Hello Chili Heads!

The Scorpion Pepper has been well received in the Chili Head community. All over the world, people have been trying the new World Record holder for the hottest pepper only to find out that it WILL indeed burn you BAD or good depending on your experience! The pepper is beautiful and easy to look at. It is wrinkle covered and has a deep, crimson hue that invites the senses to take a big ole bite, but if you turn the pepper over, on the bottom, there lurks a point or hook that has the appearance of a scorpion’s stinger that should warn you to stay away. But to a chili head, this is just a reminder of what this amazing chili has to offer to the consumer.

Over all though, to the unaware mind, this pepper from the outside appears to be relatively benign and harmless.  Don’t be fooled by its subtle appearance if you get lucky enough to find yourself in the presence of this “cute little fruit.” Even today people are still debating just how hot this pepper is. As I bit into my pepper, some of the first thoughts that went into my mind was, “Hmm, nice and crisp, little like a bell pepper and kind of had a sweet flowery flavor….then, OH LORD HELP ME! HERE COMES THE HEAT!”  The heat might have been similar to licking the insides of a 9-volt battery or maybe turning a toaster inside out and then cramming it into my mouth while plugging it in. Okay…I might be exaggerating a little bit. The truth is, “IT WAS HOTTER THAN THAT!” I am not too proud to admit it, but that pepper burned going down, then an hour later, it burned coming up and out, then the next day burned coming out again.  It took my stomach about 3 days to stop cursing me and to recover, but as for my mind, this pepper will always have my respect and a bit of fear.  For those of you that want to try it…be careful! It is NOT to be done without some extreme caution. A good place to purchase these peppers is at Refining Fire Chili’s. Just ask for Jim Duffy. Or you can find his website on line at http://refiningfirechiles.com/.

Now if you are not into torturing your mind and insides with this whole spicy fruit, then I would suggest that you try it in a sauce. Many manufactures are attempting to make a sauce with these peppers. But for me one of my new favorites is called

1498:
The Cauterizer.

Heartbreaking Dawns produces this sauce and it has been available to the public for the last year. I have not tried it previously due to my past experience with the Scorpion Pepper. When I told Johnny McLaughlin about my history he immediately said that I must try his sauce and that it would change my perspective forever!
My traditional fare for hot sauce testing is breakfast. I tried a little in a spoon first and could taste the faint sweetness from the blueberries and the apricot preserves. It was definitely a 9 on the one to ten scale in heat. The heat came on strong and fast. I found that I didn’t really care for it on eggs so I waited a few days before trying it again.

This time I found myself at the local Mexican Restaurant that we frequent. I order a couple street tacos, a shrimp taco, and a fish taco.  I placed my order all while clutching my bottle of hot sauce. Hoping that someone might ask me about it so that I could spark a restaurant wide tasting session. Don’t laugh…sometimes this happens!  So when I received my heaping plate I considered how much sauce to use. I found myself faced with an all or nothing attitude. I poured the sauce on heavy. Squished one end in a desperate attempt to hold it together and crammed one end in my mouth. WOW! The heat came on quick and I let out a cough! Wasn’t expecting that! So as I chewed flavors started mixing together and the heat began to plateau. I took another bite, then another…all of a sudden I was assaulted by a barrage of hiccups. It’s been a while since a sauce has done that to me. The flavor was great. I wiped the sweat off my brow and eat with a taco in one hand and the bottle in the other until they were all gone. At that point I set the bottle of Heartbreaking Dawns Cauterizer down with just a little bit of sadness. What a culinary adventure. As the endorphins were kicking in and I was wallowing in that ever so familiar food buzz, I thought, “Damn! That sauce is good!”

It comes in a standard 5 oz bottle and is wrapped with some amazing artwork. It’s made with all natural ingrediants and I can actually pronounce and recognize every one. I love that!! I am not a big fan of sauces that have more ingredients written in Latin then in English. If you want to find out more about this sauce just go to their site at http://heartbreakingdawns.com/ and find out about all their wonderful products. You can also check them out at Peppers at the Beach Event that is coming up soon. Johnny and Nicole are also releasing a special sauce that is coming out in an 8 oz bottle for the event. Contact them for more info.

So for all you chili heads out there, keep it hot and keep it spicy…Most of all ENJOY!

