Cool Chilies

Rick Bayless is to Mexican cooking what Claudia Roden is to the food of the Middle East or Marcella Hazan is to the cooking of Italy; the numero uno interpreter, the primus inter pares of expositors of this great, and much misunderstod culture of cooking.

A few weeks back Bayless brought his marvellous knowledge and skill to a specialist class at the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, East Cork, where he demonstrated several dishes ranging from the obvious ­ corn tortillas, tostadas ­ to the most unusual, including a Goat-milk caramel where goat's milk is concentrated with a mixture of cinnamon, corn syrup and rum. The result, Cajeta, is delicious on its own, and Bayless demonstrated how it could be made into a most unusual pudding mixed with sponge and fresh rasperries.

But of all the secrets he revealed, the most fascinating was his use of chilies. "If Mexican cuisine is fuelled by corn, beans and squash, it is given its spirit by chilies" he told us, and we were treated to serrano chilies with tostadas, roasted poblanos with cream, pure anchos with braised chicken, pickled Jalapeno in an escebeche and mulato, ancho and pasilla chilies in that extraordinary Mexican classic, the red mole. "Once you get used to the heat, you can find the flavours ­ because they're coming from your nose" he advised, adding "most people, their brains short out" at the prospect of all that heat.

It was interesting to learn that the common myth that the heat of a chili resides in its seeds is quite wrong ­ it's the seed pod, and its membranes which hold the fire. The seeds are hot only by association with the seed pod, and in themselves have no taste. If you are using a dried chili, then removing the seeds will not lessen the heat, because the pod has dried into the flesh and that's where the main source of heat now resides. Rick Bayless's books include Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen (Scribner), Salsas that Cook (Simon and Schuster) and Authentic Mexican Cooking (Headline). One of the very best ways of buying chilies is to order them from Cool Chile Co, who sell an enormous range of chilies along with some interesting store cupboard specials like dried avocado leaves, yellow masa harina and a good value tortilla press (£19.80, including postage).

Ask for an order form from orders@coolchile.co.uk
Their website is www.coolchile.co.uk

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text © John & Sally McKenna
illustrations © Ken Buggy