Everything you ever wanted to know about chiles and then some!

Another strong recommendation for this excellent book | The Complete Chile Pepper Book: A Gardener's Guide to Choosing, Growing, Preserving, and Cooking | Dave DeWitt, Paul W. Bosland

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	• The Complete Chile Pepper Book: A Gardener's Guide to Choosing, Growing, Preserving, and Cooking Dave DeWitt, Paul W. Bosland Timber Press, 2009 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The "Complete" in the title says it all!!

As an amateur gardener, avid cook and, most importantly, a spicy food aficionado, this book really has it all for me. Reading this late in November made me ready to pull out the seed catalogues and start preparing for spring. The authors provide a wealth of information on the subject of chili peppers. The first portion of the book is devoted to gardening. Without turning into a general gardening book, enough basic information is covered to assist the new gardener. I especially appreciated the in-depth description of pepper varieties, both for spring gardening choices, but also for produce shopping.
In addition to a lot of great gardening information and inspirational photography, it provides botanical information, as well. The graphics and charts really contribute to the very readable quality of this book.
But, my favorite part of the book is the recipe section. A number of easy, unusual recipes are included. The pepper infused vodka is so superior to anything you can buy at the store and was a huge hit at Thanksgiving when I used it to make my marinated cherry tomato appetizer! I brought the Double Trouble chocolate truffles to a party and they were the focus of conversation while they lasted! My family's favorites, so far, are Pasta with Green Chile Pesto and Thai Chile and Artichoke Pasta. But, I have a lot more on my list to try. In addition to recipes, a lot of good information is provided on preservation, including candied peppers, salt substitutes, pickling and canning.
A comprehensive glossary, bibliography and resource list provide even more information.
I appreciate having a book in my collection that covers all aspects of peppers. I know where to turn now for gardening questions, and, of course, really interesting recipes!

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Everything you ever wanted to know about chiles and then some!

If you are a chile lover this book is for you, even if you don't plan on growing any. The first part of the book is very complete with about everything you could ever want to know about growing chile peppers, even going into depth on the various kinds of mulches. It even has a section on chile bonsai. Never had a garden? No problem. You will find information on everything from planning, planting and even disease and pest control. Already a gardener and want to know more? How about grafting or hybridization? Want to try growing your peppers using hydroponics? It's covered in this book.

Have you ever thought about juicing your hot bounty? Not only is there a section on using your juicer there is even a chart giving you juicing results which lets you know about how many chiles you will need for however much juice you want, and it lets you know how hot it will be. Or maybe you want to make your own chipotles?. There are recipes for chutneys, flavored oils, and even candied capsicums along with the more usual hot and spicy dishes and they are all accompanied by beautiful photographs that make you want to get into the kitchen and cook.

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Another strong recommendation for this excellent book

This is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in growing, cooking or eating chiles. The other reviewers have done a great job describing the contents and the appeal of the book, and I endorse everything they've written.

Dave DeWitt is known as the "Pope of Peppers" and together with his wife Mary Jane Wilan has established the National Fiery Foods Show. Their website is a great source of information on chiles, including a daily recipe. Here's an example:

The "jerk" in jerk pork is a spice mixture that was used to preserve meat before refrigeration. It was developed by the Awarak Indians, and later refined in Jamaica by runaway slaves known as Maroons. These days, the spices are used to season meats for barbecue and to tenderize rather than to preserve. An inexpensive smoker or a covered grill can be substituted for the traditional jerk pit, and is a lot easier than digging a pit in your yard. Note: This recipe required advance preparation.

Serves 6

Paste:
*3 to 4 Scotch bonnet chiles, stems and seeds removed, chopped
*1/4 cup chopped green onions, including some of the greens
*3 tablespoons crushed allspice (piemento) berries
*3 tablespoons fresh thyme
*3 cloves garlic
*2 tablespoons grated ginger
*2 tablespoons lime juice, fresh preferred
*2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
*2 bay leaves
*3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
*2 teaspoons ground cardamom
*1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
*1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
*1 teaspoon salt
*3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil

*1 3 to 4-pound pork butt or loin roast

Methods/steps

To make the jerk paste, either pound the ingredients together using a mortar and pestle or place them in a blender or food processor adding the oil to make a paste.

