There are incredible ways of including chillies in everyday food but the trends of the recipes containing chilli vary with the weather of a region. Summers and spring make the pickling recipes trending since the sun-assisted fermenting can be carried out easily. Deep fried veg and non-veg recipes, spicy gravy recipes with chilli are in trend during rainy and winter months.
Pungency or the heat level of chillies vary with variety and locale since the capsaicin and related alkaloids differ in amount and genetics. It also depends on the type of area cultivated in, and the farm inputs that the plants are fed with, as well. Hence there are mild varieties like Banana Peppers or Coronado Chili, sweet varieties like Italian carmen peppers and elephant’s ear chilli; to the spiciest and hottest varieties like Carolina Reaper ranging from 0-1.5 lakh (!!!) Scoville Heat Units, which measure the hotness of chilli.
- Chillies can be used as fresh peppers. They can be used by splitting the chilies or adding them as whole. But the pungency comes out best when the fresh chilli is slit and added into the recipe or when it is crushed for the recipe.
- Chillies are also used in their sun-dried and/or smoked form. Usually, the dried chili varieties are crushed to flakes or fine powder to be used in recipes.
- The fresh or dried ones are partially or fully crushed to prepare various sauces and preserved. Usage of chilli in its various avatars or forms differs with the recipe that one chooses to create.
- Italian and Thai sweet chillies are recommended for most of the sweet recipes that contain chilli in them. Sriracha sauce and thai sweet chili sauce are usually used in those recipes when the fresh whole sweet chillies are not available.
- Usage of chilli and its amount in savory dishes differs with the regional cuisine that the recipe belongs to.
Here are a few recipes that have chilli as an invariable ingredient in them. Enjoy the various forms of chilli through the mix of various ingredients from cuisines around the world.
