Image taken from Panorama Diario

The Ají Pepper is widely used within the Hispanic Cuisine. The various countries in Latin America use different terms depending on the variety. In Mexico they are classified among fresh and spicy chili’s (serrano and jalapeño); large fresh chili (poblano and anaheim); dried hot peppers (California, Width, Black, hallways, etc.), canned peppers (jalapeños and chipotles). Other Mexican chili’s are the bell peppers, the shovellers, the chamboroto, the chilaca, the guajillo, the habanero, the morita, the mulatto, and so on. The crushed pepper is harsher, less aromatic and persistent. In Argentina, it is used in chimichurri and empanadas. It is common in home cooking.

Aji panca, yellow or special: It is a pepper native to Peru and one of the most commonly used in Peruvian cuisine, it is large and the color is red, it matures into a purple tone or intense yellow that dries in the sun. Peruvian cuisine uses it as a condiment as a whole or ground. It has fruity berry and spicy flavor, it is used in stews, sauces and fish.

Chili Properties: The red peppers are rich in vitamin C and provitamin A. Green peppers (they have that color because they are cut before they mature) or yellow have less vitamins than the red ones. The pepper provided by the spice is very rich source of vitamin B and mainly vitamin B6. Very high in potassium as well as in magnesium and iron.

Information provided by Euroredisentes, click here for more information.

Image taken from VeganYumYum

Sauce Base:
5 ounces ripe tomatoes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 ounces whole almonds
1 small onion, sliced
1/4 cup raisins
Scant 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup unsweetened chocolate
2 slices bread, toasted
1 cup broth

Ancho Chile Sauce:
8 ancho or chipotle chiles, stemmed and seeded
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 large pinch cumin
Scant 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons Earth Balance

1 package (1 pound, 2 ounces) “Chicken Style” Seitan, drained
1 cup brown rice
1 cup frozen corn
Parsley or cilantro

prep: 45 minutes
total: 2 hours

roasting pan
2 bowls
food processor
dutch oven or high-sided saucepan
2 quart pot

1. Roast the tomatoes under a broiler until blackened on more than one side. Place in a bowl to cool. When cool, remove the skins and discard. Place tomatoes in the bowl of a food processor or blender.

2. While the tomatoes are roasting, remove the stems from the chiles. Slice open one side of each chile and remove the seeds and dried out inner membranes, discard. Place chiles in a bowl and cover in boiling water, let sit until softened. Drain.

3. While the chiles are softening, heat the oil in a large dutch oven or saucepan with high sides. Add almonds and sauté for about 3 minutes. Scoop out almonds and place them in the food processor bowl with the tomatoes.

4. Add onion to the pan and cook until brown, about 10 minutes. Remove to food processor bowl with the tomatoes and almonds. Add raisins to pan and watch for them to plump up, then remove from the pan add them to the food processor bowl. Turn off heat but leave pan on the stove with oil in the bottom.

5. Add the remaining “sauce base” ingredients to the food processor bowl (cinnamon, chocolate, bread and 1 cup broth). Blend until smooth. Remove from processor and set aside.

6. Add the “ancho chile sauce” ingredients into the food processor and blend until smooth. Strain with a medium sieve. Reheat your dutch oven and add the strained chile sauce. Simmer for about 5 minutes until it darkens and thickens. Add the “sauce base” mixture that you prepared earlier to the chile sauce and mix well. Add the remaining broth. Strain sauce again to smooth it out. Add salt, sugar and earth balance. Simmer for 45 minutes, covered, on low.

7. Start your brown rice. Add seitan to a 2-quart pot and cover with 1/2 of the prepared sauce. Simmer on low, covered, for as long as it takes to cook the rice. A few minutes before the rice is done steaming, quickly remove the top of your pot or rice cooker and pour in frozen corn. Replace top.

8. When the rice is done, chop a handful of parsley or cilantro. Add to rice and lightly fluff with a fork. Plate rice, spoon seitan mole over the top, garnish with more parsley and serve immediately.

Recipe taken from VeganYumYum for more recipes or information click here.

Mercado suvianda

I was amazed, loved the view.

Right after I went to a meeting for the organization Chicano Commencement, that day we had a potluck as it was the last meeting of the semester. Someone took a Tapatio Sauce bottle and in a matter or 20 minutes, half the bottle was gone. I thought this was pretty funny since it reminded me of my pepper projects.

I have one all time favorite place to eat Mexican food and feel at home.
Top #1 Chavez Taqueria
It is located inside Chavez Supermarket on 2327 Mckee Road in San José and a new location on 2670 Monterey Road also in San José, CA.
Chavez Taqueria is a must try for authentic Mexican food.

Image taken from Chavezsuper.com

Visit Chavez Super website for more information.

Top #2 Mexico Bakery
Located on Santa Clara Street in between 2nd and 3rd. Mexico Bakery has some tasty tortas and tacos, these are about the only two dishes I’ve tried. Not very many places have original ham tortas, which is my favorite type of torta.
I started going to Mexico Bakery because it is conveniently located a few businesses down from where I work and a co-worker recommended it.

Top #3 Super Taqueria
It is much better than the other taquerias downtown and it is also cleaner. Super Taqueria is like my high school sweetheart because there is one two blocks away from my old high school and obviously, this was my lunch stop almost every day.
They have various locations; the one in downtown is on the corner of 10th and William Street.

