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If heat equals strength and this is the World's Strongest Man Contest, the habanero chile can lift an 18-wheeler. The serrano can lift a VW van. The jalapeño can lift a Vespa, which is still pretty powerful compared to the pepperoncini lifting a Big Wheel way down at the bottom of the Scoville scale. But there is much more to a chile pepper than its brawn. Different varieties have different flavors, colors and shapes and play different roles in cooking. Here’s a breakdown of three popular varieties. The habanero: Lantern-shaped and bright yellow or orange, the habanero is the hottest chile that is readily available in U.S. groceries. You can seed habaneros to lower the heat, but when working with them, wear gloves and keep your hands away from your face. Wash anything that touches the chile's seeds or juices. The habanero's floral, tangy flavor works well as the focal point of a dip. The serrano: Looks like a slender jalapeño. As it ages, it turns from green to red to yellow. Rich and potentially blistering (though sometimes fairly mild), serranos show up most often in salsas, marinades, sauces and chilis. Its size and shape make the serrano difficult to core and seed, so the best way to temper it is by using less of it. The jalapeño: A workhorse pepper that is easy to find in most grocery stores. It's easy to work with, too. If you have a moderate tolerance for heat, you should be able to handle a jalapeño without removing the seeds and ribs. (If you're less tolerant of heat, try taking out the seeds and ribs.) Jalapeños are dark green (red when extra ripe) and have a sweet flavor that is similar to a bell pepper with a kick. Reference: Help! I ate a hot pepper! (Cookthink) Reference: How to seed a chile pepper (Cookthink) Reference:: Why are some jalapenos hotter than others? (Cookthink)

How do you pronounce quinoa?

We too have made the perfectly reasonable mistake of asking for "kwuh-NO-uh" and "KWIN-wah". But the correct pronunciation of this "pseudocereal" is "KEEN-wah". Recipe: Lemon Quinoa With Asparagus And Feta (Cookthink) Recipe: Simple Quinoa (Cookthink)

How to seed a chile pepper

Most of the heat in a chile pepper -- whether jalapeño, serrano, habanero, or another -- comes from the white ribs and seeds. Removing both reduces the chile's heat and allows more of the pepper's flavor to come through. First, cut the pepper in half lengthwise. If you want the halves to stay intact for larger slices or a large dice, just trim out the seeds and ribs, cut out the stem, and slice the pepper as thick or thin as you like. Otherwise, it's easier to get the seeds and ribs out if you cut each half in half again. To get the seeds and ribs out, hold each quarter by the end. With the knife parallel to the cutting board, slice across the ribs and seeds. When you get to the top of the pepper, turn the knife downward toward the cutting board and chop off the stem with the same motion. (Here, we used a Granton Santoku knife; you may prefer a smaller paring knife.) Reference: Help! I ate a hot pepper! (Cookthink) Reference: How to seed a chile pepper (Cookthink) Reference:: Why are some jalapenos hotter than others? (Cookthink)

What is a spice paste good for?

You want to add some flavor to a cut of meat. Why use a spice paste over a marinade? First of all, you need time to marinate, time you may not have unless you've planned things in advance. Because a spice paste clings to the meat and forms a crust when you cook it, you don’t have to give it the waiting time you do a marinade. (You could rub a spice paste on a couple of hours ahead of time, but you don’t have to.) Once cooked, the pungent, textured crust contrasts the plain, juicy meat. Unlike a marinade, which evenly coats a cut of meat and results in a consistently flavored finished dish, the spice paste comes with surprises: a cluster of ginger here, a nugget of garlic there. The formula for a spice paste is simple: a few ground spices + puréed aromatics like ginger, garlic, chiles + salt and pepper + just enough oil to hold it together.

What is quinoa?

Technically a fruit of the Chenopodium family, quinoa packs more protein than any other grain, yielding more than twice the protein of rice and five times more than corn. Quinoa is high in lysine, an amino acid widely deficient among vegetable proteins, and is a good complement to the amino acid structure of most legumes, being naturally high in both methionine and cystine. It has less carbohydrate than any other grain beside corn, and a 6% fat content which gives it a pleasant nutty flavor. In Peru and Bolivia where most of the quinoa in the world is cultivated and eaten, it is boiled whole, like rice, ground into flour for breads and cakes and simmered as a cereal. The leaves of the plant are eaten as a vegetable. The stalks are burned as fuel, and the water leftover from washing the grain before it is cooked is used for shampoo. The quinoa plant is extremely hardy, thriving in agricultural environments where corn and wheat normally perish. Cultivated in the U.S., mostly in Colorado, quinoa continues to grow year after year in the Andes despite low rainfall, sub- freezing temperatures, high altitude and poor alkaline soil. Its only drawback is the laborious processing it requires once it is harvested. The small round seeds of quinoa, which resemble something between sesame and millet, are covered with saponin, a bitter resin, which forms a soapy solution in water. In order for the quinoa to be edible, the saponin must be removed by washing the grain in an alkaline solution. By the time you purchase quinoa the saponin is largely gone, but it is a good idea to wash quinoa well before cooking to insure that no bitterness remains. Before processing, quinoa seeds are brilliantly colored raspberry red, dark violet, blue black or burnt orange, but once the saponin is removed all quinoa is a uniform pale yellow (with the exception of red quinoa). Each flat disk-shaped seed is framed with a white band around its periphery. During cooking, this band unravels into a tiny sprouted spiral, giving quinoa a beautifully textured appearance and a chewy resiliency. Quinoa's mild flavor has an affinity to everything from onions and mushrooms to sugar and cinnamon. It is equally good as a side dish, a stuffing or baked into bread and is a good substitute for rice in rice pudding.

Do I need to rinse canned beans?

Yes, it's always a good idea. Why? Most canned beans are packed in a thick, salty liquid that adds unwanted texture and taste to a dish. Like many other canned foods, beans also contain a popular color preservative called calcium disodium EDTA. No bad side effects of the compound have been identified (though EDTA did have a role in the O.J. Simpson murder trial). To wash canned beans, just pour them in a colander, rinse well with cold running water, and swish the beans around until most of the water drains off. If you don't use the whole can, toss the remaining beans with a splash of vinegar to preserve them longer. Store them in an airtight container (not the can) in the refrigerator for up to a week.

How to peel ginger

Ginger's brown outer peel looks tough, but it's not. It's so thin and light that you don't need a knife or vegetable peeler to peel it. To start, break or cut off the the amount of ginger you need. Slice off any small protruding limbs to make the main piece easier to peel. Hold the piece of ginger in one hand. With the tip of a spoon, scrape away the ginger's peel. You'll be surprised by how little effort it takes to remove it. Because spoon tip is dull, it easily takes off the soft peel without wasting much of the aromatic flesh. Once you've peeled the ginger, you're ready to prep it further. Reference: How much is a thumb of ginger? (Cookthink) Reference: How to mince ginger (Cookthink)