[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s you think about ideas for your garden this year, one plant that I urge you to consider is the chili pequin – one of my favorites of the Texas perennials.
This is a plant of many names. Chilitepin is another name, and sometimes it’s called turkey pepper and even bird pepper. (Migratory birds helped to spread it from South America up to Mexico and Texas.)
Whatever you call it, this native pepper makes a great addition to any landscape. The fruit starts out green, and ripens to a brilliant red.
It also makes a great addition to any cook or chef’s culinary repertoire. To give a dish an extra special zing, add this notoriously hot pepper to chili, soups, beans, and fresh salsas. (See below for a recipe.)
As an ornamental, chili pequins can be grown in sun or shade. The more sun they get, the more water they will need.
Their leaves are a medium green, their flowers white. Seed pods are green at first and ripen to a orange-red to scarlet.
These chili plants will provide flower color and fruit color throughout the spring, summer and fall growing season.
I found a cluster of them once in the Flatonia area that were six feet tall. The seeds from this plant are populating the flower beds all over the nursery.
Pequins also are a perennial, returning after the winter. Seed germinates readily and your pequin crop will scatter everywhere. This might be good… as they can sell for up to $50 a pound.
On the culinary side, chili pequins are a spicy pepper with intense but transitory heat.
People still use the Scoville scale to measure the ‘heat’ of spices. This scale places these mighty pequins at between 30,000 to 50,000 units . . . similar to cayenne peppers.
In Mexico, the fiery intensity of the pequin is called arrebatado which means rapid or violent. The heat is great but it diminishes quickly. The following is a suggested chili pequin salsa recipe from New Mexico:
Chili Pequin Salsa Recipe
- 6 chili pequins
- 2 16oz. cans crushed tomatoes
- 1 white or yellow onion
- ¼ cup vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon of sugar
Toast the chili pequins in the oven for 30 seconds. Cool the peppers and coarsely crush. Dice the onions. In a large bowl, add the crushed peppers to the onions, tomatoes, vinegar, salt and sugar and mix thoroughly. Let stand in the fridge for a day or two.
Happy gardening… and cooking everyone!
If you have a question for Chris, send it via email to iathyme@yahoo.com. Or mail a postcard to It’s About Thyme11726 Manchaca Road, Austin, TX 78748 www.itsaboutthyme.com
