Authentic Mexican - Peppers

Spice It Up!

What makes authentic Mexican food taste so awesome?  I think it is a combination of the protein flavors, vegetables, textures, cooking method and the spices used. I would also say that most authentic Mexican food also looks terrific because of the variety of colors that appear on the plate.  How food looks and smells is supremely important because the visual and olfactory stimulation is tantamount to foreplay that signals to your brain that this is going to be good! Of course, this can be said of most foods, although I have eaten food that appear to be a "hot mess" that did contain some of the best flavors I have ever tasted. But, it's easy to understand why most chefs place a high price on presentation and plating. Anyway, in this post, I want to focus on what I believe is the most distinctive thing that makes a Mexican dish stand apart from the crowd:  Peppers. 

Most chain food and at-home chefs are going to take the easy route when it comes to spicing up a dish.  It is far too easy to walk into a grocery or restaurant supply store and buy cheap, bulk quantities of chili powder and other seasonings.  I know, I've done it.  Buying in bulk is fine if you are going to use a lot of them but remember that most of those seasonings lose their flavor and freshness within about one year of opening them.  You can freeze them, but that is the topic of another conversation. 

Taking a quick survey of my spice cabinets (yes, cabinets is plural because I have so many they would not fit into one cabinet) of the pepper and other spices one would typically use to produce a Mexican dish, here is what I generally keep on-hand:

• Ground Cayenne pepper
• Black Pepper
• Onion Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Granulated Garlic
• Dried Cilantro
• Smoked Paprika
• Green Chili Seasoning Blend
• Crushed Red Pepper
• Dried Chipotle Powder (smoked red jalapenos)
• Cumin Powder
• Hot Chili Powder
• All-purpose Adobo Seasoning with Pepper
• Ancho Chili Seasoning

I said this was a quick survey so I probably missed a few that were hiding in the back.  Most of these garden variety seasonings are fine for everyday cooking.  And I mean every day - I use many of these every single day.  It would be lovely to take out a mortar and pestle and grind up dried chili peppers every time I needed them but it is just not practicable.  It would be nearly impossible to recreate granulated garlic, onion or paprika powder at home. I don't own a freeze-drying machine or grinder capable of converting dried garlic or onions into a fine powder (neither do most restaurants or at-home chefs).  So, for many spices and seasonings, we are all relegated to using the same things everyone uses.  

However, when it comes to flavors that make authentic Mexican really pop, I find it best to really try to understand a few key pepper types and their flavor profiles.  Then, rather than looking for them at Whole Foods or Kroger, find a local Mexican or Latino grocery (thankfully, there is one just 2.5 miles up the road from me) and buy some real peppers.  

As you would expect, there are more peppers than you can possibly get your head around.  A walk through an open-air market in Mexico (as I have done) confirmed that.  It's easy to get overwhelmed but don't.  I'm am going to focus on my top six most important chili peppers that all have very different flavor profiles and can make the difference between authentic-tasting food and amateur hour.  

I have heard many people say "I don't like spicy food...it's too hot."  Fair point.  Understand that when I use the word "spicy," I do not necessarily mean "hot."  To me, there is a big difference between spice and heat.  Spicy can connote hot, but different peppers offer such a dizzying array of flavor profiles that you should not conflate spicy with hot.  Spicy means flavor.  Also keep in mind that more often than not, the pepper seeds and extent of the peppers' growth cycle are what make the pepper hot, not the fleshy part of the vegetable by itself.  

We could spend years talking about pepper hotness.  Note that just like IBU attempts to measure the hops bitterness in beer, Scoville Heat Units (SHU) seek to measure the intensity of chili peppers based on a concentration of capsaicinoids.  Capsaicin is the chemical within peppers that, in very high concentrations, will melt your face off and cause you to scream "please pass the fire extinguisher" and that did in fact cause rock star chef Gordon Ramsay scream "F.U." at the host during an YouTube interview where he ate several ridiculously hot peppers as part of the Q&A process.  For a comprehensive look at peppers, I encourage you to check out the movie Crazyhot on Amazon by my first cousin Eric Raine. He and I both share an appreciation fine foods, his channeled into this excellent feature-length film, mine into, well, just about everything else.   

My Top Six Chiles Explained:

Chipotles in Adobo Sauce (above) are probably the most used peppers in my kitchen.  Although the photo above show four different brands of green chiles and only one can of chipotles, my pantry is short on chipotles because I use them so much.  The flavor of these smoke-dried jalapeno peppers combined with the rich tomatoee (is that a word? Well, it is now...) adobo sauce are just amazing.  Chipotles can range in heat from 2,500 to 8,000 SHU but it is the smokiness and richness of the accompanying adobo sauce that makes them one of my absolute favorites.  At the end of this post, I am going to give you the recipe for an incredible chipotle aioli sauce, my most frequently used topping for tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas and even my El Taco Loui pizza.  

