Some Dishes Deserve Three Different Kinds of Chilies

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Food

Some Dishes Deserve Three Different Kinds of Chilies

This thrice-spicy recipe for grilled squid from Rita's in East London features ancho chili mayonnaise, fresh red chilies, and chipotle oil.

It's a shame that the phrase "Red Hot Chili Peppers" most commonly conjures mental images of tube socks and slap bass, because it is otherwise an adorable way of describing the jalapeños, habaneros, serranos, bird's eye chilies, and other delightful capsicum that render food so tasty for those who like to masochistically douse their food in all things fiery. Whether you're an advocate of Tabasco on your eggs, sriracha on your noodles, or Tapatío on your tacos, the ways to intentionally make your food tastebud-scalding are plentiful.

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READ: This Is Why You Get Off on Torturing Yourself with Chilies

Then there are some very special dishes in the world that deserve to be emblazoned with more than one of these essential peppers. While the English are frequently stereotyped as averse to chilies—curries aside, of course—this thrice-crowned recipe for grilled squid comes from Rita's in East London.

It's easy, it's delicious, and it's probably the only seafood you can singlehandedly prepare and stomach while in a state of gin hangover.

Start with some quick ancho-chili mayonnaise. You should probably make way more than you need for the recipe itself and then keep this stuff on hand for slathering on chicken sandwiches and French fries.

Next, you'll make a simple salad of fresh red chilies, baby greens, chipotle oil, and a squeeze of lemon juice. If you can't find chipotle oil at the store, you should obviously just DIY it. Infused oils change everything. You'll be pouring it all over your pizza, too.

Clean the squid and fry it up. Throw it all together. And boom—you're a spicy gourmet, which is probably the best kind of gourmet.

MAKE IT: Three-Chili Squid

And there you go: a three-chili seafood dish that you made all by yourself in less than half the time than it takes to watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers set from Woodstock '99.

Which, if you recall, featured a rather rousing (i.e., arson- and riot-inducing) cover rendition of Jimi Hendrix's "Fire." How appropriate.