September 10, 2024, what are you eating?

[medtran49]

Dim sum, frozen from a Korean market. Top right pork and vege pot stickers, bottom right shrimp and leek potstickers, bottom left bulgogi soup dumplings. Usual homemade dipping sauce.

 

[Kathleen]

As I prepare for my trip to Seattle tomorrow, I am striving to use up whatever I think could go bad before I return. From the garden, I had a lot of tomatoes so made a fresh "no cook" pasta sauce. It was pretty tasty! What was on your plate?

 

[blissful]

Planned overs, watermelon, raspberry walnut bread.

 

[Andy M.]

I found a roasted turkey breast in the freezer and heated that up and made boxed stuffing mix and broccoli to complete the meal.

 

[Aunt Bea]

Tuna on Italian bread with pickled jalapeños, a handful of potato chips and a glass of ice cold skim milk.

A piece of Moser Roth 85% dark chocolate for afters.

 

[msmofet]

Western scramble (onions, red & green peppers, and ham steak), sliced kumato tomato, and toasted and buttered homemade bread.

 

[cjmmytunes]

A peanut butter sandwich on cinnamon swirl bread, some goldfish, and a Chobani pumpkin spice Greek yogurt.

 

[pepperhead212]

I made another almost 4 qt batch of that lentil salad, with the freekeh, and a large amount of those cherry tomatoes in it - the reason I can't make it in the off season. This batch I put 3 minced up habanero peppers in, and it still wasn't anywhere near as hot as when I used just one chocolate habanero. I hope that Fatalii is as good as that for next season. Some friends finished off my last two leftovers, and I know one will be back to sample this! The other asked me if I was going to make any more gazpacho (she's not crazy about the hot things), and I told her that I probably would - I certainly have enough tomatoes.

 

[Meryl]

I made meatballs in tomato sauce and then also seasoned some pasta for my son with the sauce, he's a pasta freak! . No pasta for me, I just had some sauteed zucchini on the side.

 

[Meryl]

I made another almost 4 qt batch of that lentil salad, with the freekeh, and a large amount of those cherry tomatoes in it - the reason I can't make it in the off season. This batch I put 3 minced up habanero peppers in, and it still wasn't anywhere near as hot as when I used just one chocolate habanero. I hope that Fatalii is as good as that for next season. Some friends finished off my last two leftovers, and I know one will be back to sample this! The other asked me if I was going to make any more gazpacho (she's not crazy about the hot things), and I told her that I probably would - I certainly have enough tomatoes.

Habanero? Wow, that's brave of you. We grew those once and I'll never forget them. Are they supposed to be one of the hottest or perhaps the hottest peppers of all?

 

[caseydog]

Habanero? Wow, that's brave of you. We grew those once and I'll never forget them. Are they supposed to be one of the hottest or perhaps the hottest peppers of all?

Not even close to the hottest. Here is a chili pepper scale in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). The top two were developed by a guy named "Smokin' Ed" Currie. I have some Pepper X hot sauce. OMG, one drop on a cracker had my mouth on fire for at least ten minutes.

CD

 

[caseydog]

I finally made my black beans and pulled pork. I seasoned it with diced onions, granulated garlic, and black pepper. It was wonderful. I will have to do this again.

The pulled pork is now gone. I got a lot of meals out of my "big ole' butt."

CD

 

[taxlady]

I tried something new to me. I heated a confit chicken leg that I got with my produce and other stuff basket today. I heated it according to the instructions. It was good. I had that with coleslaw and some rice and corn with butter.

 

[Jade Emperor]

Tuna Pasta Bake with Champagne and Comte Cream Sauce

 

[pepperhead212]

Habanero? Wow, that's brave of you. We grew those once and I'll never forget them. Are they supposed to be one of the hottest or perhaps the hottest peppers of all?

Habanero is just sort of a general term, that used to be best known in Yucatan cuisine, and some Caribbean areas, but we almost never got them elsewhere, as they didn't travel well, and they weren't growing them all over, back then! When the demand for them increased, they (the growers) started finding more and more varieties, and finding them hotter and hotter - for many years those Red Savina habaneros were the hottest, at just 500-550k, while now they have those "superhots", with that Pepper x the latest hottest one. They are all the same species as those habaneros - Capsicum chinense - but that can also have 0 heat units, depending on the variety. I have tried most of those superhots, but only once; this season I told a friend of mine, that I got hooked on growing peppers, that I'd grow that pepper x seeds, if he would try it, but this year he didn't want any superhots. The last 4 years he grew a different superhot, but the Carolina Reaper last season was too much, and he just turned 21!

