NOTE: Making money from fire

Last weekend, I whipped up my first batch of habanero hot sauce. Home-made recipes tend to create large batches so I brought an extra bottle into work. The best quote so far from one of my Indian friends..."this is better than the stuff I buy."

I can easily see how people can make a sauce for friends and then end up producing a small product line. No grand scheme's here. There are enough hot sauces on the market. But, if I can get a small base of buyers, I might crank out an occasional batch.

J - Jalapenos

I love cooking with hot peppers.

Jalapenos are probably the most popular hot pepper due to their adequate heat level and availability at the grocery store. So, what's with me saying "adequate" heat level? Have you ever gone to a restaurant and ordered a "hot dish?" I don't mean the waitress. Restaurants like toning down heat so most anyone can tolerate even a spicy dish. For that reason, you won't find a habanero hamburger or a scotch bonnet seared steak but you will find jalapenos a plenty.

Mexican and Thai restaurants are the exception.

Hot peppers are unique in they contain capsaicin. Capsaicin is produced as an oil within the reproductive membrane of the pepper. Capsaicin bonds with all types of tastebuds on the tongue and gives the feeling of burning. The higher the capsaicin level, the more burn. Yes, people like a safe burn for the same reason they like the thrill of a rollercoaster. The best part - you get an adrenalin rush.

Long before people were busy with jobs and kids and little league practice, a man invented a means of measuring the level of capsaicin in a pepper. Mr. Scoville's methods were later enhanced with computers and high-tech wizardry and we got a nice Scoville chart for determining the heat of a pepper variety. I've listed just a few common peppers with their heat level.

0-100 Scoville Units includes most Bell/Sweet pepper varieties.
1,000-2,000 Ancho & Pasilla peppers
1,000-2,500 Cherry peppers
2,500-5,000 Jalapeno peppers
5,000-15,000 Serrano peppers
30,000-50,000 Cayenne & Tabasco peppers.
100,000-350,000 Scotch Bonnet & Thai peppers.
200,000 to 300,000 Habanero peppers.
Around 16,000,000 is Pure Capsaicin.

Note the Scotch Bonnets and Habaneros overlap.

I thought Jalapeno's were hot until I stumbled upon a version of this chart. I discovered I was a wimpy pepper eater - AND I WANTED TO TEST THE LIMIT!

If a Jalapeno is rated at up to 5,000 Scoville units, why would anyone in their right mind eat a Habanero? Beats me, I'm not in my right mind. In fact, it's a good question. Each pepper has it's own distinct flavor. I fancy a scotch bonnet pepper with it's high heat and amazingly fruity flavor. This pepper rippens as a beautiful orange or red round wrinkly pepper. As a bit of an aside, the 3000+ hot sauces available on the market blend peppers with complimentary flavors to bring an unexpected bouquet of flavor. Bouquet of flavor? Scotch bonnets, for example, might be blended with orange juice to enhance the citris flavor. Fact is, a 200,000 Habanero can have a great flavor in addition to the heat.

Peach salsa is a great way of discovering jalapenos. I found a simple recipe that called for peaches, jalapenos, red onions, cilantro, tomatoes, and a few spices. I hit the farmer's market for the fixings and then went to work. I made two amazing discovers. First, salsa tends to reduce down to about half of it's original volume within the first 24 hours of refridgeration. Second, cilantro makes a difference. I didn't have any when I made the recipe and figured it was probably just for looks. But then the salsa had a very oniony, vinegary taste - I thought it just needed more time. After four days in the fridge, the taste was still way off. Then I ran out and bought some cilantro, diced it, and mixed it in. IMMEDIATELY, the taste of the salsa changed. Gone were the strong vinegar flavors and suddenly I could taste all the individual flavors of the tomatos, peaches, etc.

A final note about peppers and heat...I love Taco Bell because it's fast and cheap. One day I found my refridgerator had every heat level of Taco Bell "hot sauce...mild to FIRE. I lined them up and started comparing ingredients. The difference between the FIRE sauce and the HOT was garlic. Who would have though garlic could bring up the heat? Enjoy you next hot dish but don't think peppers are the only way to bring the heat.

Where am I

Ye ol' blogger suddenly hit the brakes!

Life gets busy and I haven't had anything to add for the letter J until I made my own salsa this weekend. More to come on that. The pickles (I-infusion) were such a hit that my oldest daughter and I made a second batch.

Remember that stir-fry pan I was raving about? Either it was a poor quality pan or I missed something important. If I let water sit in it for an hour or so after cooking...it would get light rust. Weird. I COULD easily scrub it off but..oh, it just didn't seem like it should be doing that.