Green Chiles (above) are included here because these little cans make a flavorful addition to any salsa and have a variety of other uses.  Most have a mild heat in the 500 or lower SHU range but some can be as high as 2,500.  One thing to know about "green chiles" is that the term covers a lot of ground and may include banana peppers, poblanos and Anaheim peppers.  Check the label because the heat can definitely vary.  

Arbol (photo above, aka Chiles de Arbol) have some heat.  These chiles register between 15,000–30,000 SHU which make them milder than cayenne pepper (30,000–50,000 SHU) but much hotter than your garden variety jalapeño (2,500–8,000 SHU). These are a great pepper when you want to add some serious sting.  Just know that a little goes a long way. I took a bite off the tip of one five minutes ago and my mouth is still tingling from the heat.   

Guajillo (photo above) have a lovely sweet, fruity, tangy, smoky flavor and have a dark red color. Some describe them as having berry and tea flavors. They certainly have a some heat, registering 2,500 to 5,000 SHU (I think the one I just sampled was at the high-end).  I read somewhere that Guajillo chiles are Mexico's favorite chili.  Use them in your own dishes and you will see why.   

Ancho are dried poblano peppers which are pretty mild and have a deep dark red, almost black color. They score between 1,000 and 1,500 SHU which mean less heat than jalapenos. I think ancho chiles look like giant dried raisins - they taste sweet like raisins too.  Frankly, I love anchos almost as much as the smokiness of chipotles because of the flavor and diversity of use.  I think Anchos are absolutely essential for any respectable mole or enchilada sauce.   

     

Mulato is another dried poblano pepper that measures in at 2,500 to 3,000 SHU.  They have more heat than the Ancho, about the same as jalapenos.  But Mulatos have so much flavor.  Chocolate, plum, cherry and tobacco have been used to describe the flavor profile.  I think these descriptions are on point.  And like the ancho, the texture is like that of a really dried out raisin or date.  They are such an awesome hit of flavor and heat, I could use them in every sauce I make.  

The Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) Scale in a Nutshell

A great way to understand the relative heat of peppers is to look at the actual Scoville scale.  Here is a link to the Wikipedia page for reference purposes:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

The Scoville Heat Unit scale goes from 0 to 16 billion, with the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X (as of this writing) weighing in as the highest SHUs among edible peppers in the 3 million SHU range (I use the term "edible" loosely because I would never eat one).  Law enforcement pepper spray also has an SHU in the 1.5 to 3 million range.  So, what does that tell you?  Something sprayed into the eyes to subdue criminal offenders is not meant to be eaten unless you are auditioning for a new season of the MTV series Jackass! 

Handling Peppers - A Word of Caution

The internet is full of advice about handling peppers.  My advice is to read it and heed it.  You need only have one really bad experience to learn that you must exercise caution when handling peppers.  Some seemingly harmless fresh peppers like poblanos and some not so harmless such as habaneros  contain seeds that can light you up.  Here was my experience...

Several years ago, I took the time to read all about safe handling of peppers and thought, Hmm, that's pretty good advice.  Wear gloves and goggles, don't touch you eyes or face and you should be fine.  Of course, I arrogantly thought that only applied to the more pungent varieties of peppers.  I was making poblano peppers stuffed with Spanish rice and chorizo sausage and bought a couple of tiny Serrano peppers that I wanted to mix into the chorizo (Serrano peppers are no joke by the way - about 5 times hotter than jalapenos).  I would top off the stuffed poblanos with a cilantro-lime cream sauce to serve as a cooler to balance out the heat.  I should add that the mixture of heat and cream is a divine combo in cooking.    

I de-seeded the peppers, removed the stems and used my hands to scrape them off the counter tossing them into the trash can.  I washed my hands with water and dried them with a paper towel.  I continued to work until I needed a quick bathroom break and dashed into the guest bathroom near the kitchen.  I washed my hands again with soap and water.  Although I had washed my hands with soap, I had not washed the counter or my cutting board, knife, etc., that I was still using and handling.  

It took a few minutes but my eyes began to burn, bad.  Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face and there was no stopping this waterfall.  My eyes got extremely red and burned so bad that I could barely see.  I looked around for something that might help when a second burning feeling hit me.  The second burning feeling was coming from down below.  This burning was almost as bad as my eyes.  My wife thought I had lost my "F'ing" mind as I ran through the house screaming like a maniac.  

