Pasilla Apaseo Seeds

Pasilla Apaseo is a Mexican chilli grown for flavour rather than fire. Fresh, it's known as a chilaca: long, slim, dark green pods that roast beautifully. Left to ripen to a deep brown and dried, it becomes pasilla, one of the backbone chillies of Mexican cooking. The name means "little raisin", after the dark, wrinkled skin of the dried pod.

The flavour is the reason to grow it. Expect mild heat with sweetness and a smoky edge, and once dried, rich notes of dried fruit and cocoa. It's the chilli that gives mole and dark salsas their depth.

It's a Capsicum annuum, so it's an easy one to grow, and it's one of our most popular varieties. Grow it for the kitchen: roast it green through summer, then dry the rest for sauces all winter.

As an annuum, Pasilla Apaseo is straightforward to grow, but if you want fully ripe pods for drying it needs a long season, so give it a good start.

Sow seeds indoors from late August to September, or from July if you can offer steady warmth with a heat mat and good light. The earlier start pays off with this one, because the pods need time to ripen to brown before autumn cools.

If you like, soak seeds for 12 to 24 hours before sowing to soften the coat, then pat them dry. Sow two seeds per cell, about 3 to 4 mm deep, in good seed-raising mix. Keep them consistently warm at 25 to 30°C. A heat mat makes that easy. Expect germination in roughly two to four weeks.

Keep the mix moist but never soggy. As soon as seedlings appear, move them into bright light so they don't stretch, and pot them on once they have a couple of true leaves.

Hold off planting out until the weather has properly warmed, usually around November, and harden plants off gradually over a week first.

Nothing come up yet? Read why chilli seeds can be slow to germinate.

Give Pasilla Apaseo full sun and shelter from wind. The plants carry a heavy load of long pods, and a gusty site slows growth and can snap branches.

It does well in the ground or in a pot of 20 litres or more. Use a free-draining mix; we grow ours in tomato mix. In cooler parts of the country, a sheltered bed against a warm wall, or a greenhouse or tunnel house, helps the pods ripen fully to brown.

Water deeply and consistently, letting the top of the mix dry slightly between waterings. Big swings between wet and dry slow the plant down. Feed with a seaweed or tomato fertiliser once flowering starts, following the label.

Stake the plant early. The pods are long, often around 15 cm, and a loaded plant needs the support.

One plant gives you two harvests. Pick pods green for roasting and cooking fresh, or leave them to ripen to a deep, dark brown for drying.

Expect the first pods roughly 90 days or more after planting out, depending on how warm your summer is. In Auckland the green pods usually start from around January, with brown pods following later in the season.

Use snips rather than pulling, as branches can tear with long pods hanging from them. Picking regularly keeps the plant flowering.

Fresh pods keep for a week or two in the fridge, unwashed. For drying, use fully brown pods and dry them until properly brittle, in a dehydrator on low or somewhere warm and airy, then store them airtight and out of the light. Pods also freeze well, sliced into portions for winter cooking.

Pasilla Apaseo is mild, at approximately 1,000 to 1,750 SHU. That's gentler than a jalapeño, so it suits anyone who wants flavour without much heat.

Heat varies a little with growing conditions and ripeness. Dried pods taste deeper and richer than green ones rather than noticeably hotter.

The appeal is the flavour: sweet and slightly smoky fresh, with raisin and cocoa notes once dried. This is a chilli for building a sauce, not for a heat challenge.

The usual chilli pests apply, and none of them should put you off.

Aphids are the most common, clustering on soft new growth. Hose them off or squash small numbers, and let ladybirds do the rest. If numbers build, neem oil is what we use. Whitefly and red spider mites can build up in a warm greenhouse or tunnel house over summer, so keep the air moving and check under the leaves.

Wet roots are the other risk. Cold, waterlogged soil or a pot that won't drain leads to root problems, so use a free-draining mix and water the soil rather than the leaves.

Check plants weekly, especially the undersides of leaves and the new tips. Problems are much easier to deal with while they're small.

Dried pasilla is a mainstay of Mexican cooking, and that's where this chilli earns its place.

Mole and dark sauces: toast dried pods lightly in a dry pan, soak them in hot water, then blend for a rich, smoky base. Keep the toasting gentle, as burnt chillies turn bitter.

Enchilada sauce and salsas: rehydrated pasilla blended with tomato, onion and garlic makes a deep, dark salsa or sauce. Strain it if you want it silky.

Stews and chilli: a single dried pod adds background depth to chilli con carne, bean chilli or a slow-cooked beef stew without adding much heat.

Fresh and roasted: char green pods over a flame or on the barbecue, peel them, and fold through tacos, eggs or rice. They're also good stuffed with cheese and baked.

Rubs: grind dried pasilla with smoked paprika, cumin, garlic and salt for a barbecue rub for ribs or chicken.

It's mild, but dried chilli dust still stings, so grind with the window open and wash up well afterwards.

Recipes from our kitchen using Pasilla Apaseo:

• Simple mole with pasilla and mulato

See all recipes