In Praise of Habanero

Thanks!

HEY!!! :mad:

Ooh, an article about me.

Funny enough, and coincidentally, I had some chicken drumsticks dipped in Blair’s salsa about an our ago. Much ado about nothing, really. At least compared to Dave’s. Dave’s is, Dave’s is … in-fucking-describable.

I use two drops of Dave’s in a three- to four-cup serving of macaroni and cheese and it’s phenomenal. If you’re looking for somewhere to try habanero sauce for flavor, a big cheesy casserole dish without too many other flavors is a great place to start. Mac-and-cheese-and-spice, coming up.

When the heat from the habanero sauce is just right, I’ve been known to cry out; “My food, it’s full of stars!”

Then my consciousness moves out beyond ordinary time and space for a while.

I like them fresh minced up with onions and some cilantro and salt into almost a puree. Then I can add to peanut butter and green onion and chicken for a wild chicken salad or as a dip for steak. I do seed mine with gloves on.

There was a restaurant in Pittsburgh that used to serve the most amazing honey and habanero sauce with the best Quesadillas I’ve ever eaten. Sadly, they no longer serve either.

I like my habanero sauce on cream cheese bagels. You need to wake up in the morning? This’ll wake you right up, hehhehe. I also like to get boneless skinless chicken breasts and cook them up with a little butter and a bunch of fresh sliced mushrooms just until the chicken is completely white, then break into small pieces and toss in my favorite hot sauce. Mmmmm.

Jamaican Peel-and-Eat Hot Pepper Shrimp. Goddamn, these are good.

Daniel

Ooh, I like this idea.

Will you marry me?

My standard recipe for salsa is 3 Anahiem Peppers, 3 Pablano peppers, 2 red onions, three tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, cilantro, 2 cloves garlic, lime juice and 8 habenero peppers finely chopped. Last time I made it, I didn’t have any habeneros around so I added 4 tbsp Daves insanity sauce. It worked about right. Maybe it was hotter than usual, but it’s hard to tell after the first scoop.

My Habenero plant is just about ready to give up it’s heavenly fruit, so I expect to busy soon. I’m thinking of making jelly.

Four times a week for breakfast I have an egg, fried, on either a roll or an english muffin, with bacon, cheddar cheese, and a few dribbles of Blair’s Mega Death sauce, which is distilled primarily from habañero seed pods, with a few lesser pepper sources and some molasses and vinegar.

I also keep some dried habañeros in a jar and cut them up with little scissors and put about 1 such pepper into a can of Hormel Chili. Oooooh.

a) Anyone who disses Blair’s stuff in favor of Dave’s stuff, and probably vice versa, is being silly. I don’t care what specific product you are consuming from either line, there is somethign in the other line that you will not voluntarily put into your mouth more than once. I like Blair’s better but not for any empirically defensible reason. No way I’d put the hottest thing that Dave’s puts out on my eggy. And there are many tiers of yowza up above Mega Death for Blair’s and I don’t use those either. This is enuff. It still has taste, it’s not just HOT HOT HOT. The same may be true of comparable Dave’s stuff, I dunno. Plain old Dave’s Insanity Sauce is not in the right league though, and I have not taken the time to find the product that is.

b) Fresh peppers vary all over the map and can be very very deceptive for that reason. I have bitten into jalapeño peppers nonchalantly, showing off but fully expecting to be able to show off without concern, and found myself seeing flashes of light, hiccupping, my tongue protruding from my mouth, eyes watering, nose running, and hyperventlating. NO freaking mere jalapeño oughta be that hot! But they do vary. I’ve had others that were almost as bland as bell peppers.

c) One thing I have not tried is mole poblano on steroids, i.e, spicyhot chocolate sauce mexicano style utilizing habañeros for the flames. I am thinking over chicken or perhaps pork.

I thought of this thread first thing this morning.

Mr. brown awoke and said “OMG, OMG, my throat’s all sore and there’s these weird bumps at the back of my throat. I gotta go to the doctor today!” Then he got on the 'net and looked at something called familydoctor.org, which guided him through several symptoms and finally suggested recent ingestion of very hot salsa.

We had tacos with El Yucateco habanero sauce last night, which he completely overdid. A drop or two is my limit on this stuff, but he liberally drenched each taco with it.

Problem solved, but beware - habanero sauce is brutal stuff.

I just harvested my first Habenero pepper of the season last night. The plant has a good couple dozen just starting to ripen. I will typically make at least 1 batch of Strawberry-Habenero jam that is a big hit with everyone who samples it.