Now that harvest time is basically over for chile peppers in a large, temperate area of North America, we growers done things like dehydrated our pods or employed fresh chiles into recipes in order to enjoy or preserve them.
One such thing to do with fresh jalapenos is to make Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers. Sometimes known as “Atomic Buffalo Turds“, these scrumptious treats are both easy to make and they are also an appetizer which a lot of non-chileheads can eat.
Buffalo Wild Wings
I conversed with the head of Research & Development of America’s largest hot wing restaurant chain, Buffalo Wild Wings, about buffalo sauces and seasonings, the product development process, Scoville ratings and more. Also, while I was at a local St. Louis, Missouri area Buffalo Wild Wings location I reviewed a few new, test items on their dessert menu – spicy ice creams. Covered in Berry Habanero and Caramel Heat toppings, I wanted to see how the restaurant chain desired to bring the concept of “sweet and heat” into the mainstream consciousness.
Wicked Cactus Sauce
My latest Weekly Firecast episode featured an interview with brand new hot sauce producers who go by the moniker Wicked Cactus Sauce. They really have a handle on juggling complex, delicious flavors with remarkable dexterity in addition to using lovely amounts of chile heat.
More Chile Blogs Than Ever Before?
I speculate that with this new found fiery foods explosion that fans of the hot stuff are looking to blogging about it more and more. A greater number of spicy food websites doesn’t necessarily equate to exponentially growing knowledge and coverage about chile peppers and hot sauces, but thankfully most of the newer crop have a measure of high quality to them, and that has to be admired.
Chili pepper harvest is here! Personally, my 7 Pots and Trinidad Scorpions have been less than spectacular, but I have enough Orange Habaneros, Red Savina Habaneros, Cayennes, Chile Japones and Fresnos to make up for it. After a poor growing season during my last go around, I’m also getting some decent Bhut Jolokia pods.
There’s also a record number (for me) people hitting my Ultimate Guide to Drying Hot Peppers page, possibly indicating that more and more people are growing peppers and looking for ways to preserve them long-term.
Video editing and rendering for the Weekly Firecast takes up quite a bit of my time but I’m having a lot of fun doing these videos. In recent episodes a show how to make a ghost pepper pumpkin spiced coffee and my way of grilling chicken wings.
Deano's Jalapeños Cheddar Jalapeño Chips
I’ve recently chatted with the inventor of what I consider to be one of the most innovative and yummiest snacks the has recently come along – Deano’s Jalapenos Cheddar Jalapeno Chips. They’re similar to what Brits would call potato crisps, but they’re actually made from razor-thin, fried jalapeno slices and not potatoes. Anyway, the creator’s name is Doehne “Deano” Duckworth, and he’s a restaurant owner from Vermont, U.S.A. who stumbled upon this idea and is trying to mass market his brilliant new snack product.
What do you get when you cross Mexican food and boneless buffalo wings? It’s a simple but delicious recipe my family and I have now enjoyed for several years: it’s Buffalo Chicken Twister Wraps
The big news from me would be the debut of the Weekly Firecast. Sure, online videos pertaining to fiery foods are no new thing, but I’ve batted around the idea of something closer to a chile and hot sauce related television program for many a moon. I finally decided on a compromise of sorts; it would be a multi-segment video podcast hosted on YouTube. My “pilot” episode debuted a few weeks ago, and now that my yearly vacation (or as your Brits would call it, “going on holiday”) is mostly done, I can focus on creating a new video every week.
I plan to cover a variety of topics that deal with the wild world of spicy food and barbecue, and I’m open to suggestions and ideas. If any of you want to subscribe to the show’s RSS feed, just go to http://feeds.feedburner.com/WeeklyFirecast
Weekend of Fire
It may not be the largest hot sauce trade show in the U.S., but it usually has the best turnout from the chile blogs. I’m talking about Jungle Jim’s International Market’s 4th Annual Weekend of Fire. The event, which is held next to one of the largest supermarkets in America in the Cincinnati, Ohio suburb of Fairfield, is always attended heavily by bloggers, hot sauce reviewers and many in the on-line chilehead community. Representatives from TheHotZoneOnline.com, ILoveItSpicy.com, PeppersandMore.com, HotSauceGuru.com, HotSauceDaily.com, EatMoreHeat.com and more will be there in full force. Of course, I will be there too, and we bloggers will be headquartered at our own booth, answering questions from attendees, officiating contests, or just walking around sampling fiery foods and meeting new exhibitors.
There are more food eating contests than ever this year. Of course, the granddaddy of these competitions is Defcon Deathmatch National Wing Eating Championship, which participants must consume 10 nuclear-hot chicken wings in 4 minutes or less, and then place their hands flat on the table for an additional 5 minutes with no help from soothing dairy products or beverages. Thanks to Defcon Sauces’ extract-laden liquid wing coating, it’s a battle against fearsome, capsaicin-induced pain, and is always fun to watch.
With nearly 70 vendors promoting nearly every kind of hot sauce and spicy food, there’s plenty to sample to buy at the Weekend of Fire. Show attendees will get to vote on whose products are best, as will the bloggers.
