Hot salsa and wimpy Canadians

[Spoons]

@Le Monstre de l'au-delà

My son planted a Jamaican Scotch Bonnet pepper plant in our back garden this year. I wasn’t sure how hot they’d become in our (relatively) northern climate of Toronto…

Unscientific conclusion from one season’s experiment - I think the plants grow just as hot up here as they do down south. I now have a jar of vinegar and hot pepper slices in the fridge that will probably last much of the winter.

Although I didn’t this past summer, I’ve grown pepper plants here in Alberta in previous years. They can get plenty hot!

[pulykamell]

@Joey_P

Some grocery stores sell Guar Gum. That’s what gives jarred salsa (and some grocery store fresh salsa) that gelatinous texture. You might look into adding that to your recipe.

Xanthan gum is another option that’ll work. My store doesn’t have guar, but they sell xanthan. I don’t use it for salsa, but occasionally I will use it to thicken a vinegary hot sauce. A little goes a long way, and the advantage of xanthan vs traditional thickeners like corn starch or similar is that it doesn’t require heating.

[pulykamell]

@Snarky_Kong

I was in Budapest last year and one of the servers warned me about a pepper that was in the stew. It basically had no heat. Less that a banana pepper, but more than a bell pepper. That was weird.

Yeah, the typical hot pepper in Hungarian food is usually something along the lines of an Anaheim pepper. They look quite similar. They can actually get somewhat toasty if you eat them in a big quantity, but they don’t have that sharp concentrated heat like a Thai or even cayenne.

[xnylder]

@Ludovic

Maybe I should start a poll: “Which would you rather have, Hot salsa and wimpy Canadians, or wimpy salsa and hot Canadians?”

Or come to Montreal and have both hot salsa and hot Canadians

Seriously, we’ve got a range of salsas (including hot) at any decently-sized supermarket, various Mexican hot sauces at larger ones, and a wide international variety of hot sauces at ethnic and gourmet markets.

[Capt_Kirk]

@xnylder

Or come to Montreal and have both hot salsa and hot Canadians ;)<snip>.

That is no lie(about the hot Canadians). We played Jazz Fest in 2010 and there was a heat wave, the ladies just wore sheer, tiny dresses with sandals and nothing else. It was a sight to behold, wow.

As to Salsa. My personal favorite is Mrs. Renfro’s Habanero Salsa. They have several varieties and IMO all are very good. Amazon carries them, so you may be able to get them in Canada.

Happy Salsa hunting

Capt of the Reavers