I really don't use anything like that to cook with, though - just to see how hot they are, compared to others. The chocolate habanero and fatalii (the one time I grew them in the 90s) are around 400k, so a little milder than the red savinas, but an intense, fruity, habanero flavor. Many of the milder ones also have less of that flavor, but those superhots also have less of that fruity flavor. And the mildest chinense variety, that I grow for the flavor, is Aji dulce, which is only up to around 500 heat units! I grow those to make things for people that can't take heat, but want to try some of those dishes.

 

[Meryl]

Habanero is just sort of a general term, that used to be best known in Yucatan cuisine, and some Caribbean areas, but we almost never got them elsewhere, as they didn't travel well, and they weren't growing them all over, back then! When the demand for them increased, they (the growers) started finding more and more varieties, and finding them hotter and hotter - for many years those Red Savina habaneros were the hottest, at just 500-550k, while now they have those "superhots", with that Pepper x the latest hottest one. They are all the same species as those habaneros - Capsicum chinense - but that can also have 0 heat units, depending on the variety. I have tried most of those superhots, but only once; this season I told a friend of mine, that I got hooked on growing peppers, that I'd grow that pepper x seeds, if he would try it, but this year he didn't want any superhots. The last 4 years he grew a different superhot, but the Carolina Reaper last season was too much, and he just turned 21!

I really don't use anything like that to cook with, though - just to see how hot they are, compared to others. The chocolate habanero and fatalii (the one time I grew them in the 90s) are around 400k, so a little milder than the red savinas, but an intense, fruity, habanero flavor. Many of the milder ones also have less of that flavor, but those superhots also have less of that fruity flavor. And the mildest chinense variety, that I grow for the flavor, is Aji dulce, which is only up to around 500 heat units! I grow those to make things for people that can't take heat, but want to try some of those dishes.

Thanks for all this very interesting, enlightening information about hot peppers, @pepperhead212 . I've never really used them much in my cooking, I'm always afraid of using too much so I end up using too little and you can't even feel the heat at all! So I just don't bother in the end, I'm not really a fan of hot, spicy food, anyway. We used to grow hot "peperoncini" during the Summer, mainly as decorative, colourful, outdoor pot plants.

 

[Meryl]

Not even close to the hottest. Here is a chili pepper scale in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). The top two were developed by a guy named "Smokin' Ed" Currie. I have some Pepper X hot sauce. OMG, one drop on a cracker had my mouth on fire for at least ten minutes.

View attachment 70688

CD

So I bet you drank a litre of milk after that burning experience!

 

[pepperhead212]

And one thing you don't want to drink after eating a hot pepper (unless it's simply not hot enough) is iced tea. When another friend of mine used to get people to chew the different habaneros with us, we would give them big mugs of iced tea, and re-fill it, when they had run out. Turns out, there's a chemical in tea that makes the heat from the capsaicin feel worse! At first, since it is ice cold, it feels better, but then it comes back, with a vengeance! We would tell them after the first time, and they usually still wanted the tea next time!

Years later, with those superhots, the kid who would sample those with me would drink some milk, but last year, with the reaper, he ended up eating a generous amount of ice cream, which still didn't seem to work. Which is why he didn't want to try the x pepper this year. Maybe next year...

 

[taxlady]

Habanero is just sort of a general term, that used to be best known in Yucatan cuisine, and some Caribbean areas, but we almost never got them elsewhere, as they didn't travel well, and they weren't growing them all over, back then! When the demand for them increased, they (the growers) started finding more and more varieties, and finding them hotter and hotter - for many years those Red Savina habaneros were the hottest, at just 500-550k, while now they have those "superhots", with that Pepper x the latest hottest one. They are all the same species as those habaneros - Capsicum chinense - but that can also have 0 heat units, depending on the variety. I have tried most of those superhots, but only once; this season I told a friend of mine, that I got hooked on growing peppers, that I'd grow that pepper x seeds, if he would try it, but this year he didn't want any superhots. The last 4 years he grew a different superhot, but the Carolina Reaper last season was too much, and he just turned 21!

I really don't use anything like that to cook with, though - just to see how hot they are, compared to others. The chocolate habanero and fatalii (the one time I grew them in the 90s) are around 400k, so a little milder than the red savinas, but an intense, fruity, habanero flavor. Many of the milder ones also have less of that flavor, but those superhots also have less of that fruity flavor. And the mildest chinense variety, that I grow for the flavor, is Aji dulce, which is only up to around 500 heat units! I grow those to make things for people that can't take heat, but want to try some of those dishes.

I have noticed that I don't see or read about Scotch bonnet peppers. They seem to be in the same heat range as habaneros, but they have a nice, fruity flavour. Are they just being called habaneros now?

 

[pepperhead212]

The Scotch Bonnets are a type of habanero - the ones I grew years ago were milder, maybe 200k, and not as fruity in flavor. They were used a lot in Jamaican dishes, and the milder heat and milder fruitiness were better in those kind of dishes. Often the milder ones, like I am growing this year, are what used to be called Scotch Bonnets.