COOK’S TIP

By now, most of us have heard about the dreaded habanero, the hottest chile available in this country--several times hotter than a jalapen~no. It belongs to a different species from nearly all other peppers we’re familiar with (Capsicum chinense, as against C. annuum) and, like the closely related scotch bonnet pepper, it’s native to the Caribbean. The name habanero comes from Havana, Cuba, and it’s pronounced hah-bah-NAIR-o, not hah-bahn-YAIR-o.