Hot Chili Peppers: How to Cook & Handle Them

There are thousands of web pages devoted to the cooking and handling of hot chili peppers.  The "hot" in chili peppers come from the chemical capsaicin .  Capsaicin is an irritant which causes a painful burning sensation on skin, eyes, and mucus membranes.   It's especially nasty in the eyes and airways.

So why would we even bother to eat these beastly fruits.  In food,  when properly cooked,  the right amount of chili pepper produces a hot sensation in the mouth (and nose)  and creates a euphoria probably due to the release of endorphins in the brain.   It is this good, warm feeling that pushes us to endure the dangers of handling spicy chili peppers

Handling Fresh Hot Peppers

Hot peppers are pretty safe when they are whole and not damaged or crushed.   Once you cut through the skin the dangers begin.  Touching the flesh,  and especially the seeds,  gets the capsaicin on your hands.  Chopping fresh peppers releases capsaicin into the air which will affect your eyes and airways.  Fresh firm fruit tends to squirt when cut or squeezed so one approach is to soften the peppers slightly by heating them whole in boiling water.   If you cut them raw, cut slowly and use a sharp knife.  Open windows to allow for adequate ventilation.  If  you are using bare hands,  you don't want to touch anything until the pepper pieces are safely contained.   Also note that pepper juice can squirt on your face, hair,  arms and clothing.  It's very easy to transfer capsaicin to your hair and face from your hands - avoid touching yourself until your hands are completely clean. 

Using gloves can help but remember to decontaminate or dispose of them with contaminating other items.   A disposable head covering (shower cap) is also useful. 

Washing Hands, Clothing and Other Items.

Hand washing is the first thing to do.  Every time you touch a contaminated item,  you need to repeat hand washing.  You can transfer capsaicin to any item you touch, so it goes both ways - even the detergent bottle and faucet handle are at risk.   Capsaicin is oily and dissolves in vegetable oil.  One approach is coat the hands with vegetable oil and remove as much oil as possible with paper towels.  Then follow up with a dish detergent wash which works better than hand soap.  

Cutting boards, knives, etc. must be washed with detergent and dried with paper towels.  Spray kitchen cleaners can be used on other surfaces.   

In serious cases, clothing should be removed and washed.   Hair, head and face should be washed in the shower.   If you get it in your eyes,  use the shower to flush water directly into them.  Wash your hair several times.

Flatbread or Flat bread

Bread is an ancient food and the original form was likely flat.  The simplest formula is to make a dough based on  flour and water.  Flours are made from may crops: cereals such as wheat, maize, rice or rye; legumes such as peas, or lentils;  and starchy root vegetables such as potato, cassava,
A leavening agent,  from the Latin levare - to lift or raise, is used to entrain bubbles of a gas - such as carbon-dioxide - into the dough.   Adding living yeast,  which coverts starch into carbon-dioxide,  is a common leavening method.

Unleavened Flat Breads

Unleavened flat breads are arguably older recipes.   

Yufka , "saj bread" bread made on a saj pan. 

• Markook,  shrak,  also called sac ekmeği (saj bread) , or yufka,  in Turkish,  are made with a saj or tava , a large metal pan. Traditional village sac pans are large and convex facing up. They are mounted over a wood fire on stones, brick or metal frames.   The thin dough, also called yufka in Turkish, is similar to filo dough - see below.
• Roti -  also known as chapati, is made from atta flour - a whole wheat durum flour - and baked in a tandoor oven.   Paratha is a related bread.
• Paratha -    Paratha is made by using a roti dough and making layers by repeatedly coating with ghee and folding - creating a puff pastry effect.  Parathas can be filled with layers of potato or
  meat.
• Filo dough , called yufka  in Turkish,  is the base for many flat breads and pastries.  Filo (phyllo), leaf in Greek, is about as thin as a sheet of writing paper.   
• Börek is a class of filo-based pastries many of which can be considered flat breads.  
• Su böreği - 'water börek'  -  a thin filo-like dough (with eggs) is boiled briefly in large pans, A mixture of feta cheese, parsley and oil is scattered between the layers. The whole thing is brushed with butter and laid in a masonry oven to cook.
• Lavash - (Armenian) is soft, thin, unleavened flatbread baked in a tandoor oven.  It is common all over southwest Asia.  
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Leavened Flat Breads

• Bazlama -  is a Turkish, sourdough flatbread with a light yellow color.   A fermentation starter is added to the dough and it is left for a day to ferment .  It is baked on a hot plate. 
• Pita -  is a slightly leavened flat bread that puffs up during baking and forms a internal pocket. This is due to high oven temperature, thickness of the dough form, leavening, and moisture content. 
• Naan, or nan,  is a  leavened, oven-baked, south Asian bread.  Nan tends to be made from refined, white flour these days. Nan is traditionally baked in a tandoor.
• Sangak - from Persia,  based on whole-wheat flour,  is baked on a bed of small river stones in an oven.  
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