Let's Talk Spicy

[schild]

Oh man, HAMMER FRENZY brought over some salsa last night. Sweet god is it amazing salsa. Jalepenos, Habaneros and something else. Yummmmmmmmeh. I think, maybe, a tiny bit too much black pepper. He won't tell me the ingredients though.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Ha Salsa of DEATH. It was good. I was eating a bunch of it just earlier. Keep the comments coming and you may get more.

FAMILY RECIPE

I am telling you, people would have to DIE.

[schild]

Btw, your new avatar is a trap. I might be the only one here who knows that.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Hahahah, True Dat.

[Sky]

There is only one kind of Buffalo sauce: Frank's Red Hot + butter. Anything else is a hot wing sauce.

Just clarifying.

Hell, I remember living in southern california in the early 90s and you couldn't even /find/ wings at a pizza joint. They'd tell us to call KFC. Had to buy a fryer, find the wings (which were very cheap because nobody ate them) and make our own sauce. So I guess it was a win. Should've ditched the band and opened a pizza joint.

[Arnold]

I think I know what's going in next years chili for the work cookoff...

OK, I like spicy stuff as much (probably more) as the next person, but I never understood this fascination with melt-your-face-off chili.

10 years ago I worked in a restaurant for a chef who was from San Antonio, and he took me to a chili cookoff/beer tasting deal.  We won first prize, and it just seemed so easy because every other competitor was apparently trying to win the HOTTEST CHILI contest, and not the advertised, best tasting chili contest. 

The funny thing was that while there were a bunch of SERIOUS chili dudes out there, really wanting to win, we were just there to have fun and get drunk.  Mission accomplished, AND we beat all the boners with 10,000 degree chili.

[Arnold]

It's not the hottest, but so good.



/not my hand

Best tasting hot sauce there is, period.

[cmlancas]

I'll post my Burmese recipe when I get a chance on break from work <3

[Arnold]

Hot chili wasabi sauce.

Link: http://anarchangel.blogspot.com/2007/08/recipes-for-real-men-volume-23-some.html

Ingredients:

4 tblsp water (room temp or slightly warm, not hot or cold)
4 tblsp soy sauce (natural brewed only)
4 tblsp vinegar based chili sauce (I use Franks RedHot)
2 tblsp pure wasabi powder blend (or 1/2tblsp pure wasabi, 1tblsp pure horseradish)
2 tblsp Chinese hot mustard powder (add 1/2 tblsp if you're using pure wasabi instead of blend)
1 tblsp vodka
1 tblsp crushed dried whole chili peppers, or fresh chili paste (choose a pepper to suit your heat)
1 tsp crushed garlic

For proper prep see the article.  Timing is important, good ingredients are really important. 

These guys are way too gay.  That sort of specificity for a hot sauce is just... you get the picture.   Non-pro cooks just put way too much belief into the array of ingredients in the recipes that are sold to them in magazines - OF COURSE they require 27 ingredients to make, otherwise you could just look into an authentic cookbook and make the same damn thing for 50% of the cost.

When I see Bobby Flay talking about some BBQ rub he made that took 7 different kinds of chiles he got from a specialty, ethnic store, I just laugh.  Give me one chile and I can make something just as good that no amateur wil be able to distinguish from the 7 chile recipe.

[caladein]

Yes, and my Dad can't really tell the difference between Disgaea 2 and Final Fantasy 12, he is a novice. (At the same time, I can't really tell you the difference between a Cross and a Mont Blanc except that Mont Blanc's are a little thicker and have that white mark on the top, I'm a novice at writing implements.)

If you're at the point that you care enough about hot sauce that you're making your own... you're most definitely not an amateur (in the derogatory sense) or a novice, you're at least an "enthusiast". To change to a different analogy... you're at the point where the VGA charts at Tom's aren't moonspeak. You're at the point that you probably could detect the difference between X and Y spice combinations.

[schild]

I'll post my Burmese recipe when I get a chance on break from work <3

Squee. Thanks!

[schild]

I think I know what's going in next years chili for the work cookoff...

OK, I like spicy stuff as much (probably more) as the next person, but I never understood this fascination with melt-your-face-off chili.

10 years ago I worked in a restaurant for a chef who was from San Antonio, and he took me to a chili cookoff/beer tasting deal.  We won first prize, and it just seemed so easy because every other competitor was apparently trying to win the HOTTEST CHILI contest, and not the advertised, best tasting chili contest. 

The funny thing was that while there were a bunch of SERIOUS chili dudes out there, really wanting to win, we were just there to have fun and get drunk.  Mission accomplished, AND we beat all the boners with 10,000 degree chili.

