[geeks] Re: [rescue] MOVE TO GEEKS: re: absinthe available for rescue'ers ....

[Phil Stracchino]

On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 10:43:52AM -0700, Dan Duncan wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Mar 2004, Phil Stracchino wrote:
> > Heh.  :)  Tabasco is mild.  I use habanero tabasco in my spaghetti
> > sauce, and it works pretty good in that.  I have about seven or eight
> > different habanero pepper sauces, and when I'm cooking curry from
> > scratch I use whole fresh habaneros.  The flavor is wonderful.  :)
> 
> I once made kimchee using a recipe I found online for "Flaming Orange
> Habanero Kimchee."  Ouch, was that a learning experience.  It takes
> 5 whole habaneros chopped WITH SEEDS.  I did it in the blender.  The
> result was so hot that the juice sliding down my throat caused chest
> pains something like acid reflux.  DAMN was that good stuff.  I need
> to make some more.

Two words:  Red Curry.

I have this Malayan red curry recipe that calls for dried Thai chilis.
(As a matter of fact, the total ingredient list is: diced ham, an onion,
tomatoes, dried chilis, a sprinkling of mixed herbs, and a lottle oil to
fry the onions in.)  I have it pretty well calibrated with the Thai
chilis -- four is mild, six is general purpose, eight is "I have a bad
code id by head"; it drains sinuses faster than any over-the-counter
nasal decongestant I've tried.

So we'd just discovered that a local supermarket (the Safeway in Tracy,
California) carried fresh habaneros in the produce section.  We had a
friend living in our spare room, and another friend (and faithful Sun
rescuer) coming over, and I decided to make red curry.  Using the fresh
habaneros for the first time.

We had about three conversations going in parallel as I tried to figure
out the conversion factor from dried Thai chilis to fresh habaneros, and
in a moment of distraction I just substituted one-for-one.  In went six
whole fresh habaneros, seeds and all.


My GOD, it was hot.  I think Gian-Paolo finished first, and the first
thing he typed in the IRC channel we and our friends hung out in when
he sat back down at his laptop was "TASTES LIKE BURNING."  I think I
finished next, and without looking at backscroll, I sat down and typed,
"TASTES LIKE BURNING."  Then Koyote, who is a longtime Southwest desert
rat and raised on chipotle, sat down at *his* console and, without
looking at scrollback, typed "TASTES LIKE BURNING."

We did finish all the curry.  It made some damn fine red curry burritos
over thew next few days.  But I think it may very possibly have been the
hottest thing I have ever tasted in my life.  Now, we use two habaneros
in that recipe, and for the sake of my wife and our kids I de-seed one
of them.



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