© 2012, hotsauceaddict.com. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

• 3 large ripe peaches, peeled,
• pitted, skins removed, minced
• 1/2 habanero chile, seeded and
• finely minced, or to taste
• 2 tablespoons finely minced red onion
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Gently mix together all ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

© 2011, hotsauceaddict.com. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

• 2 ea chipotle chiles shopping list
• 2 ea Bacon; Slices, Finely Cut Up shopping list
• 1/4 cup Onion; Finely Chopped shopping list
• 3 cup Tomatoes; Finely Chopped shopping list
• 1 cup beef broth shopping list
• 1/4 cup Carrot; Finely Chopped shopping list
• 1/4 cup Celery; Finely Chopped shopping list
• 1/4 cup Fresh Cilantro; Snipped shopping list
• 1/2 tsp salt shopping list
• 1/4 tsp Pepper

Directions:

1. Cover chilies with warm water. Let stand until softened, about 1 hour.
2. Drain and finely chop.
3. Cook and stir bacon and onion in a 2-quart saucepan until bacon is crisp;
4. Stir in chilies and remaining ingredients.

© 2011, hotsauceaddict.com. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

• 30 garlic cloves sliced thinly
• 2 medium size tomatoes diced finely
• 2 cups of louisiana hot sauce
• 2 table spoons tomato paste
• 1 tea spoon salt
• 1 table spoon sugar
• 2 table spoons cilantro leaves chopped
• 2 table spoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup of water

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a deep frying pan
2. Add garlic slices and fry until golden brown in color
3. Add tomato paste and fry for one minute
4. Add diced tomatoes, chopped cilantro leaves and fry for 5 minutes
5. Add salt, sugar and water and mix for 1 minute
6. Add louisiana hot sauce
7. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes on medium heat.
8. Adjust thickness as desired. It should be the consistency of tomato puree.



© 2011, hotsauceaddict.com. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

• 4 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, drained
• 12 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded
• 1 onion, cut into chunks
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers, drained
• 1 sprig fresh cilantro, chopped
• garlic powder to taste
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. In a food processor, combine diced tomatoes with chiles, jalapenos and onion; process until desired texture is achieved.
2. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the can of green chiles, cilantro, garlic powder and salt.

© 2011, hotsauceaddict.com. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

• 10 habanero chiles — stemmed
• 5 Bhut Jolokia peppers – stemmed
• 7 ounces A Taste of Thai Garlic Chili Pepper Sauce or other garlic-chile sauce
• 1/4 cup honey (“this will only slightly take down the pain momentarily”)
• 3 medium garlic cloves — minced

Directions:

1. Grind the habaneros and the Bhut Jolokia peppers (with seeds) in a food processor.
2. Add other ingredients and puree.

© 2011, hotsauceaddict.com. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups distilled white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 10 dried ghost chiles
• 10 small dried jalapenos

Note: Use rubber gloves and a mask when handling the peppers and making the hot  sauce.

Directions:

1. Wash the peppers, pat dry, and then remove seeds and stem.
2. Place chilies a mason jar with the vinegar and salt.
3. Put the jar in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 weeks.
4. Put the mixture in a blender or food processor and puree.
5. Strain with a metal strainer. I push the chili paste through the strainer and scrape the underside with a spatula to get as much of the chili meat into the sauce as possible. (You can save anything that is left in the strainer and use as a chili paste.)

© 2010 – 2011, hotsauceaddict.com. All rights reserved.

Hello Fellow Chili Heads!

This is “Atomic Eh?” wanting to tell you about my “atomic hot sauce” experience! I am all about comfort food living. I try probably 10 to 15 different sauces a month and I am always on the quest for the perfect “atomic” sauce. Most often I encounter amazing concoctions that have been produced from your back yard chef to your professional culinary artists. A funny thing that I must admit, the back yard chefs, I think, rate the best. Often sauce ingrediants are composed of a few things that I easily recognize and then a list of preservatives and coloring agents that I can hardly pronounce. Why do people do that!!!! Thanks to the back yard chefs for keeping it natural and for not adding ingredients that don’t need to be there. For those of you that are professional chefs…Please forgive me as that I have tried some amazing lines of sauce from you too!

