How do You Grow Tien Tsin Peppers
These chile plants are raised from seeds, and in the early spring, they are sown roughly 12″ apart and 14″ deep. They begin to sprout after about two weeks, and they thrive when the temperature at night is between 60 and 65 degrees. Tien Tsin chiles take approximately 80-100 days to fully mature. These green chiles are harvested when they reach their distinctive bright red color, which occurs on Tien Tsin chile plants, which produce relatively small yields. Although originally from China, Tien Tsin Chiles are now also grown in the US.
Ours are grown in China because we think that native spices, including Tien Tsin peppers, are of the highest quality.
These chilies seem extremely hot in Chinese food. How hot are Tien Tsin peppers really?
Despite their appearance, they are only at the high end of the medium Scoville scale when compared to other chilies. When compared to Thai peppers, they have a similar floor (50,000 Scoville heat units, or SHU), but their ceiling only rises to 75,000 SHU, whereas Thai peppers can reach 100,000 SHU. The Tien Tsin is six to thirty times hotter than a jalapeo, which serves as our standard. That’s nothing to be sniffed at, but it’s not even close to the intensity of a habanero.
Tien Tsin chilies are frequently used whole in recipes, with the seeds still present, so why do they occasionally taste surprisingly hot? And a large portion of a chili’s heat is found in both the membrane and the seeds. When the seeds and membrane (or pith) are removed, the intensity of the spice significantly decreases. As a result, when you bite into one of those Chinese red peppers in your stir fry, you experience the pepper’s full potential for heat.
Cayenne chilies are going to be your best option if you’re looking to replace crushed or ground chilies because they frequently come in this form in big, stocked traditional grocery stores. They are typically milder, but they will work in a pinch. You could always crush or grind whole árbol chilies yourself and use those as a replacement if you have any on hand. Try to find the freshest, brightest-looking cayenne chili powder you can if you use it, as the flavor and color tend to deteriorate the longer the powder sits.
Before using, the chilies are typically toasted in a hot, dry pan or comal in Central America. In Asian kitchens, this is not a common practice, but sizzling the chilies in oil, either before adding them to a dish or as part of the stir-frying process, frequently produces a similar effect.
Nomenclature is something of an issue for this pepper. A number of very similar small hot chilies are sold under numerous similar or identical names, and these names are influenced by variations in language, location, and marketing. Consult the “Types and Varieties” section below for clarification on this. Despite the confusion, these different chilies have a lot in common in terms of flavor and level of spice, and you can use them pretty much interchangeably.
Chinese chilies are a widely used hot pepper that can be used in a variety of dishes to add a sharp, clean, slightly smoky spice. They are frequently blended or crushed and used as a flavoring in salsas and sauces in Central America. They are a very popular addition to stir-fries and braises in China (and particularly Sichuan province), where they are frequently used whole. They are also popular for flavouring hot oils and condiments. They are frequently used in Japan to make powdered chili condiments like ichimi togarashi, shichimi togarashi, and nanami togarashi (or peppers that are very similar to them).
Attention: It’s probably a good idea to wear gloves if you’re going to be handling a lot of crushed Chinese chilies or a sauce or paste made from them, or if you intend on using your fingers to scrape out the seeds, to prevent unintentionally transferring the hot capsaicin to your face. Wash your hands thoroughly after handling the seeds and membranes.