I was never a big fan of spicy food – the salsa for my tacos was enough heat for me, sometimes too much. Although I certainly ate the occasional zesty dish, I generally preferred milder, simpler flavors. It wasn’t until I started living alone and necessity forced me to cook that I began to take an interest in chilis.
What Do You Need to Know When Cooking with Chilis?
Cooking is basically nothing more than transforming food to change its properties. Often it makes it easier to digest, and sometimes additional nutrients are even released. Normally we use heat or fermentation processes for this.
Each chili variety has its characteristic flavor, and every recipe will recommend sometimes this one, sometimes that one, and often even a chili mix. But it’s not just the flavor that determines how we cook – it’s also the form in which we use the chilis: fresh or dried. Dried chilis need to be processed before eating, while fresh ones can also be eaten raw.
Today I’ll share a few simple tricks with fresh chilis that will help you easily add more color and flavor to your vegetable or meat dishes – and of course a nice amount of heat too (or a nasty one if you’re not careful!).
Spicy Food with Fresh Chilis
Salsas are probably the most popular way to use chilis in Mexican cuisine. The red one with tomatoes or the green one with tomatillos were long the most commonly used sauces in Mexican gastronomy. Although both can be made with jalapeños or serranos, there are many recipes that use other chili varieties.
For salsas, you need a fruit (usually tomatoes or tomatillos), onions, garlic, and salt. Sometimes you season with herbs or plant leaves like oregano, cilantro, or parsley – depending on the salsa, you use these both dried and fresh. There are definitely also salsas with other fruits, but those are more regionally specific.
There are even very simple salsas that consist only of pureed chilis – called “chile molido” in Spanish. For that you just need a little water and salt. This is a real classic I know from all the kitchens of my family in central Mexico – at grandmother’s, at the uncles’, at ours.
You can also use fresh chilis in dressings, marinades, glazes, and syrups – plus they can be combined with practically anything.
Adding Heat Quickly
Fresh chilis are easy to integrate. You have two options: either add them whole (with thicker stews like goulash or rice, you can leave the stem on as a “handle”), or cut them up first and remove the seeds and white membranes for more control over the heat.
The trick with whole chilis: as long as they stay intact, they only release moderate heat. But as soon as they burst during cooking – usually right when you’re trying to pull them out by the stem – the full dose of heat comes out! That can be quite a surprise.
Cooking with Salsa: Mexican Guisados
Very popular in Mexico are the so-called “guisados” – translated as stews. These are cooked in liquid, and in Mexico we use a salsa for this. Classic guisados are “chicharrón en salsa verde” (pork rind in green salsa) or “verdolagas en salsa verde” (purslane in green salsa) – names that clearly show which salsa was used.
There are countless variations with different types of meat like “bistec” (thin slices of meat) or “chuletas” (chops), but also with vegetables like potatoes, chard, or purslane. You’ll find them in both green and red versions with “salsa roja.” With this type of dish, the salsa is prepared specifically for cooking the particular dish and usually the texture is more homogeneous than the salsa for your tacos.
Rajas: Chili Strips as a Side Dish
Another popular way to prepare fresh chilis is “rajas” – nothing more than chili strips. Basically you cut the chilis into strips and sauté them with onions and garlic in the pan. Sometimes corn is added too, and there are definitely versions with meat or other vegetables – everyone makes the dish their own way. My absolute favorite is rajas with onions and garlic, finished with some crema, crumbled chorizo, and queso fresco – simply delicious!
A popular rajas dish uses poblano chilis (name: “rajas poblanas”), but you can make rajas with any chili variety. Serrano, jalapeño, and cuaresmeño are particularly popular – mainly as filling for tamales.
And you? How do you cook with fresh chilis, or would you dare to try?
