February 23, 2004
To all my chilehead friends and especially to our new subscribers, welcome to another issue of The Heat!, brought to you by Chile-Pepper-Sauces.com , and Chef Jay.
In This Issue:
= Recipes, Soup Recipes
= Tips, Pepper Gardening
= Hot Stories, Vietnam Heat
= Chef Jay Asks, Vote for ME!
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Ramblings from Chef Jay
Another great month in my little slice of pepper heaven has come and gone. Lisa and I are finalizing plans for our wedding in April, and we have made reservations for our honeymoon in the Bahamas! So, if anyone has any tips for tourism or places for us to visit while we're there, let us know.This month we have contributions from a reader who shares a couple of humorous stories about hot sauce and peppers he experienced while on his tour of duty in Vietnam.
I will get you started on your pepper garden. Yep, it's time to get you growing. If you haven't already tried growing your own, you should. Trust me, if I can get peppers to grow, anyone can. And there is nothing like picking fresh peppers out of your own garden to use in your favourite recipe.
Speaking of which, I have a simple but delicious recipe to share with you this month. It was sent in by a loyal reader, Nancy, who is a vegetarian and loves her vegetables spicy! I'll also add a few spicy vegetable soup recipes for everyone to try.
Don't forget, this is your last chance to order my new Gourmet Habanero Pepper Sauce, The Heat!, and still receive free shipping. As a way of saying thanks to all the subscribers of my newsletter, I have covered all shipping costs. But, as we begin to take orders from the general public, no more freebies. So, go ahead and order today. Click Here...
Now, enjoy these recipes and have a great month!
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Jalapeno Cheddar Snacks
Directions:Cut jalapenos in half lengthwise and carefully remove seeds (and membranes if desired). Put in single layer in casserole dish (the size depends on how many jalapenos you have). Slice cheddar into strips to fit the jalapenos and fill the peppers. Bake at 375F until cheese is melted and jalapenos have softened.
Note: This is my all time favourite way to eat jalapenos. I bake them in my toaster oven, which must be a low power because it takes more than half an hour. I eat these as a snack, as a side dish and I have even had them for breakfast with leftover pizza.
Thanks again for sharing this recipe with us Paula. Peppers and cheese are probably my favorite foods. Eating this snack, I am in heaven!
Now, I've got a couple of recipes to share with you from my favorite source for recipes, E-Cookbooks Library, if you haven't noticed by now I use their cookbooks and many other sources of cooking information they offer on a daily basis. Check them out here...
Chile-Cheese Chowder
Ingredients:2 bacon slices
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped, seeded, poblano chiles
1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons minced, seeded jalapeno peppers
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 (16 oz.) cans fat-free chicken broth
5 cups diced, peeled, baking potato
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup flour
2 1/2 cups 1% milk
3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
2/3 cup sliced green onions
Directions:
In a dutch oven, cook bacon until crisp. Reserve 1 tablespoon drippings in pan, remove bacon and set it aside. To the pan add carrots, chiles, onion, jalapeno, cumin, and garlic. Saute until browned. Stir in broth and scrape bottom of pan to release browned bits. Add potatoes and salt, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes.
Whisk together flour and milk, add to potato mixture while stirring and cook over medium heat until thickened stirring often (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat, stir in cheeses until melted. Serve in bowls topped with crumbled bacon and sliced green onions.
*****E-Cookbooks Library*****
Spicy Cucumber-Avocado Soup
Ingredients:1/2 firm-ripe California avocado
1 1/2 pounds cucumbers, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 (8-oz) container plain low-fat yogurt (1 cup)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh jalapeno chile with seeds
1 cup small ice cubes
Garnish: diced avocado and chopped chives
Directions:
Peel and pit avocado. Blend all ingredients in a blender until very smooth, about 1 minute.
Visit the Library!
These delicious recipes are brought to you by E-Cookbooks Library. You can become a cooking guru by subscribing to the E-Cookbooks Library. There you will find thousands of recipes to try. Everything you can imagine from every cuisine you could possibly want, and now the library has hundreds of videos for you to choose from too. See for yourself... E-Cookbooks Library.
Pepper Gardening
For those of you who grow your own peppers, it is the time of year to get your seeds together and start planning your garden. While parts of the country are still frozen, it is almost spring time down south. No matter where you are, let's get growing.I have added a chile pepper seed page to my site this year that will help you out. So, if you want to grow habanero, datil, bell, tabasco or even peter peppers, buy some seeds and get started!
And for some helpful tips on starting and maintaining your pepper garden, visit these gardening pages. If you have any ideas or tips you would like to share with us all, please email me. I can use all the help I can get.
Vietnam Heat
In last month's issue of The Heat!, I shared a recipe for Venison Chili with you. Apparently I didn't get it quite right, as pointed out by this reader."...to correct your recipe I quote from a cookbook I was give in Vietnam by the Tabasco sauce people for rabbit chili, which you will need to change a bit. First step, catch a rabbit. Change rabbit to read Deer and you got it. I was getting shot at on a regular basis and not in the best of spirits when a cute little blond girl, in bright red dress, with the biggest lovely smile and most nerve I had seen up till that time crawled up to our fox hole and gave myself and a friend a big kiss, a small bottle of Tabasco sauce and this recipe book. She visited every fox hole and never flinched. After that we didn't ask any more what we were there for. The rest of the book was about how to make military food, c-rations, k-rations and so on a bit more tasty with Tabasco. Needless to say it was a highlight of the war. Where they found a girl like that I'll never know but I'll never forget her. I smile about that event every time anyone mentions chili. Thought I'd share a smile with you."
I can't begin to imagine what it is like to be in a foreign country in a fox hole being shot at on a regular basis, but I do know that we all have our comfort foods. I know hot sauce and peppers are a favorite for many military personnel. We have some subscribers in various bases stationed overseas right now. My thoughts and prayers go out to you all. God Bless You!
Donald, our Vietnam vet, goes on to share another story:
"...in Nam they have a small pepper plant growing wild everywhere. They sell them here as decorative peppers, that are really quite hot. The pods are about an inch and a half long and go from green through yellow, then orange and last red as they get ripe. They are really quite attractive, all the colors of the plant at the same time.
We had to eat with the natives a very large part of the time and their food was not always real fresh and would often have a strong flavor. We found we could eat about anything if we put enough peppers or hot sauce in it, so as we walked around the country several of us would pick a pocket full of these little beauties. Often we would munch on them raw as we walked as a good snack.
On one occasion a new man in the unit ask what was I chewing on. I told him. He asked could he try some I said sure but to be aware they were warm. He said he was raised on hot foods, he could eat anything I could. I gave him several. He popped all of them in his mouth at once, chomped down once and right away spit them out. He was still drinking all the water he could almost an hour later. Hee, hee. We found out real quick how much of a man he was. It was several days before he would talk to me again. He said I was picking on him and had set him up. I asked, how could he figure that when he was eating the same peppers I was, he was just too tender for the job. Didn't make him happy, that plus all the other guys telling him I had some real good snacks in my pocket he should try, him being macho and all.
In time we became good friends and he did get to where he could handle the peppers after he realized you had to build up to them. I'm going to have to tell him about ordering your sauce."
Well, thanks for the plug Donald. If YOU haven't tried my Gourmet Habanero Pepper Sauce yet, Click Here...
Vote for Me!
Thanks once again to all the list members who have been voting daily for our site at Chef2Chef Top 100 Culinary Sites! We are now up to #39 and moving up steadily. Please do your part and keep voting for me! And remember, you can vote once per day;) Thanks in advance!Have a great month and don't forget to Eat the Heat!
Chef Jay