terminology question: chili pepper, hot pepper, hot red pepper ?

Chile/chili is not used consistently. When reading a recipe, you need to carefully look at where the author lives (as that impacts usage) and the cuisine of the dish.

I use the word chile to refer to the pepper pod. Chili is the meat stew. Chili powder is the spice blend for making the meat stew. That's not a universal conceit but can be a helpful way to look at usage in the US.

If the author is cooking Indian/Thai/Mexican from a traditional perspective, they'll mean a pure ground chile powder, only ground chiles in it. They'll often specify which type, or a couple of types for different heat levels/flavors. Often cayenne pepper is meant as that's the common chile/chili powder for English speakers outside of the US.

If the author is from the US and cooking in a modern casual home cook way, they usually mean the chili powder spice blend.

If the author is from Europe or other English speaking countries, it's usually the chile flakes/powder, not the spice blend.

Red pepper is usually cayenne pepper as a powder. Red chile tends to be flakes in my experience. But they usually specify flakes or whole dried pods if that's what they mean.

Quote:

Originally Posted by siduri 

I know there are tons of kinds of hot peppers, but are they all called chili? 

 

thanks

 

In general, no they are not.. at least in America that is.  As phatch said... they are all generically called "chile", with an 'e'.  Chili with an 'i' is a concoction (prepraration) that uses chile in the sauce... and there are many regional varients of chili too.

The various chile peppers have very different characteristics.  A good resource to learn the differences is almost any one of Rick Bayless' books.  He describes the various names under which each chile may be called in various regions and describes the differing characteristics in the glossary or ingredients section.  I think his earlier books did this more effectively than the later books.  The best, though, is a small paperback that I can't recall the title of, which was focused on the variety of Mexican salsas.

Guajillo is nicely dark dried mexican chile with a good flavor and pleasant heat (to my taste anyway which runs to the medium-mild). Remove the seeds and stems and crumble up. I don't know if you can get them over there. Should be available online though shipping will not be optimally priced

The Guajillo that phatch mentions is by far the most useful chile of all that are used in Mexican cooking.  The heat is moderate and the flavor is rich.  I even grind them into flakes and use as pepperoncini for my Italian cooking.

The darker, less hot, and very tasty chile powder you describe sounds like it might be an Ancho chile powder (dried pasilla chile).  That is a very rich tasting chile that I like to blend with the Guajillo when making chili (with an "i").  Ancho has become quite popular in the past few years.  The other alternative might be Chipolte, which  is a dried and smoked jalapeno.  Chipolte is quite noticably smoky tasting.  I'm thinking that you have some ground Ancho.

Sometimes, though, what is sold as "Flaked Chile Pepper" here in the US is roughly ground "California" or "New Mexico" chiles.  California is generally milder than New Mexico.  They are the type famously grown around Hatch New Mexico.  Like Guajillo, they are decent general-purpose chile but the flavor is now quite as bright as the Guajillo.  When old they tend to change from bright-ish red to a dark-ish brown.

One correction, Brian, which probably resulted from your mind running faster than your fingers (doncha just hate when that happens ):  Ancho is the dried form of the poblano. Adding to the confusion, of course, is that ancho and poblano, more and more, are being used interchangeably---just as people use the term chipotle as if it's a separate variety.

Siduri, to answer your basic question, yes. In the U.S. at least, "chile" is used generically to describe all hot peppers. The red pepper flakes you remember were Cayenne, but, nowadays, other chiles are used, noteably New Mexico. In theory, the variety should be marked on the jar, but it rarely is. And you have to watch brands, because many of them contain more seed than pepper flakes, which can significantly affect flavor. Usually price point can help determine quality, but that's not always the case.

Labels are really important with it comes to chile powder, too. Most chile powder is a blend that includes one or more types of chile peppers (cayene is the usual choice) along with garlic powder, salt, and, sometimes, other ingredients. If the product name includes more than just the word "chile," however, there's a greater chance of it not being a blend. For instance, if the jar says "Ancho Chile Powder," it's more likely to contain just the ground chiles.