Chile Peppers Are Hot Stuff

Chile Pepper

It's fiery hot. It's loaded with vitamin C. It's the newest, most exciting taste in culinary arts across America. And it's displaced copper as a revenue producer in one Arizona county. It's the chile pepper! This firecracker of a vegetable, which gives Mexican cooking its pungency, has, in just three short years, become Arizona's hottest agricultural product. With the skyrocketing popularity of Southwestern cuisine around the country, plantings of chile peppers in Arizona have increased from a mere 500 acres in 1989 to nearly 3,000 harvested acres in 1992. In the same period, sales of peppers and pepper products have soared from $313,000 to almost $15 million. Not bad for a "mere" ingredient of salsa, a condiment now as common as catsup on both sides of the United States-Mexico border. Unrelated to black pepper, chile peppers in their many forms, colors, and degrees of heat belong to the Solanaceae, the nightshade family, and so are shirttail cousins to the potato and tomato. The genus Capsicum contains everything from the heatless bell to the hottesthabeñero; of some 20 to 30 chile species, five are domesticated, and there are dozens of pod types and numerous varieties within them. The heat comes from an alkaloid, capsaicin, produced by glands in the central tissue. If you can't stand dreadfully hot chile peppers, remove the inner soft tissue and the seeds. Seeds of Arizona's undomesticated chile, Capsicum annuum var. aviculare, were probably carried into the state by birds long after the plant evolved in central South America. Common in Mexico, the northernmost part of its range is southeastern Arizona, where it's known as the chiltepine or "bird pepper." Domesticated chiles filtered down from the Andes and Central America, becoming a favorite food of the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs. Christopher Columbus picked up the pepper in Hispaniola and took it back to Spain, and the Spanish conquerors of the Aztecs in Mexico were introduced to its merits. Legend (perhaps apocryphal) has it that Capt. Gen. Juan de Oñate carried the pepper north along the Rio Grande in 1598; sometime later the Hopi learned of it and liked it so well they gave it its own kachina, a runner named Tsil. The chile pepper pedaled along at medium speed until the late 1980s, when it took off, went east, and became the new culinary challenge to Americans everywhere. Native Seed/SEARCH and Tucson Botanical Gardens host the Fiesta de Los Chiles each October to raise funds for the seed group's work. The fiesta, says its creator, Muffin Burgess, "makes people silly. They wear red and do off-the-wall things when they attend." Imagine, if you will, more than 10,000 people getting silly, wearing red, and doing off-the-wall things during a twoday fiesta, and you will understand the power of the chile pepper!

(OPPOSITE PAGE) Patricia Myers' Rattlesnake Chili can be made with less exotic meats, including chicken or turkey. (FOLLOWING PANEL, PAGE 34) A bottle of beer flavors Candy Schermerhorn's On the Seventh-Day Chili. Food stylist Mary Seger prepared and arranged the chili photographed for this story and the following recipes.

ARIZONA'S FIRECRACKER VEGETABLE And Now for That Other Chili

In the beginning, chili was chili powder with meat. Not today. Now there's "vegetarian" chili — mostly beans and cheese — as well as chicken and turkey chili.But the true red bowl of Mexican ambrosia is still chiles and carne (meat). Into the pot goes anything from javelina to snake to roadkill.

Here are some of the best chili recipes in Arizona, which should forever relieve you from eating what newspaper columnist Sam Lowe calls his Two-step Chili: 1. Open can. 2. Eat contents. Enjoy!

Rattlesnake Chili

Patricia Myers is food editor for the Arizona Republic-Phoenix Gazette newspapers. She guarantees that her recipe will toughen anyone's hide.

In skillet, brown choice of ground meat with onion and garlic. Put in large pot or electric slow-cooker, adding remaining ingredients. In pot, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes to an hour. In slow-cooker, on low setting, cook six hours or overnight.

Serves 6.

Single Six Chili

Yavapai County's Great Pepper is fiercely moustached Al Le Barge, who chairs such event-loaded cook-offs you could forget to fire up the chili.

Brown beef in oil. Put in large chili pot and simmer with onion, garlic, and broth. Cook 1 1/2 hours. Add tomato sauce, spices, and peppers. Stir. Cook on low heat 1 hour and 15 timed and careful minutes.

Serves 6.

Terry Barkley's Every Day Chili

Terry Barkley, chef and instructor at Scottsdale Culinary Institute and L'Ecole, the institute's fine-dining facility, created this recipe calling for red wine and brandy.

Dredge beef and pork in seasoned flour and brown in bacon fat. Sauté onions and peppers. Add to browned meat. Roast and dice chiles. Toast chili powder, cumin, and cayenne pepper in dry pan. Combine all ingredients except salt and pepper in chili pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 to 2 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with grated cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, jalapeño slice, sour cream, and fresh cilantro sprig.

Serves 8 to 10.

ARIZONA'S FIRECRACKER VEGETABLE Dorothy's Crafted Cowbelle Chili

Dorothy Steinhoff of the Arizona Cowbelles creates a mean, lean red chili that employs brown sugar and vinegar.