Place the roast, fat side down in a non-reactive pan. Make slashes in the pork about 1½ to 2-inches apart and almost through the roast. Rub the jerk over the meat, making sure to get it throughly into the slashes. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

Remove the pork and bring it to room temperature.

Prepare either the grill or smoker. If using a grill, be sure to use a pan under the pork to catch the drippings. Smoke the pork for about 2 to 3 hours, turning the roast every 30 minutes to insure even browning. Cook until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 150 degrees.

Variations: Substitute lamb chops, chicken, or rib steaks for the pork.

*****

I found the hundred pages devoted to cooking with chiles very enlightening and I'm sure they will improve a number of our dishes. Amazon recommended this book because I purchased The Great Chiles Rellenos Book by Janos Wilder. They are actually complementary books, and will enhance any cook's understanding of how to use these excellent vegetables.

Robert C. Ross 2009

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An outstanding survey

The Complete Chile Pepper Book: A Gardener's Guide to Choosing, Growing, Preserving and Cooking provides detailed profiles of the 100 most popular chile varieties, from growing them and handling diseases and pests to harvesting and producing recipes. Thus this mix of gardening and culinary lore is a fine pick for libraries strong in either genre, offering chili fans 85 recipes that make use of each pepper's unique qualities. An outstanding survey.

If you like it hot...

This is the most comprehensive chile pepper book I've seen. It caught my favor right away because it had a picture and description of the malagueta pepper, a small chile pepper that grows wild in Brazil and a species which a friend of ours gathered and brought to us as a present from his country. It was fun to find this chile pepper in the pages of my book!

Since I've always loved to grow a variety of hot peppers in my garden, I truly love the comprehensive advice in the gardening section. I can't guarantee I'll use all the advice, but I'll sure check back to see what I've been doing wrong with my pepper plants in the past. There is a section that has diseases and pests, which I hope only to see in the book and never on my plants.

The pictures are fabulous. One section of the book names the top 100 chile peppers for the garden. It's very easy to identify the different species of chile peppers from those large, clear, and colorful photographs.

For any food connoisseur, you'll be delighted to know that there are about 100 pages of mouth-watering recipes, each with a huge photograph to show you what it is you'll be making. The flavor, I'm afraid, you'll have to taste yourself.

At the back of the book is an extensive bibliography, glossary and list of resources. I can't imagine any chile pepper lover who would not be able to find the answer to his question about this spicy vegetable in this book or be directed from it to the appropriate resource.

There are only two quite minor things I did not like about this book. One was that the type seemed a bit small. That may be my aging eyes, though. The other thing was that I received my copy of this book in November - just as the last of my chile pepper plants died off from the cold. Now I'll have to wait until the spring to do more chile pepper gardening as I don't have anywhere to grow these plants inside my house.

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Chile peppers are hot -- in every sense of the word. They add culinary fire to thousands of dishes from a variety of cuisines and inspire near-fanatical devotion in those who have succumbed to their incendiary charms.

In this comprehensive book, world chile experts Dave DeWitt and Paul W. Bosland have assembled all the information that anyone with an interest in chile peppers could ever hope to find. Detailed profiles of the 100 most popular chile varieties include information on how to grow chiles; how to diagnose and remedy problems, pests, and diseases; and post-harvest processing and preservation. The book culminates in 85 mouth-watering recipes that make brilliant use of both the characteristic heat of chile peppers and of their more subtle flavor qualities.

Want to know what the hottest chile pepper in the world is? You'll find it in the fascinating story of 'Bhut Jolokia', acknowledged by Guinness World Records as the fieriest chile on earth. Confused about the identity of those chile peppers you bought? The authors' clear photographs and precise descriptions will clear up the mystery.

The Complete Chile Pepper Book is the only guide to chiles you'll ever need. It's a scorcher.

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