Another favorite garden produce coming from mom’s kitchen garden is Lao-Thai chili peppers. Peppers are normally divided into three categories: hot peppers, bell peppers, and sweet peppers.
These are considered hot peppers. It could all ripen as soon as next month.
When these young chili start to turn red, they will be harvested and dried in the sun. Then they will be roasted and turn to chili powder.
Summer time seem to be the best time to cook with chili peppers, whether it’s in soup or salads.
Chili peppers contain capsaicin (the stuff that makes them HOT). Capsaicin help stimulate the region of the brain responsible for cooling the body. You would think the heat would make you feel hotter, but in reality the pepper actually help lower body temperatures.
For those interested in weight loss, researchers coming out of South Korea found that capsaicin triggers proteins that help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue and lowering fat levels in the blood.
However, they say, it is not known exactly how capsaicin might trigger such beneficial effects. (United Press International 07-28-10).
Other studies show that capsaicin can enhance thermogenesis and energy metabolism in humans. In one study, energy expenditure was seen to increase in lean young women after consuming a capsaicin-rich curry. Another study showed that consumption of a cultivar of red pepper increased core body temperature and metabolic rate in test humans.
There has been evidence that cayenne supplements can help relieve cluster headaches, heartburn, and indigestion, and even promote weight loss. But taking capsaicin for extended periods of time could lead to chronic stomach problems, kidney damage, liver damage, or nerve problems.
In this case, the best way to get capsaicin is with eating more red chili peppers! I especially like them in curry or cucumber salad.
These bright red wrinkly looking peppers are “Ghost chili”, one of the hottest chili peppers out there. Also known as bhut jolokia. I would be too afraid to try them.
According to National Geographic “A study by the New Mexico State University Chile Pepper Institute had previously revealed that the bhut jolokia, also known as the ‘ghost chili,’ has more than a million Scoville heat units (SHU)—the scientific measurement of a chili’s spiciness. The average jalapeno measures at about 10,000 SHU’s.”
Photo from Nicky’s Nursery.
7:37 pm on September 8th, 2010
As much as I like spicy food, I would be afraid to try the ghost chili. I have many chili pepper plants this year and most likely will freeze them for my sisters in NYC. You can use the leaves to cook as vegetable also, my mom used to put it in Lao soup and they were delicious.
10:22 pm on September 10th, 2010
Your sister is lucky to get chili peppers in the mail.
This reminds me of M’s mom and her tomatoes. She had a bumper crop last summer and freezes them for the winter.
7:19 am on September 11th, 2010
We mailed them to my sisters before, but it’s better when my GI Joe sister comes down to get her upholstery material then she takes it with her in a cooler. My dad does that with lemongrass also.