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Food : Pasilla chiles

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by JWBlue, Aug 10, 2014.

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  1. JWBlue

    JWBlue VIP Whale

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    One member of this forum must be familiar with pasilla chiles.

    Due to stomach issues I can not eat foods that are excessively spicy.

    We want to try a Mexican restaurant in our area. There is one and only one thing on the menu that appeals to me. The fajitas.

    These meat in the fajitas "sautéed in pasilla chiles" I called the restaurant and asked if the fajitas can be prepared without the chiles. I was told the meat is prepared ahead of time so it is not possible. It doesn't make sense, but whatever. I was also told that the fajitas are "medium" spicy. Spiciness is of course a subjective opinion.

    We really want to try this restaurant. Fajitas are one of my favorite foods and based on the reviews I would really like to try these if I feel they wouldn't be too spicy.

    On the Scoville scale, pasilla chiles have a rating of 1,000–2,500 which in terms of spiciness is considered mild to medium. As a reference, anything with chipotle is way too spicy for me.

    It is a somewhat expensive restaurant and would rather not go there, order the fajitas, find out they are too spicy, and not be able eat them.

    Are these fajitas going to be too spicy?
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2014
  2. Breeze147

    Breeze147 Button Man

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    I have been pondering this all day and it is quite a crisis.

    I think I have it.

    Go to the restaurant.

    Don't order the fajitas.
     
  3. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Ah Breeze, you crack me up, sometimes.
     
  4. samanthaelizabeth

    samanthaelizabeth Low-Roller

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  5. smartone

    smartone VIP Whale

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    If that's the "one and only one thing on the menu that appeals to you", I think you're sunk my friend. I love mexican food, but unlike my wife, not into the spicy stuff so I stick to tamales and that kinda fare.
     
  6. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

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    Probably means the meat is marinated ahead of time and the marinade contains the dried chiles or powder. Makes perfect sense to me, having cooked fajitas and marinated the meat ahead of time....

    The way I see it, you have a couple of options - don't go there, go there and gamble on this not being too spicy, go there but order something else & see if you can get someone else to order the fajitas so you can test the spiciness, or get some pasilla chiles or powder from a local store and try a little at home to see what you think.
     
  7. Sam D

    Sam D Low-Roller

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    Pasilla chiles are very mild. They are the peppers usually used to make chiles rellenos. Compared to chipotle peppers there is a world of difference. Why not buy one at your local grocer, then steam it and try it to see if it suits you.
     
  8. bardolator

    bardolator Lifelong Low Roller

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    ... and be grateful you can get so many kinds of fresh peppers so easily.

    Wikipedia says poblanos (commonly used in chili rellenos) are often called pasillas, so there could be an issue identifying the specific pepper they're talking about. Poblanos are milder than jalapenos but are still variable. Sometimes the ones we get around here have little flavor and no bite.

    What i wonder, though, is why you would limit yourself to one menu choice. I like some spice but my wife can't handle it. So I'll order carnitas rancheras while she prefers regular carnitas, I'll get pollo verde while she has the chicken burrito, etc. She has many mild choices at our local Mexican place.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2014
  9. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

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    We grow a few varieties of chiles & peppers and can find differences in spiciness levels from different plants (same seed packet) or different weeks during the growing cycle. Variety is fun!

    (and what confuses me sometimes is what they are raw/growing can be a different name once they are roasted and/or dried and pulverized....)
     
  10. gguerra

    gguerra High-Roller

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    Although Pasilla can be used as a substitute for Ancho in sauces and such it does not lend itself to stuffing. It is long and narrow.

    I think that Pasilla used in marinades for meat would not make the meat very spicy at all. For one it is just a marinade and does not really penetrate the surface of the meat very much and when you cook it most of it will burn off.

    There are many varieties of peppers used in Mexican cooking and the names change when they are dried as HoyaHell mentioned. Here is a web site that breaks it down a bit. When the dried peppers are extra dried they may be made in to powders.

    http://www.foodsubs.com/Chiledry.html
     
  11. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    Poblano does not equal pasilla. In fact, one is fresh and one is dried and they are different chiles. A fresh poblano, when dried, becomes an ancho. Pasilla is the dried form of the chilaca chile. Poblanos are mild, chilacas are mild-medium to medium. Poblanos are big, shaped like a spade, chilacas are narrow. Grocers and for some reason particularly Hispanic markets here always seems to erroneously label the fresh poblanos as pasillas. I've never seen a chilaca relleno. Poblano or some form of the Anaheim/California chile -- Big Jim, New Mexico, Hatch -- are used to make rellenos. This is the standard "long green chile," the Anaheim and its other-region variants (where they typically are grown with much more capsaicin, which is the heat.

    Chiles are chiles, too. Not peppers.

    Blue I have no idea half the time if you're just toying with us or some of these food things you come up with are above-board. Color me amused either way. As H2 says, some kind of chile powder likely is in the marinade and then the strips of fresh roasted/seared chiles (could be bells) will be in with the onions.
     
  12. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

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    Was that a Freudian slip? :ssst: :noangel:
     
  13. JWBlue

    JWBlue VIP Whale

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    Not toying.

    Even in the real world I ask questions most people don't bother to ask.

    Most people would rather make uninformed decisions than ask questions. Not me.
     
  14. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    lol

    I'm in the question-asking business.

    As to your original ... maybe this must-try Mex place ain't so must-try for you.
     
  15. gguerra

    gguerra High-Roller

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    There's a little more to that story..... When Columbus landed in the new world and was introduced to Chile (correct spelling is with an 'e' like the county) he automatically associated them to pepper (like black pepper). The name has stuck and the word Chile has variants as we are all aware off, Chili, Chilli etc. The British spell it with a double L .

    Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_pepper#History
     
  16. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    Chili and chile, product and produce.

    Regardless, they aren't peppers, pepper is not chile. Not that it really matters. We also call certain funky organs sweetbreads.
     
  17. JWBlue

    JWBlue VIP Whale

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    As I mentioned in my initial post, fajitas are one one of my favorite foods and the ones at this place are supposed to be the best in town. I really want to try them but like a lot of people I have dietary limitations.

    This thread gave me the information I needed.
     
  18. bardolator

    bardolator Lifelong Low Roller

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    I tend to use both spellings interchangeably, unless there's a good reason to pick one over the other. So do restaurant menus, although spelling is not reliable on restaurant menus.

    If you order "chili" around here, you probably won't find any actual chiles in the dish, just some black pepper and powdered ancho or proprietary chili spice mixture. "Chili" will contain tomato, beans, and beef. "Chile" dishes might not contain any of those ingredients. So I see a good reason to use the spelling "chili" to identify that dish. To me, however, and to many others, that fact does not mean that the other spelling is the only acceptable way to name one of numerous species of pepper fruits. Custom, more than taste or preference or even desire for preciseness, dictates such uses.
     
  19. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    As a dish or end product, chile/chili really seems to be an ethnic thing. Everyone knows what a bowl of "chili" is, well, except for those who swear it has beans and those who don't. Now chile? That's easy, and the only question is green, red or Christmas. Meat you say? Chile verde or chile colorado. No beans in chile. But you will want to scoop a mess of 'em out of the olla and eat 'em on the side.
     
  20. gguerra

    gguerra High-Roller

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    I guess this is one of those topics that is debated quite a bit. All three spellings are accepted by different dictionaries in different parts of the world. Chili with an 'i' is not used in Mexico although it is apparently used in other parts. Chilli was the original Romanization of the Náhuatl language word for the fruit and preferred British spelling according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

    http://www.eatmorechiles.com/meet.html
     
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