A couple of weeks ago my mother called up and said that her neighbor had brought over "some really hot peppers". Normally one would think "yeah, right, jalapenos again" (my mother is 86) but she grows habaneros, scotch bonnets and bird chilis for me every year and has a pretty good idea what constitutes a "really hot pepper".
Turned out to be a couple of Naga Jolokia peppers in a ziploc bag, with a handwritten warning note tucked in the bag. The note even mentioned ONE MILLION SCOVILLE UNITS !!!
I figured you folks would want to know what they were really like, so I experimented with a couple of dinners this week and respectfully submit the results. Burning for you.
First up was some jerk seasoning... onions, green onions, garlic, thyme, allspice, a few bird chilis, and one NJ pepper, tossed in the food processor. Normally I use about 6 habaneros or scotch bonnets in a batch. Marinated some pork steaks ("pork shoulder blade steaks") for a few hours... cooked 5 of them and let one marinate for 24 hrs then cooked it the next night.
The first 5 were nice and hot (at least the one I ate was ;)), hotter than commercial jerk seasoning but not inedible or anything. The last steak was hotter - I ended up cooking it with some potatoes and tossing in some water to spread the seasoning around a bit - again just a really nice burn, somehow "sharper but not quite so hot" compared to 6x the number of habaneros if that makes any sense.
Tonight was chili - pound of ground beef, a couple of big onions, more garlic, can of diced tomatoes, can of kidney beans (no, I don't live in Texas, why do you ask ?), various chili powders, a spoonful of jerk paste and the other Naga Jolokia pepper. Again, really nice and hot but not unpleasant, a different mix of "hot and taste" than I'm used to.
In both cases the pepper was cut up, some seeds were included but the seed core and stem were not. With luck the garden will be full of Naga Jolokia peppers next year.
Last edited by bridgman; 09/25/10 02:14 AM.
