Ya... some confusion going on it seems. Chilie is a pepper. Chili is a dish. So in a literal sense you can have chilie powder made out of dried ground peppers. Now... to make the dish most in the U.S. consider chili you have to add a spice mixture know as "chili powder". As I recall Lars has a fondness for Mexico and lives in the South Western corner of the U.S. I'm not surprised that he would think of powdered peppers before a spice mixture. One of the things really interesting about his cooking is that he is doing different things with his food. Much as I'd love to sample Lar's cooking someday I'm going with Arley on the cumin. Cumin is the heart and soul of the dish we call Chili. My pot of chili often contains several kinds of hot peppers but it also takes a load of cumin. People walking into my home will exclaim in delight when I cook chili because of the fragrant cumin. I found whizzing my whole cumin seed in the blender with some tomatoes chops the cumin up pretty good. Not as good as hand chopping. My first lesson with cumin seed was to chop it up on a cutting board with a knife. Still strikes me as the best flavor. Our friends on the CF from India have recommended toasting the cumin... very good but I'm not 100% sold. The seed does require considerable cooking to release the oils that account for the intense flavor. The very best cumin I can purchase at the moment is bulk ground cumin from GFS which is a restaurant supply company. Tops even Penzey's whole seed. Still ground does not get the full spectrum of flavor so I add mostly ground GFS cumin and top note my flavor with some freshly chopped seed. Somehow ground cumin even when fresh and strong still does not have the high aromatic essence of whole seed. Chili powder often contains garlic that I've removed from my chili. Garlic is great and garlic is good but it is also sweet and not the character I want. Maybe sometimes it is alright.... I used to add sliced fresh garlic to my chili. Goodness that warms your entire body when the mood is there for it. Cilantro, in particular fresh cilantro provides an intense aromatic flavor and scent that many associate with north of the boarder "mexican" cooking. LOL!... sorry don't mean to go on so much. Chili is one of my favorite dishes. Fresh garden tomatoes are priceless if you want chili with star power. Different peppers add heat with different characters as Lars noted. Peppers at different stages of ripeness also display remarkably different characteristics. Green habeneras are not ripe but they are milder and have more tang then mature red habs. Then the amount of time a pepper cooks will change the flavor and heat profile of a pepper. My chili is tested and approved by Luna! Suppose I should admit I don't use chili powder in my chili. Not powdered peppers or any branded spice mix. Cumin and cilantro with hot peppers being part of the vegtable mix. I top coat much of my food with salt and black pepper and always do so with chili. : ) lyra

I liked the fact that there are no herbs or spices to take away from the flavor of the fruits. I also think that she used a 6 qt. basket of tomatoes because it wasn't the usual red colour and you couldn't really taste the tomatoes. Enjoy!

Better late than never? This was posted on the cooking forum by publickman. Lars' Chipotle Sauce 12 ripe (red) jalapeno peppers 8 ripe (orange) habanera peppers 2 ripe (red, yellow, orange, or combination) bell peppers 2 tsp kosher salt 1 tbsp fresh lime juice Prepare mesquite charcoal/wood for barbeque grill outdoors. When flame has gone done and heat is not too hot, place whole jalapenos and bell peppers on the grill and watch carefully, turning fairly often. Please habanera peppers on a skewer or in a grill box before placing on the grill, so that they will not fall in. Grill all peppers until outsides have become somewhat blackened. Allow peppers to cool on a platter and then store for an hour (or a couple of days) in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Remove peppers from the bag and remove and discard all stems. Coarsely chop and place them in a food mill, chinois, or wire mesh strainer, and process or push the flesh through into a bowl, leaving all skins and seeds in the strainer. Discard seeds and skins. Stir in salt and lime juice and store in a pint canning jar, preferably with the excess air removed by a foodsaver. Store in the refrigerator for up to a month, or divide and freeze part of it if you think you will not use it that fast. I use it up in less than a month myself.

Mexican chili powder is ground chilies and nothing else, but then in Mexico chile is made with whole dried chilies that are toasted and the rehydrated or else fresh green chilies. Also, cumin is not a required ingredient for chile in Mexico, although it is sometimes added in Texas, but not always. In Texas, chili is basically beef plus chilies and tends to be hotter than chile in Mexico. What passes for chili powder in the U.S. is pretty nasty to me, but that's just my particular preference, probably because of what I've had in Mexico and Texas made with fresh chilies or dried chilies. True Texas chili does not have beans either. McCormick brand chili powder is one of the worst, but you can buy Ancho chili powder from Penzeys, and it will be unadulterated. Diana Kennedy has some good recipes for Mexican chile. Chile that is made with fresh green chilies pretty much never has cumin in it. I have at least five Mexican cookbooks that I use on a regular basis, including one from Fonda San Miguel in Austin that my sister gave me for my birthday, autographed by the authors. I recently bought Pati Jinich's Mexican Table. I also always have chili sauces in my refrigerator that I make myself and they never have cumin in them. It is more common to find cumin in adobo sauce. I make a bean dip with cumin in it, but you will not find that in Mexico.