Know Your Peppers

Published on Tuesday, August 11, 2009, by Roxanne Webber / Edit Post

Know Your Peppers(cont.)

Jalapeño

(a.k.a. Chipotle)

Familiar stuffed with cream cheese and deep-fried as a bar snack, or chopped up in salsa, the jalapeño is probably the best-known pepper in the States. It gets its name from Jalapa (also spelled Xalapa), the capital of Veracruz, Mexico. Harvested at both its green and red stages, the jalapeño is spicy but easy to seed and devein if you wish to remove some of the heat. When dried and smoked, it’s called a chipotle chile.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 2 to 3 inches long
SPICINESS: 2 to 3

Serrano

Spicier than the jalapeño, the serrano is a small Mexican pepper with thick, juicy walls, so it’s a great hot-salsa pepper, and is widely available and versatile. It is most commonly sold in its green stage (it turns red and then yellow as it gets older). You can also find serranos pickled or dried.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 1.5 to 2.5 inches long
SPICINESS: 3

Habanero

Native to parts of Central America and the Caribbean, this little pepper packs a lot of heat. But contrary to popular belief, the Red Savina habanero is not the hottest type of chile; that distinction now goes to the Indian bhut jolokia, or ghost chile. Still, habaneros add a lot of heat to cooking and should be used judiciously. You’ll find different colors, ranging from red to white-yellow and even brown, but orange is the most common. Great for salsa, hot sauces, or a fiery jerk chicken.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 2 inches long
SPICINESS: 5

Pimiento de Padrón

This pepper is a specialty grown in Galicia in northern Spain. It is traditionally eaten as a simple tapa, fried in olive oil and tossed with salt; it is harvested young and small, with a tender skin and no mature seeds, so it’s perfect for eating whole, bitten right off the stem. It is generally mild with a nutty flavor at this stage, but it gets hotter as it matures. Part of the fun of eating these peppers is that about one in a dozen will be pretty hot, says Winsberg.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 2 to 4 inches long
SPICINESS: 1 (but the hot ones, even when young, can be 2 to 3)

Aji Rojo

Common in a lot of Peruvian cooking, the aji rojo is more of an orange-red than a true red pepper. It has a similar heat level to cayenne and can be chopped finely and added to ceviche or mixed with cheese or cream to make a sauce to serve over potatoes or chicken.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 2 to 3 inches long
SPICINESS: 4

Thai

This tiny chile adds serious amounts of heat to Southeast Asian cuisines. You may find either green or red Thai chiles; both are very spicy. Throw them whole into Thai soups like tom kha gai, purée them for curry pastes, or chop them up for any dish where you want to add heat without a lot of pieces of pepper.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 1 to 2 inches long
SPICINESS: 5

Bell

The most common sweet pepper, bells are usually seen in red, green, and yellow, but there are also purple, brown, and orange varieties. They are a crunchy, juicy pepper that is great for eating raw on salads, sautéing, or roasting and chopping up to throw on a pizza or a sandwich.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 3 to 6 inches long
SPICINESS: 1

Hot Cherry

These vary in size and shape and are very hot. They are usually round, though sometimes more of a triangular shape. Cherry peppers can also be sweet. They’re most often used in pickling: You can throw one in a jar with cucumber pickles to spice things up, or pickle them with other, more mild peppers.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 1 to 2 inches long
SPICINESS: 4

Hungarian Pimento

This is a type of pimento (or pimiento) pepper, which is what you often find stuffed in green olives. It is a large, sweet red pepper, similar to a bell but with an extra-thick, juicy wall. The skin comes off easily, so this is an ideal pepper for roasting. It’s also great to eat raw with dip.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 4 to 6 inches long
SPICINESS: 1

Piquillo

The ultimate pepper for roasting, the Spanish piquillo has become very popular because of its intensely sweet flavor and bright red color. It is usually only available canned or jarred, but it’s becoming easier to find fresh. It is often roasted, peeled, and stuffed with a variety of fillings like salt cod, tuna, or cheese.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 3 inches long
SPICINESS: 1

Shishito

Popular in Japan, the shishito has thin walls, mild heat, and a little sweetness. It is good served like the Padrón: simply fried, drizzled with some soy sauce and sesame oil, and eaten whole. It also makes very tasty tempura.

AVERAGE SIZE:
About 2 to 4 inches long
SPICINESS: 1 to 2 (occasionally you might get a 2 to 3)

Previous « 1 2

Roxanne Webber is an associate editor at CHOW.

« PREVIOUS POSTWhat to Eat at the Ballpark

ALLFeature

NEXT POST »Whole Grains 101

22 Comments