So, I've been away from the Hall for a great while. Mostly due to work picking up, but partly due to just falling out of the blog-reading habit. Hopefully, posting now won't offend our kind host.
I find myself in an unusual position. My wife is in the Virginia/DC area because her parents are in town from LA, and will be so for several days, and as my parents live in Richmond, it was a good opportunity for her to see all four of them. But as I have to work, and someone must watch the cats, I am at home; a bachelor for the first time in a long while. As I said, this is unusual for me, but presents me with a great opportunity.
For you see, while my wife is a wonderful lady with many fine qualities, she has one flaw. She does not like spicy food. I myself cannot get enough. So I am making a crockpot of my award winning (winning a chili cook-off in the office counts, right?) Hellishly Hot Habanero Chili:
1.5 lbs spicy turkey sausage
1 large sweet onion
3 cloves garlic
1 30oz can diced tomatoes
1 pint sized jar hot salsa
2 cans Goya red kidney beans
4 heaping tablespoons chili powder
6 habanero peppers
Un-skin the sausage, dice half the onion and mince one clove of garlic. Brown the sausage with the diced onion and minced garlic, throw it into the crockpot. Dice the rest of the onion, mince the other two cloves of garlic, throw them in the crockpot. Pour in the tomatoes, beans, salsa, and chili powder. I de-seeded and minced the peppers (which probably cut down a lot on the spicy) and threw them in the crockpot. Put it on high heat for about four hours (till I went to bed) stirring occasionally. Low heat over night, and low heat until we ate it at lunchtime. You don't need to baby it.
That's the recipe as I made it for the contest. It's not near as hot as you would expect. So this time, and because only I will be eating it, I bumped everything up a notch. More habaneros, I used Rotel hot tomatoes instead of normal diced tomatos, I used spicy chili beans instead of the red kidney beans, and I used a hotter sausage this time. It's cooking now, and I am a happy happy man.
Just thought I'd share.
10 comments:
That sounds awesome.
Try some (dried) Carolina Reapers in your next batch of chili. Wear gloves when you slice up the dried peppers. I didn't, once, and an hour after doing that and scrubbing my hands, I scratched an itch on my eyelid. I spent the next 15 minutes (no exaggeration) flooding my eye to wash out the residual oil.
The seeds I got produced fine plants with lots of peppers, but the seeds from those peppers didn't germinate. Or I don't have much of a green thumb.
Eric Hines
I have rubbed my nose after chopping the peppers before. All you can do is burn for about an hour. But, this time I had a friend point out that capsaicin is alcohol soluble. So I held a swig of whiskey in my mouth and sucked on my fingers after chopping all the peppers. Worked like a charm!
And Eric, as for Carolina Reapers, I'm not so sure. I've got a taste for fire, but I do know I've got an upper limit (I've hit it at least once before). I use habaneros because they're both a known quantity (as far as heat goes) and I really like the flavor (I do not care for jalapanos, for example). I'd be curious to cook with the Reapers, but based on the Scovilles of those things, I'd guess that more than two might be too much for my chili, and I don't know that their flavor would come through at that small volume. Is that your experience?
But, this time I had a friend point out that capsaicin is alcohol soluble. So I held a swig of whiskey in my mouth and sucked on my fingers after chopping all the peppers. Worked like a charm!
This is miraculous news. If I should overdo it with one of my favorite things, the cure is another one?
Mike, the Reapers' heat overwhelms their flavor, at least for my uneducated palette: I used them for the heat only.
In the end, if you've got the other flavors going--and your recipe looks like you do--the Reapers' heat is all you need.
A little does go a long way. Each plant I got from a seed produced enough dried pepper for a year's worth of seasoning.
Eric Hines
"This is miraculous news. If I should overdo it with one of my favorite things, the cure is another one?"
Grim, this, after all these years is one of the biggest reasons why I can't help but love ya.
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MikeD, love your chili recipe, and have a suggestion for you to consider. I know you said you don't like the flavor of jalapeno's, but if you can find it, try a 6 oz. can of Old El Paso's jalapeno relish in your chili next time. It will add an extra layer of smooth heat that doesn't show up until a second or three after the bite is gone from your mouth.
Also, I don't know how you treat your peppers when you put them into chilis, salsas, etc., but I will emulsify them in the blender before putting them in. It adds all the heat I want without making someone bite into a hunk of pepper that they may not want to bite into, if you know what I mean.
Just my .03...keep the change!
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Habaneros- you have some courage. I consume 3-6 serranos a day, but habaneros are way beyond me.
I pulverize a batch of serranos in a blender with some vinegar, then saute the batch for about 5 minutes. There is my salsa for the week. Add garlic, chocolate etc. as desired.
Mm, can't wait to try these ideas out.
Grim, I don't know that overindulging on the alcohol would particularly help with too much spicy. It WILL allow you to get the long burn out of your mouth though. The suggestion was made to me to use rubbing alcohol to wash fingers after chopping peppers, but the only alcohol I have in my house is a bottle of Jameson currently. Hence I made due without wasting a drop (which is surely a sin).
Sly, I mince my peppers very fine, and after a few hours cooking, the capsaicin blends into the chili as a whole. I've not yet encountered a chunk of anything (meat, bean, pepper, onion, what have you) that was hotter than any other part of the chili. I DID, however happen to pick up a mini-blender on my last store run as it was only $17, and will speed my chopping process immensely.
Gringo, I realize that my spicy food habits are abnormal, but I will also say, I have a very healthy respect for these peppers. I would not dare try to eat one raw, and only use them while cooking (and only in large batches of food). I ate my chili for dinner Saturday night (and actually overate somewhat, but it was SOOOOO good!). I had scrambled eggs with a scoop of chili for breakfast Sunday, and chili for lunch and dinner. And today, I will likely be having chili for dinner, and in all likelihood, I'll have one or more servings left. This makes a LOT of chili, so those peppers are pretty well diluted in all that other food.
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