[CH] In the kitchen tonight
J.B Cattley (jbc@mpx.com.au)
Thu, 20 Aug 1998 16:20:54 +1000
Made two things: a bottle of sauce and some powder.
The sauce was kinda impromptu, used some of the red habs I got from the
market the other day. I had to freeze them straight off as they were in much
worse condition than they looked when I bought them. Put them in the blender
once frozen, so I now have a big jar of red sorbet just waiting for an
unsuspecting family member... (Not! The rest of the family was affected by
the fumes, _down the other end of the house_ while I was pureeing the
_frozen_ habs! What can I say?) Anyway, I made the sauce with my own
patented nuke-in-the-bottle method. This is a neat technique I picked up for
making hotsauce, as all you have to wash up is the funnel. The bottle is
sterilized by the boiling sauce, (I gave it a good going over beforehand,
anyway) and gets properly hot, so it pulls a really good seal. You can make
small test batches of sauce, and the fumes are reduced so the family doesn't
die. The sauce doesn't burn on the bottom, either. I put in a few
tablespoons of hab, the juice of a lime and a tangerine, and a goodly chunk
of palm sugar. Not bad at all. Hottest thing I think I've ever
made, lovely dark red colour, sweet and rich. Gotta love that palm sugar.
Looks like cannabis resin, tastes fantastic. Would undoubtedly be improved
by a spoonful of garlic puree, but certain people won't have the G-stuff in
the house. Not allowed to say the word. (Ever try to make a decent curry
without it? Quite an art, I assure you) I want some more, but my GI tract is
still burning. Should be good with NZ Epicure or other strong cheddar.
Also made some powder, just some dunno-what-they-were conical things, looked
like 1" straightened-out jals, and a few real jals for bulk. Hacked them
into bits, threw them on a baking tray in the oven, on lowest heat with the
door open. Three hours later, perfectly dried. Who needs a dehydrator? Into
the coffee grinder, and out came this lovely yellow-orange powder, all
clumpy with oils. Not as good as the stuff I made last summer with ajis,
thais, jals and habs, but it still blows commercial powder right out of the
water. Any chiles you can't use, I suggest you do this with them. Yummy.
You know, you don't realize sometimes just how much you get used to things.
Being related to a doctor, we have all kinds of stuff lying around. Frex, we
keep all our spices in those handy little yellow-topped jars... What's the
problem? They're perfect. Airtight, secure lids, hold small amounts, even
come with labels. Never struck me that people might find this disturbing
till the other day, when I thought about the fact that I was icing cakes
with a 20ml syringe...
jbc