"La chilera" - a spicy November!

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I think nobody can deny that 2020 has been a strange year, and one can only hope that things will get brighter and better in the near future. In the meantime, here in Germany we have a foggy, gray and rainy November (ugh, re-reading this just made me think of that awful cheesy Guns and Roses song!). While I do love the fall season when it's golden and sunny and colorful, my feelings are very different on days when all you see is fog... not to mention the "getting dark at 4 p.m." part, which I have never really gotten used to. 

So, to counteract this gray, rainy and generally awful weather, I thought I'd write about something warm and tropical - like spicy peppers. Back in August, I briefly mentioned my Habanero plant, which was then starting to fruit. I'm happy to report that it continued thriving, and it got a new impulse after I moved its pot into the house, where the temperature is always above 20 degrees Celsius - just like back home. 

These little peppers have no idea that it's nearing the freezing point outside...

In fact, my plant has been so prolific that I have struggled a bit with what to do with the chilis. Habanero peppers are an essential ingredient of the Costa Rican Caribbean cuisine (there, they are known as "chile panameño" or Panamanian chili), and though I'm not exactly sure whether the variety that I have is exactly the same as they use in Costa Rica (the size and shape are almost identical, but the aroma isn't), I've used the peppers in a few recipes from back home. 

One of them is a very Costa Rican thing: a "chilera". Any self-respecting Costa Rican "soda" or restaurant must have one. A chilera (it can also be called "chilero", it's gender-fluid) is basically a preparation of chili peppers and other vegetables in vinegar, with vegetables and additional ingredients (such as spices) that change according to the recipe's author. The chilera is usually kept in a glass jar, and a spoon is used to sprinkle a bit (or a lot) on food, according to each individual's taste. A Google image search shows that there are many recipes and variations - some people cut the vegetables in larger pieces, others blend them, sometimes they cook them first before adding the vinegar, etc. Mine is quite simple: an onion (or maybe a shallot) cut in small pieces, a grated carrot and 2 or 3 Habanero chilis, salt and pepper, all put in a glass jar and covered with vinegar (I think I used homemade apple cider vinegar and a splash of aceto bianco), and that's it. It's so delicious that the jar pictured below is already the second that I make - and we are a household of two!

My "chilera"

While peppers (or more accurately the active substance they contain, capsaicin) do have medicinal uses, for example to relieve pain caused by arthritis and other conditions, for now I've focused more on their culinary properties, and so I just enjoy a bit of my "chilera" (who knows, maybe it even helps keep Covid away!), and feel happy to see my plant producing - it helps me forget that it's winter outside.