Pilipili. Peri peri. Berbere. Chiles. Chillies. Peppers.

We love it, the health benefits are plenty, and so I share in this post the different kinds I have in my kitchen.

First off, the Ethiopian berbere.  It is a blend of paprika, fenugreek, garlic and ginger among other spices.  Berbere is so flavourful and makes cooking the red Ethiopian beef stew (keywot) so easy.  Simply sauté onions and garlic. Add the berbere and water and cook for some minutes.  Then add the beef and beef stock and cook until it is done!

The other kind I have are dried chillies. These pack quite a bit of heat. I put them in a grinder with whole black peppercorns. Great for seasoning.

The kind below is most easily available here in Kenya. Slice the finger chillies (cayenne?) and submerge in olive oil. After a few days the oil is infused with the heat. A tip I got from a friend was to leave the jars in the sun for a few days.  These are the hottest of the 5 different peppers listed in this post.

It is great on pizza as well as for general drizzling over food.

Growing up, mum made her own homemade chili sauce. I attempted this for the first time recently because I fell in love with the peppers from Malawi called “kambuzi”.  In Nairobi, you can find “pilipili mbuzi” which is much bigger but it has a similar smell. And oh, what a distinct amazing aroma.

It can be sweetened by adding passion fruit or mango.  Or bulked up with grated carrots or pawpaw (papaya) if the heat is too much.

And finally we have in the fridge the pickled bullet peppers (which I believe are jalapeño peppers).  They are the ones pictured on the right.