I left the kitchen and ran for the shower in the master bathroom.  I cranked on the water and could not get my clothes off fast enough.  I jumped into the ice cold shower and put my face right under the showerhead.  Naturally, all this did was spread the capsaicin around my face and over the rest of my body.  I grabbed a bar of soap and started lathering up and spreading the foam into my eyes and all over my face and groin area.  As you learn as a child, soap also burns when it gets into your eyes.  The soap eventually muted the burning, but only after several minutes of extreme pain.  

What I now know is that milk, yogurt, baking soda, dish soap, rubbing alcohol, vinegar and cooking oil will all work to neutralize the alkalinity of the hot pepper burn.  Obviously, you don't want to put these things into your eyes - these are recommended for burning hands and fingers.  Milk is probably the only remedy I would want to put into my eyes.  At the time, I knew milk was a remedy, but unless I am making a recipe that specifically calls for milk or heavy cream, we don't drink much milk and usually do not have any on-hand.  I could have used the sour cream I planned to use for the cilantro-lime cream sauce, but in the heat of the moment, that did not occur to me (plus I would have had to make another trip to the store for more sour cream).

So, to avoid all of this, wear gloves and goggles and for God's sake, do not touch your eyes, nose, lips or private parts until you can wash your hands properly.  And just like you hope you will never need a fire extinguisher when cooking, it's always a good idea to have one on-hand.  If you're going to handle hot peppers, make sure you have some milk or one of these other remedies on-hand.  

Simple Rules For Using These Dried Peppers

First, remove seeds and stems. Because the peppers were dried with the seeds inside of them, the heat from the hotter seeds gets incorporated into the overall heat of the pepper flesh.  Fire up a skillet over medium-high heat and toss the peppers into the skillet and roast for about a minute per side. Then toss them into a Pyrex or other heat-tolerant bowl and cover them with boiling water for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.  Toasting the peppers releases oils that will add to the flavor.  Once the peppers are re-hydrated, place then into a blender or food processor, grinding them into a fine paste.  Now they are ready to be added to whatever recipe you choose.  Taste them before adding to your recipe to get a sense of how much you should use.  You can always add more but if you use too much, it can be very difficult to counter the overly pungent heat.  Don't throw away the water used to re-hydrate the peppers.  The water will start to turn the color of the peppers and will contain flavors you will want to use.  Taste the water and look for ways to incorporate the flavors into your recipe.  I find the water to be an awesome addition to an enchilada, pico de gallo or roja sala sauce.  Or use the chiles to make a paste by adding some chopped garlic, vinegar, canola oil, lemon juice, salt, tomato paste and even some honey to balance the heat. Can't you just taste all that goodness?  

Mike's Chipotle Aioli Recipe

Here's what you need:

• 1 Large egg yolk
• 1 Large egg
• 1 Peeled clove of fresh garlic
• 2 Teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons of tap water
• 1 Teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1.5 Cups canola or avocado oil.  Which ever oil you use, make sure to use something mild-flavored that won't overpower the taste. Be sure to smell the oil before you use it - if it smells like paint or varnish, toss it out and use something else.  

Put the egg and egg yolk, lemon juice, half of the water and salt into a blender and mix for 20 seconds.  Put the blender on the lowest setting such as stir or mix and pour half of the oil into the blender through the feed hole in a steady stream until it begins to thicken. 

Add the rest of the water and continue to run the blender on the lowest setting while adding the remaining oil.  At this point, the mixture should have thickened up to the consistency of mayonnaise.  You can tell the mixture has emulsified properly by listening to the blender as you add the oil.  The sound will change from a loud gurgling sound to a more muffled tone.  

Take care not to run the motor on a high setting or else you may break the emulsion and need to start over.  Take your time and you will have the perfect aioli base.  Without adding the chipotles and adobo, this recipe has a variety of applications as well.  If you need to avoid eggs like me, substitute Hellman's Vegan Mayonnaise.  It works great!

Turn off the blender and change the mode to pulse.  If you like a lot of spice and heat, use an entire  7 Oz can of chipotle peppers and adobo sauce.  Use half a can or less if you want to keep the heat to a minimum.  

Pulse the mixer several times until the chipotles and adobo sauce are fully incorporated into the aioli.  Give the aioli a final mix for 20 to 30 seconds so the sauce takes on an almost orange color.  

I find the key to using this amazing sauce is to load up on the chipotles and adobo sauce as an ingredient, but to use the final sauce sparingly as a topping (unless you love the heat). This creamy flavorful sauce goes great with avocados and pickled cabbage or onions as a perfect way to counterbalance the other flavors.  Frankly, if you have ever eaten the fish tacos at El Mundo on Frankfort Ave in Louisville, this is the part of the dish that puts it over the top.  

This recipe will generally fill about one and a half standard kitchen squirt bottles.  Be sure to label your aioli and mark it with the day's date.  This sauce will keep in the refrigerator for about 1 week.  

Happy eating!

Mike