Food Adventures: Growing Hot Peppers....



Trinidad Scorpion Pepper.....apparently this one is around 1.5 million on the Scoville scale - (it's like the Richter scale, but for peppers) ....

Earlier this year, on a chilly winters day (January 2012), in the Great White North (…Toronto), I set a stack of pepper seeds into little pots with soil, added some water, covered them with plastic, and gave them my blessing to germinate - and fulfill their destiny of becoming hot hot hot peppers. (…..it was less of a ‘blessing’, and more of me just saying ‘grow dammit!’).

8 months on….many moons spent transplanting and fertilizing (and fertilizing….and fertilizing), combined with the very humid summer we’ve had here in Southern Ontario, I am proud to say that I have me some peppers!

During the germination process, I found that it was hard to tell the difference between the peppers once the seedlings started to sprout – so I spent some time labeling my pepper plant pots.  Somehow in all of my organization, it didn’t occur to me to use waterproof labels (whoops) so the few downpours that we have had this summer have pretty much washed out my labeling system – and now it’s a bit of a guessing game until the peppers have ripened up.  I know for sure that I have somewhere between 6-8 different varieties of peppers…..Instead of looking at this as a mistake, I choose to look at this as a ‘fun surprise’ in a few weeks time. 

I thought I’d share some pictures of the peppers as they are developing…

(just as a point of reference, the peppers used to make Tabasco sauce rate between 30,000 and 50,000 on the Scoville scale)....

Bhut Jolokia.....Between 800,000 and 1,000,000 on the Scoville scale....

Roatan Pumpkin Habanero...

Orange Habanero....My Dad tried this one...he said it was hot...
It is between 200,000 - 300,000 on the Scoville scale...

Black Naga....My Dad tried this one also.....he said it was really hot (his mouth was burning for about 15 minutes)....
It's between 700,000 and 800,000 on the Scoville scale. 

Guyanese Wiri Wiri Pepper.....

I'm not too sure which one this is....I'll have to wait for it to ripen up....

Red Mushroom Pepper....this one milder  - 30,000 - 50,000 on the Scoville Scale - but has a GREAT taste. 
All the flavour of a hot pepper with a lot less of the 'burn'. 

By now, you can probably guess that my (poor) Dad has the distinct (tongue-burning) pleasure (hahaha!) of being my pepper taster….

I’ll let you know what he thinks of the rest once they get ripe.  (Thanks Daddy!) 

Happy Cooking!

Guyanese Custard Block

(I should probably premise this story with the fact that I am the Canadian born offspring of two Guyanese parents)...

It was my Dad's birthday a few months ago.  He's one of those people who doesn't really like a big fuss on their birthday (which I don't understand - I feel as though my birthday should be a national holiday).  Because he doesn't like a big fuss, we try to keep it low key, but special.



This year, I decided to flip through this Guyanese cookbook we had (dated 1973) and attempt something for dessert for his birthday from 'home' (anyone with Guyanese family living abroad knows that Guyana is referred to as 'back home' or just 'home')....

I love crazy cookbooks like this....you just never know what you might find in them!

In it, I found a recipe for something called 'Custard Block'.....

I thought this recipe was great for a couple of reasons (1) Because it's called 'Custard Block'...that's exactly what it is.  A block of frozen custard.  And (2) because it's main ingredient is something called 'Bird's Custard Powder'.  Now, Birds Custard Powder brings back many memories from my childhood.  It's one of the first things that my Mom would let me make on my own.  It’s a custard powder, which when you add milk and sugar to it over heat - makes this gloop-y yellow custard that my dad LOVES with any sort of pie or crumble (there were equal parts pie and custard in his bowl)...

Custard block is like ice cream without all the work.  I used fat free evaporated milk, which really lightened the recipe up.  It's a great summer dessert and really easy to make.  

Fat-free goodness....

Guyanese Custard Block

Adapted from 'What's Cooking in Guyana' Cookbook
Serves 6

 

Ingredients:

Two 12oz cans of fat free evaporated milk (could use the full fat evaporated milk as well...).

3 tbsp Birds Custard Powder

3 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 freshly ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

(1) In a medium pot, whisk together all the ingredients.

(2) Put the mixture on the stove and turn on heat to medium-high.

(3) Stir constantly.  The idea here is to heat the custard mixture until it thickens slightly.  (on average - 8-9 minutes)

-if you don't continuously stir, it will get too lumpy quickly (and you'll have to start all over!)

-The mixture is ready when it coats the back of the spoon and doesn't pull away from the edges of the spoon...

Not ready....

See how it's pulling away from the edges of the spatula?.....Still not ready.....

Ready!

(4) As soon as mixture has started to thicken, remove from heat and pour into the desired container. 

-I used a mini muffin pan.  Other ideas for containers are - popsicle holders, ice cube trays, mini pie plates, ramekins.... 

(5) Freeze for at least 5-6 hours

(6) When ready to serve, remove from freezer and run the bottom of contain through warm water to loosen the custard block to make it easy to pop out. 

-Optional - when serving , sprinkle with a smidge of cinnamon.

Custard Block!  Ready to serve....

Nutritional Information (for one serving - 1/6 of the final product):

Calories 151

Fat 0.2g

Carbs 28.3g

Fibre 0.1g

Protein 8.2g

WW Points 3

Happy Cooking!