and drink water. Since it's a cross between a fruit and a vegetable, it's in several food groups. Personally I like Jalapenos since you can get them from mild to hot. Seldom a day goes by when I don't have them on something.

 

[audreyh1]

Just now reading this thread because it was a joke when I first saw it. Of course I eat peppers, I also breath air and drink water. Since it's a cross between a fruit and a vegetable, it's in several food groups. Personally I like Jalapenos since you can get them from mild to hot. Seldom a day goes by when I don't have them on something.

It’s a fruit.

 

[audreyh1]

Google Texas Twinkies and thank me later.

That looks far more interesting then your regular ol’ jalapeño poppers.

 

[Car-Guy]

It’s a fruit.

Just doesn't seem right putting fruit on a hamburger.

 

[audreyh1]

Just doesn't seem right putting fruit on a hamburger.

Do you like tomato on your hamburger? Another fruit.

Pickles? Cucumbers are also fruits.

 

[Car-Guy]

^^^^^
Might as well switch over to vegi/fruit burgers now. I tried one of those at Burger King "once".

 

[Lorenzo]

Do you like tomato on your hamburger? Another fruit.

Pickles? Cucumbers are also fruits.

Fruits only to a botanist. For purposes of interstate commerce, tariffs, etc., and in the minds of burger lovers everywhere, tomatoes are considered vegetables.

 

[audreyh1]

Fruits only to a botanist. For purposes of interstate commerce, tariffs, etc., and in the minds of burger lovers everywhere, tomatoes are considered vegetables.

I think of them as fruits including avocados, olives, etc. It just seems obvious to me. Too much time gardening, learning plants, etc., I’m sure.

 

[pacergal]

Not a hot pepper person.
I can add a little mild salsa on tacos, or some Franks Hot sauce in a crockpot of beans.
Eating fresh, sweet, red pepper is about all I can handle and even then my stomach rumbles!
DH and DS are both hot pepper fans, so we do have some hot sauce in the fridge.

 

[Time2]

I like some heat, and Thai peppers have enough, Wife even adds a little ghost pepper to the mix when she puts them in the food processor/chopper before bottling. Anyone have a favorite pepper for the flavor rather than the heat.

 

[Lorenzo]

I think of them as fruits including avocados, olives, etc. It just seems obvious to me. Too much time gardening, learning plants, etc., I’m sure.

I can relate. Having just gotten into gardening last year, I notice DW and I talking about this edible plant or that "fruiting."

As for avocados, when I was in elementary school back in the '70s avocados weren't quite as popular as they are today--at least outside California and pockets of the South. My mom knew them from her childhood in the South, and although we lived in the Northeast she introduced me to them, making me avocado sandwiches. One day at school I found an avocado sandwich in my lunchbox, which today's children would think absolutely normal. But back then, my classmates looked agog at this green sandwich filling, and I will never forget being asked (with an implied EWWW!) "Is that a fruit or a vegetable?!"

edit: Apologies for the thread drift. Chile peppers.

 

[CincyDave]

I like some heat, and Thai peppers have enough, Wife even adds a little ghost pepper to the mix when she puts them in the food processor/chopper before bottling. Anyone have a favorite pepper for the flavor rather than the heat.

If you like the flavor of habaneros but can't take the heat, try Habanadas. Habanero taste and no heat. I've never seen them in stores, so you may have to grow your own. Also some seasoning peppers like Tobago seasoning pepper or Grenada seasoning pepper will add flavor with little heat. Again you may have to grow your own.

 

[martyp]

I live in Thailand. Half the foods here are hair on fire spicy and I love it. I do make Mexican chili for myself. There are lots of recipe variations but they all include hot chilis.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

My mom picked up a 6 pack of Cajun Belle pepper plants one year. She thought they were sweet but they were not, and they hardly ate any of them. They turned out to be pretty prolific, and she gave bags of them to everyone she knew who liked hot peppers.

 

[Lagniappe]

Over here the most frequently used pepper is the piri piri. It is small, quite hot, and used for lots of dishes that originated or morphed in Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde. I got a plant just before I went on vacation and came home to hundreds of the little devil's. My neighbors were thrilled when I gave everyone a bag!