I noticed Target and Kmart stores are now selling cooking kits. Table setting for 4, a few bowls, a few pots, a few utencils, a few knives, etc. I'm not saying that I need something like that, but for those looking for a portable travel cooking kit, it's pretty cool.

Speaking of cool, OH MY, my rambling is being cut by low laptop battery power and an impending storm.

Toodles.

NOTE: Cost of Cooking

I thought our kitchen was well stocked until I started "cooking like Alton Brown." I also thought we were good in the spice department. No on both accounts.

We don't have any cast iron cookware. We don't have any metal mixing bowls - I'm a bit skeptical they are necessary since we've got the pyrex. No KitchenAid mixer, no electric hand mixer, no thermonuclear temperature scanner, no digital oven thermometer, and no stainless steel pans. If there are two spices called for in a recipe, we'll have only one in the cupboard.

Truth of the matter, my wife is 3rd generation Italian and cooks with an Italian flair. Most of her dishes are usually low in fat and generally healthy (red sause vs. white - that sort of thing). Additionally, she's not the frying type. Therefore, our meals are simplier. I have only complained about her cooking once in seven years so simple does not mean bad. She's a great cook. Here -I- come wanting to sear a piece of fish and cook omlets every day. My heart reminds me the latter should be reserved for an occasional weekend. In fact, my recent egg craze now has me completely uninterested in anything with eggs.

Ok, I'm rambling but I must ramble.

I'm experiencing high-priced cooking because I'm cooking in new ways with new items. I was eager for daily cooking experiences that would have me frying, searing, poaching, and juggling new foods. Real life kicked in and said "Chris, cook one new dish each week. The other days, just cook your standard meals - there is education in that as well."

In the meantime, if you see a guy walking with a placard that says "will work for kitchenaid mixer" wish him the best.

I - Infusion

Tea, a drink that's been around since I don't know when. Who came up with the idea? Steep water with a plant leaf and then drink it. Simple concept. I wonder how many different plant species were tried until stumbling on the tea leaf. Personally, I don't think the tea leaf was the final answer. The best tea I drink is sweet tea but that's more straight sugar-water than anything.

Marinades. Ahhhhh, food soaked in a fluid of spices and tasty liquids which, when cooked, presents a tender juicy and scrumptious...GREAT PIECE OF FOOD! Be it beef or chicken or pork, I love marinated meat. Yes, I'm sure fruits and vegetables could be marinated but nothing has ever stood out like a great piece of juicy meat.

"What the heck do tea and marinades have to do with each other," you are asking. Infusion. Infusion is the process of introducing a new flavor into an existing food via liquid. In the case of tea, the final drink is known as an infusion.

The best example of infusion is pickling. Pickling is a rather easy process. Introduce ANYTHING into a flavored water/vinegar solution and in time, you'll get pickles. Apple pickles, pear pickles, peach pickles, cucumber pickles (a.k.a. pickles), carrots, anything you can slice and fit in a jar. Alright, peaches might not be a good idea but I'm game for trying - just not today. Sunday evening rolled around and I was ready to pickle something, anything, I was ready to re-pickle a pickle!

Ever get a strange feeling of deja vu? Ah, never mind.

Introducing...the ever popular, always available, bread and butter pickles. Don't ask where the name came from, as there are neither bread nor butter in the recipe. Just me and the kitchen to produce the best tasting, worst smelling pickles you've ever seen. Here's the thing, when the wife is cooking Mexican in the same kitchen as "The Pickler," you get some mighty weird scents...BUT I WAS ITCHING TO PICKLE SO NOTHING WAS GOING TO STOP ME.

Bread and butter pickles are an infusion of water, apple vinegar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, pickling spices, turmeric, and a little kosher salt. The infusion is boiled and then simmered for approximately four minutes. Then, the infusion is poured over diced cucumbers and yellow onions, sealed, and refrigerated for a few days. As of this writing, it's been 19 hours. My best calculations put me chomping into my first homemade pickle on Wednesday evening - after work. That's another important part of infusions, time.

Time for tea, time for marinades, time for pickles, time, time, TIME. Food infusions don't allow for quick results. Most new kitchen recipes can produce a taste of failure or success within an hour or so. Infusions, instant tea not included, take more time.

The next time I write, I'll tell you how my pickles faired. And now some parting words from Arlo...

I don't want a pickle
Just want to ride on my motorsickle
And I don't want a tickle
'Cause I'd rather ride on my motorsickle
And I don't want to die
I just want to ride on my motorcy...cle

See my other blog for my pickling perplexities.