Clean, stem, and seed red chile pods, then boil them in beef broth until chile is limp. Puree in blender. Strain, blend, and strain again. Use 28 ounces (or you can buy 28-ounce can red chile sauce). In plastic bag, shake beef, flour, salt, and pepper until meat is evenly coated. In large pot, heat oil and sauté onions and garlic. Remove from oil. Brown beef in same oil. Add sautéed onions and garlic and all other ingredients; simmer 6 to 8 hours. It's best to smash tomatoes in their juice before adding. Serves 8 to 10.

Martel's Connoisseur Bandersnatch Buffalo Chili

Larry Martel, KPHO TV's dean of news reporters, is a chili chef for all reasons: cook-off winner, judge, and the man behind home chili goof-off contests.

Have butcher chili grind the meats together, thus greatly cutting cooking time. All vegetables are ground. Onions alternate with peppers and tomatillos, with seeds and membranes scraped from jalapeños. Cumin is ground but NO chili powder is used. Cook meat, two pounds at a time, in an immense iron skillet, mixed with a cup of the ground vegetables. As each batch is done, transfer it to a five-gallon kettle on another burner. Add finely cut tomatoes with juice, then add sauce. No water; merely beef broth. By whim, perhaps a bottle of imported ale. Cook over low heat for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Serves 20.

Mad Jack's Winnin' Chili

Mad Jack is David Garner of Mesa, ramrod of the Chili Appreciation Society of Arizona. His chili takes him yearly to the Terlingua International Cook-off.

Sear sirloin or elk in bacon drippings in a pot. Set meat aside. Sauté onions and green chiles in drippings until very soft. Cook dried red chiles, including membranes and some seeds, in boiling water 10 minutes, then run through blender and strain. Add to onion mixture. Simmer 1 to 2 hours, then add meat, tomatoes, spices, and broth or water to thin, if needed. Simmer until meat is tender. Makes 1 gallon.

ARIZONA'S FIRECRACKER VEGETABLE Andy's Gold Book Green Chili

This recipe is the product of chili activist Andy Householder, author of How to Make Championship Chili and Win.

Combine first nine spices and grind them together twice. Sprinkle small amount over pork to marinate. Divide remainder into two jars. Use half to go into pork as it is stir-fried with garlic cloves in bacon drippings over medium heat. At same time, in saucepot, cook tomato sauce, chiles, onions, and beef stock to cover (or pork stock). Add a small amount of spice mix. Cook until tender. Combine in chili pot with meat. Cook slowly several hours, adjusting flavor and consistency with bouillon cubes or stock or chicken broth. About 45 minutes before eating, add a little brown sugar to overcome any bitterness and, possibly, a little spice mix. Add salt to taste and stir well. Last, add lime juice, stirring in well, to enhance flavor. Serves 10 to 12.

ARIZONA'S FIRECRACKER VEGETABLE Line Shack Chili

Dick and Carl Baker, a father and son team from Bullhead City, believe they have a better bowl of red. It's a real winner.

Brown cubed beef in greased or oiled frying pan over steady heat. Drain off all fat. Put meat into chili pot with onion, garlic, green chiles, and chicken broth. Cook for 30 minutes. Add all other ingredients. Bring to a boil, stir, then reduce heat, and simmer until meat is tender, 2 hours or more.

Serves 12.

White Chili

Hiking friend Vi Rukkila gave me this chicken or turkey chili recipe. Chicken in chili? Right on. Leftover turkey, too.

In Dutch oven or big heavy pot, heat oil on medium fire; cook onion, garlic, and cumin. Stir in chicken or turkey, then add beans, corn, and chiles. Stir chicken broth into chili with wooden spoon - this chili may scorch or stick if heat is too high. Cook until flavors blend, at least 30 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese.

Serves 6 to 8.

On the Seventh-Day Chili

Candy Schermerhorn teaches cooking at Kitchen Classics in Phoenix. This is her "most wow chili."

Remove stems and seeds from dried chiles. Simmer in beer 15 minutes in a covered pan. Fry bacon crisp and set aside. Remove all but 1/3 cup bacon drippings and sauté onions until limp and golden. Remove onions. Set skillet aside.

Remove reconstituted chiles from beer to a blender, then add enough beer to blend a thick, smooth paste on medium speed. Place paste and remaining beer in saucepan, warming until just hot. Remove from heat and add cumin, black pepper, oregano, garlic, molé paste, coriander, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf. Stir and cover; set aside.

In large, high-sided skillet, heat olive oil to brown small amounts of meat on high. (It will take about five batches.) Add bacon drippings, if needed. In a medium-hot heavy skillet, stir together dry chili powders, lowering heat and stirring constantly to brown and enrich the chile flavor. Stir into steeping beer mixture. Remove bay leaves. Combine the beer mixture, browned meat, bacon, onions, and beef stock or water into a large chili pot. Simmer slowly about 2 hours. To thicken, whisk Masa Harina into heated oil or lard with 2 cups liquid from chile, then pour all back into pot, stirring until thick. Taste, salt and pepper if needed, then simmer 20 minutes more. Hint: zap the sautéed onions with a sprinkle of Chili Pepper Vodka and the browned meat with a bit of "sippin" whiskey or a spritz of liquid smoke.

Serves 12.