The winter months are fast approaching and are the perfect
time to add a little “kick” to your menu at home. It is very satisfying to curl
up with a bowl of comfort food when the weather is blustering cold, and making
it spicier will warm you up even more. Several methods and resources are
available to accomplish adding “fire to your fork”.
The most
overused methods of spicing up a dish is the addition of dried crushed chilies
or dried ground cayenne pepper. Do you know which spice jars I am referring to?
The ones that have not been replenished for years. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating
(slightly), but contrary to popular belief dried spices do not last forever.
They eventually loose their punch. Always replenish your stock of dried spices
and herbs approximately every ten to twelve months for ground spices/herbs to
ensure freshness and flavour stimulating ability. Bulk spice sections at
supermarkets make this very manageable and cost efficient. Whole spices (not
ground) will keep much longer, so the investment in a small spice grinder will
go a long way.
Dried
crushed chilies are good for adding heat to a recipe, but they have a downside.
Their heat producing traits are not fully developed until they have been given
time to re-hydrate and release their flavour. Although this a good standby when
you have no other available options, there are many other ways.
One product
I absolutely love and recommend is Sambal Oelek. This is a crushed chili sauce
product, and therefore needs no re-hydration. I use it in countless recipes and
it’s fantastic for adding instant heat to a dish or a different dimension of
flavour. Once the jar is opened it will last in the refrigerator almost
indefinitely. Available in the Asian/Import food isle of almost every major
grocery store, this product is a must for your kitchen.
Fresh chili
peppers have been ever increasing in popularity, and consequently the available
options in produce sections have multiplied. They range in varying degrees of
hotness with Anaheims being one of the milder options. Jalapenos or Chipotles
supply a moderate amount of heat with Scotch Bonnets and Habaneros being some
of the hottest. The amount of heat that a pepper provides is measured
scientifically in Scoville units developed by a Professor Wilber L. Scoville in
1912. The majority of this heat comes from not only the seeds, but the inner
whitish membranes as well. For flavour with less heat, discard these inner
portions. When handling hot peppers, be certain to not touch your eyes or other
sensitive areas. Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly upon completion. I
find that cold water and soap works the best. If hot or warm water is used, the
pores in your skin enlarge trapping the pepper oils in your fingers. One of the
best precautions is to wear latex gloves, especially when handling extremely
hot peppers.
If the
thought of using fresh hot peppers sounds too much like work, there are a
number of hot sauces on the market to ease your preparation.
Until next time... Happy Cooking!
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