Image taken from burritowings.com/blog

Image taken from Cookthink.com

1. First, cut the pepper in half lengthwise. If you want the halves to stay intact for larger slices or a large dice, just trim out the seeds and ribs, cut out the stem, and slice the pepper as thick or thin as you like.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

2. Otherwise, it’s easier to get the seeds and ribs out if you cut each half in half again.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

3. To get the seeds and ribs out, hold each quarter by the end. With the knife parallel to the cutting board, slice across the ribs and seeds. When you get to the top of the pepper, turn the knife downward toward the cutting board and chop off the stem with the same motion. (Here, we used a Granton Santoku knife; you may prefer a smaller paring knife.)

Image taken from Cookthink.com

Information taken from Cookthink.com, for more recipes or information click here.

Red Pepper Flakes- Image taken from Cookthink.com

Red pepper is a generic term that usually refers to red-colored Cayenne pepper, which is made from dried, ground hot chile peppers named after the capital of French Guiana where they originate.
Red pepper flakes are the dried seeds and flesh of the Cayenne pepper.

Why are red pepper flakes used in so many recipes?
It is used as a flavor highlighter. In addition to the fives tastes — sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami — our tongues detect capsaicin, the main ingredient found in any hot chile. The heat of capsaicin in red pepper flakes “points up” the taste of ingredients they season. So, no matter what tastes and flavors you have going on in a dish, a pinch of red pepper flakes will help clarify and those tastes and flavors without necessarily adding heat (though you can add plenty of heat by adding red pepper flakes).

Experiment with red pepper flakes by starting out with a pinch in a dish like this Fusilli with Broccoli Raab and Parmesan. Increase (or decrease) the amount you use to get a sense of how much you like to add.

Information taken from Cookthink.com, to know more about red pepper flakes, click here.

Wilbur Scoville- Image taken from NNDB

The Scoville scale is a measurement for chili pepper spiciness. These fruits of the Capsicum genus contain capsaicin, a chemical that stimulates the receptor heat in the skin, especially mucous membranes. The number of Scoville Heat Units (SHU) indicates the amount of capsaicin present. Many hot sauces use the Scoville scale as advertisement.

This scale was named by Wilbur Scoville, who developed the Scoville Organoleptic Test in 1912. This consists of a pepper extract solution which is diluted a number of times in sugar and water until the spiciness can no longer be detected, the number of times the extract is diluted it gives a grade in the scale. Then a sweet pepper, containing no capsaicin, has zero Scoville scale. However, among the spiciest peppers such as habaneros, have a rating of 300,000 or more. This indicates that the extract was diluted 300,000 times before the capsaicin was undetectable. The major weakness of this method lies in its imprecision, because the test is subject to human subjectivity.

The degree of spiciness of any pepper, as shown in the scale in “Scoville units,” is imprecise, because the own species have variations, which may change by a factor of 10 or even more, depending on the crop, the weather or even the breeding ground (this is especially true of habaneros).

Image taken from Ceyennepepper.info

For more information about the Scoville Scale click here.

Yellow, orange or red, these little roughly one-inch peppers from the Caribbean have an irregular shape and are named because of their resemblance to Scottish tam o’shanter bonnets. Scotch Bonnet peppers are used to make Jamaican jerk and other Caribbean dishes.

Don’t try to show off and eat them raw, which can cause dizziness, numbed cheeks and hands, and a bad case of heartburn.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

Recipe taken from Cookthink.com, for more recipes or information click here.

Enchiladas Verdes is one of my personal favorite mexican dishes.

Image taken from Univision.com

2 (9 oz.) pkg. frozen cooked chicken breast strips, thawed
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup questo blanco (white Mexican cheese) or Monterey Jack cheese
2 (10 oz.) cans tomatilloes, drained
12 oz. bottle green chili sauce
4 oz. can chopped green chilies or jalapeno peppers
3 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup heavy cream
12 corn tortillas
1-1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

prep: 30 minutes
total: 45 minutes

large nonstick sauté pan

Shred chicken and set aside. Heat oil in heavy skillet and saute onions and garlic until softened.
Beat cream cheese until smooth and add heavy cream. Mix well. Stir in chicken, onions, and garlic. Add crumbled cheese and set aside.

In food processor bowl or blender, place tomatillos and chili sauce. Puree or blend until smooth. Add green chilies, chopped cilantro, and 1 cup heavy cream. [p[]Soften tortillas in microwave on high heat for 1-2 minutes. Fill tortillas with cream cheese/chicken mixture, roll up, and place in 9×13″ glass baking dish. Pour tomatillo/chili sauce over filled enchiladas and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until bubbly and heated through. Serves 10

Recipe taken from About.com, for more recipes or information click here.

Poblano Pepper- Image taken from Cookthink.com

1. To prep them, first cut off the top just below the stem. This will pave the way for you to open the pepper up like a book and remove the core.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

2. Cut off the bottom, too.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

3. Stand the pepper up on its end, and slice it open from top to bottom (or bottom to top).

Image taken from Cookthink.com

4. Spread the pepper open, and pull out and discard the core and seeds.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

5. Lay the pepper flat on the cutting board and cut it into a couple of sections to make it easier to work with.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

6. Next, remove the white ribs, which can be bitter. Hold the knife parallel to the cutting board and slice them away.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

7. Now cut the clean pieces into any shape you like. Rotate the square pieces back and forth as you slice to make irregular or triangular pieces. This cut is good for stir-frys.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

8. Regular cuts are good for soups and salsas. Cut the sections into strips of any thickness you like.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

9. To make a dice, rotate the strips 90 degrees, and slice them crosswise.

Image taken from Cookthink.com

Information taken from Cookthink.com, for more recipes or information click here.