There's a hell of a lot of melt your face off style chilis that taste f'ing great. That's to say, some of the hottest stuff out there has great taste if you can get through the burn. But! That ghost chili probaby tastes like shit.

[cmlancas]

The Burmese Spicy Sauce -- If any of this looks fishy to you, his English isn't exactly the best, so modify it as you see fit.

2 Straws Lemon Grass
8 tbsp Tamarine Powder
1/2 White Onion, Finely Chopped
1/2 Green Pepper, Finely Chopped
1/2 Red Pepper, Finely Chopped
3 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp Thai Fish Sauce
1/2 tbsp MSG (Interesting that he said to include this, imo.)

He said in passing that Burmese food is much like a cross between Thai and Indian. I also sent him on a mission for a Burmese cookbook that I could have him translate for me, so I'll start another thread if I can find more recipes.

Edit: I forgot he said that if you like something with a little more kick, sub in something hotter. I'd recommend habaneros, but I love teh hot.

[schild]

I'd replace MSG with uhm, salt. But yea, that sounds good.

[voodoolily]

I'd replace MSG with uhm, salt. But yea, that sounds good.

Not the same thing at all. MSG is harmless (eat much ramen? or Pringles?) and really does enhance the flavor of foods in a way salt can't imagine. I keep a lid of it in my cupboards. It says "gourmet powder" on the package. 

[hal]

Ya, it will work, if it doesn't bother you. But the people it bothers it doesn't bother trivially. It makes them good and sick... for awhile.

[voodoolily]

Pussies. Just wash it down with a beer (the B vitamins counteract the effects).

[brellium]

God, you guys go through too much effort,

http://www.mexgrocer.com/1275.html, add minced peppers to taste.

[brellium]

God, you guys go through too much effort,

http://www.mexgrocer.com/1275.html, add minced peppers to taste.

and I have to do something about that sig line....

[hal]

I love you man. Let us just say I have made a new bookmark. $1.45? I Think I might

[Fabricated]

You people are insane. My dad is a cajun cook and has a taste for blisteringly hot food, I grew up eating hot stuff and I would set my head on fire before I even smelled one of these new peppers.

I never have understood the people who eat stuff so hot it messes you up. I popped one of the hottest variety of Habanero and it's like god turned my brain off with a switch. I couldn't see for nearly 6-7 minutes.

[Hayduke]

Mmm, I'm cajun myself and I'd have to say that's a misconception.  Cajun food isn't meant to be hot.  I think that hot cajun stuff came about as some bastardization of cajun food in the 80s to excite tourists who come to New Orleans (not to mention that New Orleans is not even cajun, but creole and very cosmopolitan).

[Arnold]

I'd replace MSG with uhm, salt. But yea, that sounds good.

Not the same thing at all. MSG is harmless (eat much ramen? or Pringles?) and really does enhance the flavor of foods in a way salt can't imagine. I keep a lid of it in my cupboards. It says "gourmet powder" on the package. 

Yes.  The human tongue has a taste receptor for MSG.  It's not a bad thing, people.

[Ironwood]

Ya, it will work, if it doesn't bother you. But the people it bothers it doesn't bother trivially. It makes them good and sick... for awhile.

Yup.  Like my mother.  It goes for her like a tiger to the throat.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Hahah... El Pato sauce is the Pace of Mexico. Cept it tastes good and it is cheap. Normal Mexican homes have about 5-10 cans in their house at any given moment hahaha.

[voodoolily]

I always keep that and some Herdez around for making Spanish rice.

[Yegolev]

I popped one of the hottest variety of Habanero and it's like god turned my brain off with a switch. I couldn't see for nearly 6-7 minutes.

That's how you know it's working.

[Evildrider]

It's not the hottest, but so good.



/not my hand

Best tasting hot sauce there is, period.

I can put that stuff on almost everything.  Love it. 

However it doesn't seem to go too good on ice cream.  One of the contestants on Top Chef made a sriracha ice cream that looked pretty foul. lol

[Yegolev]

Oh, hey, today I had the three-chili stir-fry with thai-hot spice.  It was not as hot as I thought it would be, and I think the cook skimped a bit.  I will try the thai-hot again and if it still does not make me sweat like a whore in church, it's the not-on-the-menu double-thai-hot next.

[brellium]

I love you man. Let us just say I have made a new bookmark. $1.45? I Think I might

Keep in mind that price is a touch expensive, easily double what I get it for at local grocery stores.