Yeah, that's how my wife and I feel. We'll cook Jamaican brown fish stews with whole scotch bonnets, lamb meatball curry with minced habaneros in the meatballs, pizzas with diced habanero, etc on them. All way too hot for anyone but us so we have to do other dishes if we're hosting.
We do plenty with the other chiles though to both our and our guests satisfaction. Made 4 big jars of cowboy candy with my final jalapeno harvest that's been a big hit. Use reconstituted arbols for my hot sauces. I'll roast red peppers in the oven and enjoy the tender, meaty result. Green peppers don't do much for me...it's basically celery as far as I'm concerned!
But, yeah, if we want something spicy we're usually just cooking for us!
I always have a pot or two of hot peppers growing from spring to fall, they are colorful as well as tasty.
Generally order about 10 pounds of Hatch chiles from a farm there when they come in, then make chiles rellenos. Half are mild for those who do not like heat, half are hot for those who like the burn. www.hatch-green-chile.com for those interested. They harvest on a Tuesday, they are on your porch by Thursday.
A summer traditional gathering at ChezPK, as opposed to the ymmm, smoked meat dishes that my summer gatherings otherwise offer.
They are serving pork vindaloo in the corporate cafe today.
The state vegetable of New Mexico is the chile. We do it better than anyone else. If you've never had a real New Mexico green chile cheeseburger, you're missing out on one of the life's greatest pleasures. Out here, it is not uncommon to have chile on at least one meal every single day. My parents roast 50-70 lbs of chile every year and freeze it. All grocery stores have giant roasters located outside the front doors during chile season.
I fell in love with them in Santa Fe years ago; a farmer was roasting them in the farmer's market.
New Mexico may be the most ruggedly beautiful state I have visited, and I travel a lot.
(The day after I saw you in El Paso, I drove up to Carlsbad Caverns -- also phenomenal).
State question: red or green?
I posted a bum link earlier so I'll try again but the smell the roasting process generates is one of my absolute favorites. I have some Big Jim seeds that I have not yet managed to turn into a great set of plants in my climate. Will take another swing this summer.
NM is a really great place. I sometimes get frustrated because economically, places like Denver, Austin and Scottsdale are killing Albuquerque. For my money Albuquerque is a much better place to live than any of those places. Unfortunately, our public schools and crime rate don't help in bringing big business here. If only we could get the decision makers a green chile cheeseburger before they make their decision.
Christmas is the official answer, but I much prefer green. It's the same chile, but the red is allowed to dry on the vine. Red and green are prepared much differently. Typically, the green is roasted and can be added to almost anything. McDonald's serves green chile cheeseburgers, Italian restaurants serve green chile fettuccini alfredo and the most popular pizza is pepperoni and green chile. The red chile is dried and ground into a powder and usually mixed with water or beef stock along with meat to create a red chile sauce. That sauce can be eaten alone like a stew or used to cover your favorite meal. I'll try to post a picture of the large green chile roasters when i get home later.
If you have good red and green recipes I'd love to have 'em!
I enjoyed a brief stay in Albuquerque but did not get to spend much time. Went to the top of Sandia Mountain and the restaurant there, and that was about it except the airport. Would love to go back, especially during the hot air balloon festival.
Breaking Bad tours were big too when I was there (the show was still filming) but unfortunately I did not see the series until some years later. Would definitely do a tour like that now if they still have them (I would guess they do).
Big shout out to La Fonda on the Plaza in Santa Fe for folks traveling there.
This warms my heart, or more accurately burns my heart.
During my first year of dating my now-wife, we went to East Coast Wings with 2 friends before seeing a movie. I've done a lot more stupid shenanigans than betting $50 pies on DBR, but this was near the top. They had some wing on the menu that I had to sign a waiver to eat. I asked the waitress why I only got 1, and to just go ahead and bring me 12. I'm thinking, hell, BW3's Blazin challenge was weak, I have the T-shirt for conquering Bandido's 7-pound burrito, and I've eaten Dave's Insanity sauce.
I started eating these wings and maybe got about 4 swallowed before I knew I had a serious problem. I was pretty quiet rest of dinner praying the concentrated sulfuric acid they'd obviously coated these things in didn't burn through my entire pancreas like brown recluse venom.
About 45 minutes into the movie, I told my date we needed to leave. I wasn't sure if we were going to the Emergency Room, or what, but we stopped first at CVS. I ran straight to the Pepto and drank 4 bottles right there in the store. Fortunately the movie we missed was Terminator Salvation and I had saved beergoddess and our friends from seeing any more of that garbage. And more fortunately my alimentary canal was also given Salvation rather than Terminated. Lesson learned. Still shocked to this day that she married me after that.
Great story. According to the ECW website, their insanity wing (I’m assuming that’s what you had) clocks in at 3 million on the Scoville scale. That’s higher than pepper spray. Well done!