purple chili peppers

I wanted a plant of hot peppers to use fresh (i don't much like them dried, when i only feel the hotness, but fresh they seem to have a flavor.)  I bought one with no peppers on it yet, and they said was supposed to be the long, thin red peppers. They were yellow, largish and deeply wrinkled (like giant dried prunes in shape and size) and extremely hot!  Then i went to a plant nursery.  The guy said yes, these were small and red and long and pointy.  They are red, but the same shape as the others.  Today i bought a plant from a vegetable stand and it had plenty of peppers on it, long (2 inches) thin (1/4 inch) and pointy - some were red but most were purple (just like eggplant color)

What kind are these?  Were the red ones on the same plant just ripe purple ones, or were the red ones unripened purple ones? 

They had a nice flavor and were moderately hot, just right.  I had never seen this color.  Is it a new hybrid? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by French Fries 

KYH, do bell peppers have ANY capsaicin at all? I thought they did not. 

Occasionally bell peppers are as hot as chilis!  Once i was making a dinner for friends and it involved slicing onions and slicing peppers.  I was tearing from the onions, and wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, and then kept weeping with the peppers.  So i said, ok, i'll rinse my -hands and then wash off my face to get all the onion off it.  It turned out that the pepper was a hot one, and i burned my face, got all red and swollen.  Onion juice rinses off with just water, but i suspect the hot stuff of the peppers is oil based (is it?) - in any case it only spread it, like water on an oil fire!  So my guess is, yes.  Most don't have much but occasionally you can get a hot one - at least here. 

My mother in law always tasted a small corner ofr each just to be sure. 

KY, thanks.  I was mainly curious about the final color and if the purple had any different flavor qualities from the red.  i usually figure red is sweet (sugar maple leaves turn red in fall, some fruits are sweeter when deep red).  But purple? 

I just saw a billboard for what is supposedly the first International Hot Pepper Fair in Rieti   in July featuring 400 - count 'em, FOUR HUNDRED varieties of hot pepper,  Here is a (bad) translation for their site.  Rieti is in northern Lazio (Latium) not far from Rome. 

http://www.rieticuorepiccante.it/eng/about-us.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by teamfat 



Yes. Drinking water to cool the heat just helps to spread it around, making it worse.like any fire! Capsaicin is a waxy sort of oil based compound, not water soluble. It does, however, have an affinity for fats. So eating a blob of butter will cool one's palate more than water. Or whole milk, for those that don't want to gnaw off the end of a butter stick.

mjb.

 

Now that's useful information!  I knew acid was an antidote, but not fats.  Sour cream would be perfect then   I rarely find food that's that hot here but I learned by experience that water doesn;t work, heard acids work (lemon juice, orange juice) but never thought of fats. I usually use bread, which is always handy.