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we got our bhut jolokia at the Gainesville, FL hot pepper festival '09. we transplanted it into one of those giant dog-washing-tubs from Lowe's with a few bags of potting soil and manure. fertilized it every few weeks and eventually (when it the heat got below 95 degrees) it flowered like hell, and soon after i had between 60 and 70 peppers on the plant. the peppers are just now starting to ripen; a beautiful display of orange, red, and lime green. the plant is a monster. i am 6'4'' and i can look at the bhut jolokia face to face when im watering it. it's def. the king of our garden.

anyways, im sure you figured out what to do with your chiles since you started this post a few years ago, but my recommendation would be to just experiment the hell out of it. make hot sauce, cook with it, preserve some, dry some, make insecticide, pin one on the wall (a sacrifice to the chile gods), so on and so forth. here's a little recipe i "cooked" up over halloween weekend this year:

"tabasco burgers with caramelized ghost chile and onion"

- 1.5 pounds lean ground beef
- 6 oz package of goat cheese
- 10 fresh tabasco peppers (red and orange for sweetness)
- 2 green SEEDED bhut jolokias (unripened for the tang)
- one whole sweet onion
- four cloves of garlic

1. chop up the tabascos and throw into the goat cheese package. shake and mix it up. put in the fridge.

2. chop up your bhut jolokias, the onion, and garlic and put in a pan with some olive oil. let that cook at a medium heat. it will take a while

3. combine all of the goat cheese/tabasco with all of the beef. yes, all of it. make into two or three patties -- or one big one if you're a t-rex

4. grill it!

5. go check on your bhuts and onions. the onion should be completely browned when caramelized, and super sweet.

6. put the burger (cooked to your liking) and the caramelized bhut-onion-garlic mix on the bun of your choice.

7. eat it.

OPTIONAL: we also made this blue cheese spread that i put on the burger -- and it was super awesome.

- a 6 oz container of blue cheese

- jar of sour cream

- fresh minced garlic to taste

- a few oz of lime juice

--- mix all that stuff. that's it. spread it on the burger. eat it. the spread also work as a great chip dip.

side note: prepare to gain 34 pounds after eating.

side note 2: prepare to take a very painful dump at an interstate rest stop the next day.