The Monday directly following the Weekend of Fire, several chileheads will be traveling approximately 100 miles northeast from Cincinnati to the Columbus, Ohio area to visit CaJohns’ new facilities. There they will see the new home of CaBoom! Salsa, Holy Jolokia Sauce, and Mongoose and Black Mamba extract sauces. In addition to a tour, John “CaJohn” Hard, Chef Steve and the rest of the CaJohns crew will treat the visitors (everyone and anyone is free to come) to a delicious BBQ lunch.
New this year at CaJohns’ Open House will be a little event dubbed “The Reviewers Cup” – a food tasting challenge for writers from the chile blogs. CaJohn will cook up some mystery dishes, and whichever blogger is closest to identifying the correct ingredients will win the prize.
All in all, it’s a very nice bookmark to a great weekend of blazing foods.
The first New Orleans Hot Sauce Show was a big success, and by many accounts was also one of the most enjoyable events the participating vendors have ever taken part in. My colleague in capsaicin Al “Buddah” Goldenberg took several videos of both on-the-spot hot sauce reviews and contest footage.
I recently interviewed Chip Hearn of Peppers, one of the largest hot sauce shops in the United States. Chip is easily one of the most entertaining gentlemen in the industry, with endless stories to tell plus unique insight into doing competition barbecuing, selling fiery foods products, and maintaining his world record collection of hot sauces (he boasts over 9,000 bottles).
It’s hard to believe it’s already May of 2010. Soon, people all across America will be doing outdoor grilling and barbecuing, celebrating Memorial Day Weekend at the end of this month, and wondering what to do with bored kids all day long now that school will be out for the summer.
It’s also a good time to experiment with some hot sauces, barbecue sauces and spicy seasoning rubs to flavor all of this wonderful grilled and smoked meat, and also try some chile peppers in side dishes to give them some extra added kick!
Here’s what has been going on since I’ve last spoken with you:
My Pepper Garden I’ve started by chile pepper garden…at last! It’s a few weeks late for planting in this humid continental climate area of the U.S. in which I live, but I’m sure the plants will do fine. I recently posted a list of the varieties I’m growing. http://www.scottrobertsweb.com/Ive-Finally-Started-My-Chile-Pepper-Garden
Top 10 Sauces for Beginners
Peppers at the Beach The first annual Peppers at the Beach event was held this past weekend at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware’s Peppers shop. This was very small scale compared to a some of the larger trade shows and festivals, but this more intimate approach proved to be a pleasant time by many of the vendors and the chilehead attendees. Unfortunately I was unable to attend, but thankfully there were plenty of photos taken and video footage show. http://www.hotsaucedaily.com/2010/05/17/peppers-at-the-beach-photos-2010 [photos] http://www.iloveitspicy.com [various videos]
Top 10 Mild Sauces For Beginners I frequently get asked by fiery foods novices what I think are the best sauces to try that won’t burn their mouths. I prepared a list for anyone who is ready to move beyond the everyday brands like Tabasco and experience some real flavor and uniqueness. http://www.scottrobertsweb.com/New-to-Hot-Sauce-Here-Are-the-Top-10-Hot-Sauces-For-Beginners
SLA 2010
SLA Science of Hot Sauce Presentation
The Special Library Association Annual Conference & Info-Expo, also known as SLA 2010, will be held on June 13-16 in New Orleans, LA. One seminar held dring this event that would be of interest to chileheads is “The Science of Hot Sauce”. Dr. Ben Villalón aka “Dr. Pepper,” a retired Texas Extension Specialist and developer of the TAM jalapeno, will lead the speakers and will discuss the scientific properties of hot sauces and more spicy information. Included in his presentation will be mentions of ScottRobertsWeb.com and my blog posts. http://www.scottrobertsweb.com/The-Science-of-Hot-Sauce-Presentation-at-SLA-2010-Conference
Scott Speaks to Ecuadorian Radio A few weeks back, I appeared on Ecuador’s Radio City, a BBC-associated station. It was my first Spanish-language interview (thankfully the questions were translated into English for me as my Spanish is a little rusty!) and I talked mainly about what it is to be a chilehead in the United States. This was part of their week-long series of spicy food. http://www.radiocity.com.ec
More Spicy Snacks in the Mainstream Seems like with each passing month that every major brand of snack crisps and chips is getting more and more “hot” versions of their wares. That may be anecdotal information, but there’s some evidence that fiery foods are becoming mainstream: Dorito’s Degree Burn series. America’s most popular line of flavored tortilla chips are now available in 1st Degree Burn Blazin’ Jalapeno, 2nd Degree Burn Fiery Buffalo and 3rd Degree Burn Scorchin’ Habanero flavors. I should have reviews on all three of these real soon.
One such thing to do with fresh jalapenos is to make Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers. Sometimes known as “Atomic Buffalo Turds“, these scrumptious treats are both easy to make and they are also an appetizer which a lot of non-chileheads can eat.
I conversed with the head of Research & Development of America’s largest hot wing restaurant chain, Buffalo Wild Wings, about buffalo sauces and seasonings, the product development process, Scoville ratings and more. Also, while I was at a local St. Louis, Missouri area Buffalo Wild Wings location I reviewed a few new, test items on their dessert menu – spicy ice creams. Covered in Berry Habanero and Caramel Heat toppings, I wanted to see how the restaurant chain desired to bring the concept of “sweet and heat” into the mainstream consciousness.
