Chili Powder Red (Regular) Fine. Chile pepper - Chili pepper - Chilli pepper. Dried chilies can be used whole in curries and almost any other kind of slow-cooked liquid, as the flavour seeps out and flavours the food. A variety of ground chiles are available to be used in a wide range of curries, sauces, pickles, chutneys and pastes.

Medicinal Properties: Aside from their eye-opening flavour, perhaps the most surprising feature of chile peppers is their vitamin C content: 91 milligrams in 1/4 cup of fresh chilies. Though we don't eat chili peppers in large quantities, the amount of vitamin C is still significant.

Red chiles are full of beta-carotene. The nutritional aspect of hot peppers most interesting to researchers today, however, is capsaicin, the compound that gives chiles their ''burn.'' Capsaicin seems to have a positive effect on blood cholesterol, and also works as an anticoagulant.

And the ''high'' that some people experience when eating fiery chile-spiked foods is a perfectly safe one: Some scientists theorize that in response to the discomfort produced by the chiles' ''burn,'' the brain releases endorphins, substances that, at high levels, can create a sensation of pleasure.