All my Udaipur trips are always huge culinary and life learning lessons. Apart from great food and incredibly awesome shopping, it's also a time when I get to learn little cooking tips and tricks and ideas from my aunt, who I shall henceforth call Mami coz aunt sounds very boring.
On my last day there, she decided that we were going to carry back food for our return journey and avoid eating outside food. I complied; Mami is a fabulous cook. She made Tekona or triangular Khasta Parathas, bong style and the Besan Mirchi Sabzi typical to Mewar region of Rajasthan. I saw her peel large chilli peppers and slit them down to deseed them, pat them dry and then cook them with chickpea flour, masalas and oil.
Because it smelled so divine, we also insisted on having a spoon of it for lunch, on the side. Beautiful.
We packed it in, ate it for dinner than night and I decided it was going to become a new addition to my vegetable basket: large chilli peppers, almost like jalapenos, but more fiery. I hardly knew I was heading straight for disaster.
Back in Mumbai, I headed straight for my vegetable vendor and bought those chillies; now here in Maharashtra, chillies are usually really fiery. And I mean seriously fiery. Probably not a Bhut Jolokia but bad enough to set your palate on fire if you are not used to the heat. They are usually deseeded, filled and fried or made into Bhajjis (pakoras) dipped in besan. All fine by me but I was aiming for the Besan Mirch Sabzi. So the next morning, also the day that I was expecting guests in the evening for dinner and also had a baking class in the middle of the day, I set about washing, slitting, deseeding and chopping the chillies.
HUGE MISTAKE. I chopped about 35-40 chillies into neat little rounds and halfway through, my hands felt tingly. Well, it's hot, it'd tingle, I told myself. By the time the sabzi was ready, my hands were burning. Every finger. And I was careful enough to not touch myself with burning fingers and held them away from myself. I tasted the sabzi. Super hot. So I cut it down with some ghee tadka and whipped yogurt, making it kadhi like. For good measure, I added a Moti Choor laddoo to the man's tiffin, just in case. Later on, the man told me it was super hot and pungent but the laddoo helped.
Meanwhile, I set about checking online for remedies as the burning soon flared up to excruciating pain and the sensation was similar to how it'd feel if you held onto a boiling pot of water while it was on the flame.
Yeah. So after reading several tips and suggestions, more than 140 comments etc. I came up with a bunch of solutions, all of which I tried.
Limited Relief:
- Do not touch yourself anywhere with your hands - the burning sensation spreads.
- Water & Soap: Wash your hands clean with soap and water. This does not help. Because what causes that burning is a chemical in the peppers called capsaicin and it is not water soluble.
- Oil & Alcohol: Capsaicin is, however, soluble to some extent in alcohol and oil. Rinsing your hands thoroughly with a gentle oil like olive oil or even petroleum jelly will ease the pain a little. Alcohol is less effective than oil but may work for some. I tried olive oil - it helped a little.
- Yogurt, curds, cold milk: With their fat content, milk, yogurt and curds also help relieve the pain. Just dunk your hands in a bowl of either product and sit down with them in front of the TV for a while. It eases the pain. I tried it. It helped with temporary relief.
- Toothpaste: This is something I do in case of real burns from hot surfaces or oil - never on an open wound though. Dab a white fluoride based toothpaste, leave it there for a few minutes, wipe, rinse, repeat until the burning subsides. I tried this. Good for temporary relief.
- Coconut Oil: I finally called Mami after enduring seven hours of severe burning (yeah, it took that long) and confessed what had happened to her. I expected her to laugh or chide me or say something that would make me feel really foolish but guess what? She told me that it happens to her too, not every time but sometimes if the chilli is too fiery, something that she noticed happens in the monsoon, her hands burn for ages after. The day she made the Sabzi for us was one such day and her hands burnt all day, all night but self corrected by next morning. I was appalled. I asked her why she didn't tell me. "What is there to tell, you just deal with it." I don't get women, sometimes. She suggested slathering the hands in coconut oil and letting it stay for an hour or so. Sadly, I did not have an hour and had lots of cooking lined up.
What To Not Do If Your Hands Have Chilli Burns:
- Creams: Stay away from these unless you have a masters in pharmacy or something. Because some creams will just dislodge the capsaicin and spread the burning to other areas. I tried this and instantly regretted it. The only cream I recommend is Kailash Jeevan, which is Ayurvedic and helps. People on Twitter who have been through similar ordeals suggested applying the Calamine solution with a wad oc cotton to ease the pain and burning. I did not have access to this that day, unfortunately. There is another burn curing cream/gel called Silverex, which apparently helps.
- Hot spices: If your hands are on fire, touching spices that add heat or pungency to your food will only worsen matters for you. That day, I had no choice but to work with ginger, garlic, cinnamon, black pepper, cloves etc. and quickly learnt that things can only go downhill from there. Keep off those if you can.
- Heat: Stay away from heat. By that, I mean forget about hot water baths, working near the flame, working with the oven etc. Heat can worsen the burning sensation in a huge way and keep it going for longer than it would have otherwise.
Prevention
- Oils: If you are not super sensitive to chillies and do not easily get burnt by handling them, very unlike me, just rubbing your hands with a little oil will prevent the capsaicin from clinging on to your skin. However, slippery hands holding knives are lethal so this is something I personally will not do. Then again, it is up to you.
- Gloves: Surgical gloves, vinyl gloves, latex gloves. Put those to use. I know people who will never go near a chilli without a glove. I am planning to join that club at least as far as large chilli peppers go.
- Quit chillies: Because if a certain species of them gives you so much grief, I hardly think it is worth it. I will be making my mom's Besan Shimla Mirch (which uses green capsicum) and it is yummy, not super hot and just as tasty. Recipe will be put up soon.
In conclusion, it took all of 13-14 hours for the burns to subside eventually, given how I made all the daft mistakes I have asked you to avoid (cooking, baking with burns, applying cream etc.) but I'd sleep it out next time. Better knocked out that sitting with hands on fire all day.
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