As for flavor…well I am picky. I am a critic right? I mean a reviewer…has a much better ring to it. This last weekend I took a recipe that was given to me by “The Salsa Lady” on thehotpepper.com and gave it a good “super atomic” tweak and produced a small hot sauce batch of my own. It’s 100% natural and all the ingredients are easily recognized. With a little careful planning and some safety policy in place you too can make a sauce and torment (I mean bless) your relatives for the holidays. Please be careful. This is an “atomic” hot sauce recipe that can and will hurt you if your not careful. So keep it hot and keep it spicy!  Enjoy!

“Atomic Eh’s?” Holiday Jolokia Sauce Blend

“My not so private reserve!”

1.)    Clear all your work areas and clean. Get a bag of clean rags handy. Also have an extra bag on hand to put the dirty rags in. You will find that the oils from these peppers will get everywhere. The more you contain them by using rags once and washing your hands multiple times the better chance that you will have of not burning yourself or you family and friends. Have plenty of ventilation and don’t breath the fumes because they will burn you! These peppers are no joke but are a lot of fun to work with if you are careful.

2.)    Pull out all your ingrediants before you start. This minimizes the spread of the oils from the peppers. Keep all children out of the kitchen as well. Your not going to want the distractions once you start and you definitely don’t want to be taking them to the hospital in the middle of producing your sauce because they just reached up and knocked over a bowl on them selves.

3.)    Clean and sterilize your bottles.  I used three 5 oz. bottles and one 8 oz. bottle for this recipe.

4.)    Most of all…Take a deep breath and enjoy!

Ingredients:
•    14 to 18 Fresh Bhut Jolokia Peppers
•    14 to 18 Fresh baby carrots
•    1 Tbsp of sugar
•    1 Tbsp of Vanilla Extract-make sure it doesn’t have vanilla pieces in it. This will help you produce a uniform color with your sauce.
•    3 Tbsp of garlic-I used 9 whole cloves. (I like garlic…if you don’t then use less) Make this your own recipe!
•    ½ cup of white distilled vinegar
•    ½ cup of “Trader Joe’s” Pear Cinnamon Cider.
•    1 tsp of salt- Original recipe called for a Tbsp, but I didn’t want all the salt.
•    2 cans of peaches (or a fruit that you desire). Pour out the syrup or water.

Remove stems from peppers. Remove seeds if you actually want to use this sauce! Put in a separate bowl and was hands. Then clean your other vegetables.  Put vegetables and fruit in the food processor and purée as well as you can. Then put all ingrediants in a small saucepan and bring to a low simmer. (Watch at all times and turn on your vent) You DON’T WANT TO BREAT THESE FUMES! Simmer for about 9 minutes and then remove from heat. Cover and let cool for five minutes. Replace sauce in food processor and purée. Use a small funnel and fill the bottles and cap. Keep in mind that the less you spill the less you will have to clean up. Once you have worked with these peppers you will discover a new found respect for them. It’s been two days and my finger tips still burn a little under my nails-I would suggest using gloves. I am letting mine sit and age about thirty days before I use it.

Remember…when you make this, YOU ARE IN CHARGE. Be creative and use you favorite flavors to compliment your sauce. The base to this recipe was freely given to me so I am freely passing it on to you. Feel free to let me know your experiences and tips. Thanks…

This “Atomic Eh?” telling you to keep it hot and keep it spicy!

Have a safe Holiday Season!

Enjoy!

© 2010 – 2011, hotsauceaddict.com. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

• 64 ounces canned crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups minced onion
• 6 jalapeno peppers, chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1/2 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 cup water

Directions:

1. In a large soup or stock pot, combine tomatoes, onion, jalapenos, cumin, salt, sugar, vinegar, garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, and water (add enough water to bring the mixture to your desired consistency).
2. Bring mixture to a slow boil, reduce heat and let simmer for at least 2 hours.
3. Let the mixture cool completely, then pour into individual jars.
4. Store in refrigerator. Will keep for several weeks.

© 2010, hotsauceaddict.com. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion — chopped
• 2 cloves garlic — chopped
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup carrots — chopped
• 2 cups water
• 3 Habanero chilies (3 or 4) — minced
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 3 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Saute onion in oil until soft. Add carrots and water.Bring to boil,reduce heat,and simmer until the carrots are soft.
2. Remove from heat .
3. Add chilies,lime juice and salt to the carrot mixture.
4. Place in processor and puree until smooth.
5. Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

Origin: The Habanero Cookbook , Dave DeWitt & Nancy Gerlach

© 2010, hotsauceaddict.com. All rights reserved.