Chilli padi, as it is fondly known in Malaysia, is one heck of a firestarter!1. Watch out for these, preferably wear gloves whilst cutting them up! They really burn! However, if you do handle them by mistake, try rubbing the afflicted area with salt to reduce the burning sensation!
2. These tiny little fiery chillies point downward from the plant and their colors change directly from green to red.
3. Although small in size compared to other types of chili, the chili padi is relatively strong at 50,000 to 100,000 on the Scoville pungency scale.
4. The seeds and white pith of a chilli are the hottest part, so remove them if you don't want your dish to be too fiery.
5. As a rule red fresh fruit are two or three times hotter than green fruit, and dried pods are up to ten times hotter than fresh pods!
Reference: BUUUUURRRRNING Hot!, Wikipedia, TheTipsBank
3 comments:
Hi Lynn, Are these anything like Indian "ghost" chilis which I've only read about? They actually look quite a bit like some peppers from non indigenous pepper bushes we used to have in SW Florida - until a freak, quick freeze hit in the 80's. When I was a child, an older kid told me that only the red ones were hot (reds and greens grew side by side, and in small clusters), and he pretended to eat a green one. I tried one of the, and I almost went into shock. I'll only consider the red if it's used sparingly in some sort of casserole.
Heya Karl,
nah, they're not the ghost chillis, those are the ultimate scorchers! Just thinking of tasting one is terrifying to me, I do not think I would be able to handle it!
These chilli padis are actually Bird's eye chili peppers, very very hot but nowhere as bad as the ghost chillis!
Scoville ratings for chilli padis are 100,000 - 225,000 Scoville Heat Units whilst the ghost chillis (called Naga Jolokia peppers) are 855,000!! almost 8 times spicier than the bird's eye ones! Here's the link to the Scoville ratings! grin*
http://www.chilliworld.com/FactFile/Scoville_Scale.asp
Hi Lynn,
855,000 Scoville units - Yikes! I had just a little bit of ghost pepper from India when the owner of an Indian restaurant had me come into the kitchen and eat what he and the cooks were having for dinner. I thought I was pretty macho about being able to handle spicy Mexican dishes - even habaneros, but this one spicy lentil dhal dish was almost deadly. The nerves around my mouth went into shock for a while, and my tongue and lips went completely numb ... until a gradual burning began, and increased logarithmically in intensity. I grabbed for some ice water, but the Indians yelled "no!," and had me put a few teaspoons of sugar in my mouth while sipping some warm tea. It took a couple of hours before my mouth felt anywhere near normal. Unfortunately, and forgive my indelicacy, I could feel the peppery contents of my Indian meal quickly taking turns in my intestines. I ended up "getting rid" of the meal in the middle of the night, but in several, painful installments - and screamed a bit into a rolled-up towel in those late night bathroom visits. I can only speculate that the experience is the closest thing a male can approximate to a woman's experience with childbirth.
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