November 24, 2009
Posted by Andrea Lynn, November 18, 2009 at 8:30 AM
[Flickr: House Of Sims]
When winter looms and it's time for those one-pot meals, nothing hits the comfort factor like a big bowl of chili. There's the endless debate over beans—should chili should include them or not?—but I say to each their own. I'm more interested in what secret ingredients you add to your chili for that unique wow factor.
Some months ago, I interviewed Todd Larrabee, who found a club with a long-standing (25 years!) Super Bowl tradition of chili cookoffs. The secret ingredient of this year's winner was grape jam and shrimp. As for Larrabee, he admits he's doctored his chili concoctions with everything from dried fruit to Peppermint Patty candy. But one ingredient that never makes it into his pot? Beans. You gotta draw the line somewhere.
A search on Chowhound revealed other interesting chili add-ins like red wine, tequila, horseradish, dark chocolate and cinnamon, Old Bay, fish sauce, V8 and peanut butter. Personally, no pot of chili of mine is complete without a strong shot of coffee and a hint of chocolate. What about yours?
Posted by Andrea Lynn, November 4, 2009 at 10:00 AM
"My baby, who's five, eats pico de gallo that sometimes cleans my sinuses out." —Pioneer Woman
[Flickr: hozae]
I'm always interested to hear people's stories about their paths to spice obsession—or just to tolerance. I think there are generally two ways: spice by immersion and a slow-building tolerance.
Spice By Immersion
My mom was a chilehead before I had even heard of the term. She loved making a batch of chili, adding more habaneros and hot sauce to the pot because she claimed it wasn't spicy enough.
By the time it got to the dinner table—or worse, a few days later—the heat would ignite my childhood palate. It was a good way to get me to drink milk, because I would slurp through glasses of it.
"Is it really that spicy?" my mom would ask. "YES!" was my flame-filled response. It was semi-torture but I learned to take it. By my teenage years, I was piling my pizza high with jalapenos and liberally dousing Sriracha on food. My mom had turned me into a spice addict.
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Posted by Andrea Lynn, October 28, 2009 at 9:00 AM
On Wednesdays, Andrea Lynn, senior editor of Chile Pepper magazine, drops by with Serious Heat.
[Flickr: Fiona Watson]
When others find out your world is spent submerged in hot and spicy food, there are questions galore. One of the most popular revolves around the best thing I've ever tasted.
Of course, the answer constantly changes. But recently I've been craving spicy chocolate. Start with the melt-in-your-mouth goodness of chocolate and add a tinge, or even a flame of heat, and you've got perfection. We searched for the best spicy chocolates, munching through bars that crunched and burned. I personally can't get enough of Chuao Firecracker—a smoky chocolate that pops in your mouth like tiny fireworks. It's a revelation for the senses.
These five chocolates aren't necessarily for the kiddos on Halloween, but who's to say adults can't get their own fix for the holiday?
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Posted by Andrea Lynn, October 7, 2009 at 9:00 AM
"My sinuses cleared up pronto, which made the slight pain worth it."
[Flickr: alancleaver_2000]
Between the trigger of allergies and start of flu season, people go to great lengths to relieve their sinuses during fall. Take my childhood friend, Elizabeth. When we were younger, black pepper was too spicy for her. Though her palate has since become stronger, she's still on the low end when it comes to heat tolerance.
[Flickr: ArielAmanda]
So I was surprised when she told me how successful cayenne tea was in helping her allergies. "I read in Healing With Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford that cayenne pepper will alleviate congestion, so I figured it would be easiest to use in a tea," she said.
Finding a few recipes online, she combined them to come up with her own version—a half teaspoon of cayenne pepper, two teaspoons of honey, and a lemon wedge in a mug before filling it with boiling water. "My sinuses cleared in 15 minutes, and I could breathe for the next day," she said. "Now, I use it every couple of days, and it seems to keep me clear. It also gave me an added energy boost."
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Posted by Andrea Lynn, September 30, 2009 at 9:00 AM
What to do when you don't have the right chile.
You know the drill. You've clipped or printed out a recipe that's supposed to be tonight's dinner. Except, the grocery store betrays you—not having those few essential items you need. As an editor at Chile Pepper magazine, for me that usually means a certain chile necessary to test or develop a recipe. For example, in certain regions, some chiles like cayenne are impossible to find fresh.
The key to finding an adequate chile replacement is knowing its heat level, sweetness, and smokiness. We pooled our resources to come up with a substitution guide for whole chiles. While it focuses on whole fresh or dried chiles, you can always use a hot sauce in lieu of ground chile. The chart, after the jump.
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