How to Heat Food Without Burning Your Taste Buds
Spicy food is an adventure of a lifetime. Even for cautious, sensitive, and decidedly non-picky people, there usually comes a time when unexpected spice appears in the appetizers at an event or family gathering—and that’s a very good thing. Fear sets in, but after that moment passes, you kind of don’t hate what just happened. The spiciness doesn’t always match the heat levels of the Carolina Reaper. There are ways to control the amount of spices in your food at home so you can use them to complement a dish and enhance its flavor. Here are some ways to try spicy food with a heat that suits your taste.
Start with chili oil or hot sauce.
Cooking with hot peppers can be a little tricky because the heat can cause capsaicin (the oil-like compound in peppers that makes them hot) to come out with greater force. Sometimes the finished dish becomes spicier with age (beware of leftovers). Instead of adding chopped fresh chilies, start with something light that you can adjust.
To get your feet wet and taste the spicy water, I suggest starting with chili oil or hot sauce. Many chili oils, such as chili chips and salsa macha, contain large dried chili pepper flakes. They can contain quite a lot of heat. However, the orange oil floating on top is soft. Simply scoop it off with a spoon and stir to add some heat to the dish. This oil has a delicious warming flavor with a hint of pepper. Later get to the “clear” part.
Hot sauce is a staple condiment found in most grocery stores. You can find sauces ranging from mild to hellish, and they usually have a few other ingredients added to them, such as vinegar, garlic, and other seasonings. It is great for applying to a finished dish, allowing you to easily control its quantity and direction.
Use these two items as finishing sauces. The finishing sauce is what you put on the plate after the dish has been cooked and served. Don’t mix it, just drizzle a little onto a plate about the size of one or two bites. Then you can taste it and assess the situation. If it’s too hot, add some real food to break the heat. Or, if you’re feeling betrayed, you can always take that piece away from your dish. If it tastes great, add finishing sauce as you go. Keep in mind that the severity tends to be cumulative. Don’t increase the temperature right away, you may regret it halfway through.
Discover fresh peppers
Freshly chopped peppers and chilies can add flavor, texture and heat to your dishes. Peppers are such a versatile fruit when it comes to Scoville units (a measure of the heat of a pepper) that they can even be used as a main ingredient. I don’t like eating whole chili peppers, but I won’t turn down a jalapeño popper.
Start adding hot peppers to your dishes in moderation and start with peppers that are known to have some heat, such as jalepeno, shishito, poblanos or serrano. (I love the visual design of this list of peppers from Scoville’s division.)
If you’re worried the peppers are too hot but still want a little heat and flavor, you can remove the hottest part. When you cut the pepper, you will see white or light-colored ribs with seeds in the center. The ribs have a spongy feel and are sometimes thick like bell peppers, while smaller chili peppers can have very thin ribs. Spicy capsaicin is found in membranes and seeds. Cut the large pepper into quarters, and cut the small one in half, take a thin sharp knife and run it between the flesh of the fruit and the rib. Toss it if you avoid most hot peppers or if they are particularly hot peppers. You can test the pepper’s heat before adding it to the chili pot by touching or sniffing a piece of cut rib to your tongue.
Adding chopped peppers to a dish will add heat to the dish, so only do it if you know yourself and anyone eating it will be happy with some spice. Chop the pepper if you want its warmth to bleed throughout the dish, and coarsely chop the pepper if you want a burst of heat to surprise you throughout the meal.
Dry Chili Graduate
Dried chili peppers are simply a dried version of fresh peppers, but may taste spicier. They contain the same amount of capsaicin as fresh, but there is no water, so the spice is more concentrated. Handle whole dried chili peppers, chili flakes, and ground chili powder with caution. If you’re adding chili flakes or powder to the sauce, add a pinch or a quarter teaspoon and let it moisten and disperse for a few minutes before tasting. From here, evaluate the spiciness level of your dish.
Whole dried chilies can be ground into flakes or mixed with other ingredients into a thick sauce, such as mole . You can add extra flavor to all dried chili peppers and chili flakes by toasting them in a dry pan or with a little oil. Do this over low heat and be careful not to burn them. The smoke will make you cough uncontrollably and you will have to ventilate the house. Once toasted, use them as an ingredient in sauces, soups, chilis, stews, fries and other dishes.
If you’re playing it safe or cooking for people who don’t like spice, you can save the chili flakes to finish the dish. As always, start with a small pinch and keep it in one place just in case.
If with all these spicy additions the dish becomes too spicy, you can warm it up a little, but it will always be a little spicy. To correct an overly spicy dish, thin it with other watery ingredients, such as a few cups of cooked vegetables or broth. You can also serve it with a healthy side dish to tone down the heat, such as pasta or rice. Capsaicin binds to fats, so if your mouth gets too hot, serve the dish with bread and plenty of butter or a cooling full-fat yogurt sauce. This will help the heat leave your mouth. (Of course, it will then head towards your stomach, but that’s all part of the adventure.)