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Thursday, March 01, 2007

Chili fruit

The fruit is eaten cooked or raw for its fiery hot flavour which is concerted along the top of the pod. The stem end of the pod has glands which create the capsaicin, which then flows down through the pod. The white pith, that surrounds the seeds, contains the highest concentrations of capsaicin. Removing the seeds and inner membranes is thus effectual at reducing the heat of a pod.
Chile powder is a spice made of the dried ground chilies, generally of the Mexican chile ancho variety, but with small amounts of cayenne added for heat, while chili powder is composed of dried ground chili peppers, cumin, garlic and oregano. The bottled hot sauce Tabasco sauce is made from Tabasco chilies, similar to cayenne, which may also be fermented. Chipotles are dry, smoked red (ripe) jalapeños.
Indian cooking has multiple uses for chilies, from snacks like bajji where the chilies are dipped in batter and fried to the infamously hot vindaloo. Chilies are also dried and roasted and salted for later use as a side dish for rice varieties like vadam (a kind of pappad). In Turkish or Ottoman cuisine, chilies are commonly used where it is known as Kırmızı Biber (Red Pepper) or Acı Biber (Hot Pepper). Sambal is dropping sauce made from chili peppers with many other ingredients such as garlic, onion, shallots, salt, vinegar and sugar, which is very popular in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

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