[CH] Re: Madison Hotluck
Alex Silbajoris (asilbajo@hotmail.com)
Mon, 17 Apr 2000 11:00:22 PDT
I've been waiting too long, but here it is anyway - my report on the Madison
hotluck.
First of all, thanks to Group Thomas for hosting the event, it was a really
good time once again. I look forward to this event as my season opener for
camping - but not this year, we got a deluge.
>From: "Rockin' Randy" <ledbelly99@yahoo.com>
>The most amazing thing to me Friday was Alex demonstrating
>"Underwater Hibachi Grilling" It was amazing and he didn't use
>breathing apparatus! He'll have to explain any other details.
It's a very simple technique:
1. Load grill, light, and allow wood to burn until coals form.
2. Add food on rack (chicken wings this time) and put the lid on the grill.
3. Watch as about three *&^*(@#%*^! inches of rain quenches the grill by
flooding it through the vent holes in the lid.
4. Shrug and get another Gale's Hard Cider.
I wound up using Steve's Oklahoma Joe smoker to cook the wings the next day.
>Saturday was more of the same fun. I was mystified to see
>someone eat a chunk of The Bread without batting an eye! Jim
>then discovered someone had cut pieces from the regular pumpkin
>bread and tossed it on The Bread plate - you can imagine the
>contrast after getting to taste the real thing. There were many
>great products there for stocking up on supplies.
Jim has toned down THE BREAD recipe since the first times I tried it. I
don't know if the recipes floating around these days are for the new or old
version. The old version has about twice the hab powder, and it really is a
challenge to eat a piece the size of a sugar cube. The effects I got were
something like licking some poisonous tropical toad - watering eyes,
numbness in the mouth with an inability to speak correctly, drooling,
gasping - you think I'm kidding? Those are the Day One effects, BTW.
It does taste better than a toad, though.
>The music was excellent with many different musicians playing
>and more wine tasting, O.k. it was a little more than a taste!
>
Yyyyyyep. I have to admit, Steve's white wines have spoiled me. Now when I
taste a mass-market white wine it almost always tastes like chemicals.
Gale's Hard Cider seemed a little more tart this year, but Steve uses the
old apple varieties that aren't that sweet to begin with.
>
>All in all, the trip was a serious dose of "Hoosier Hospitality"
>- I did not want to leave! I'll be certain to attend future
>events there and it would be great to see more of the "faces
>behind the e-mails".
I kept thinking of Henry V - "we few, we happy few..."
For he to-day that sweats his brow with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so mild,
This day shall season his condition:
And chile-heads in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their Scovilles cheap whiles any speaks
That sweated with us upon this hotluck's day.
...Umm, but I think we can stop short of showing our scars at the banquet
table...
Actually, I'm considering a chile-head parody of Shakespeare; I've sent a
bit of it to Randy already. I'll call it Hablet, or James the First. "Oh,
for a ring of fire..."
As usual, this year I failed to provide recipes for the food I brought.
Thinking ahead, I kept the recipes simple enough to remember. I made two
marinades for chicken wings:
1. Equal parts red habanero mash and honey (this batch was approx. 1 cup
each) and an ounce of dry sherry - this made a hot and sweet result that
made my ears ring.
2. The juice of three oranges and six lemons (aka "clean out the citrus
bowl") plus one medium onion, sliced very fine into little wisps, and one
level tablespoon of smoked scotch bonnet powder - this made a lemon chicken
with an occasional nip if you hit some of the pepper.
I also brought some canning jars of the sauces I made last year, but as I
explained to Steve Thomas, none of them were really appropriate for the
salsa competition. The orange and red batches of hab mash were incindiary,
with a strong fresh hab aroma. The red batch was the one I made in the hab
field last year, cooking with a 12-qt Le Creuset on a Coleman stove,
chopping habs with orange fingers and occasionally pulling a ripe apple off
the tree behind me to add to the mix. I gave away a few jars, including a
big one for Henning.
People gave the usual "that's hot!" or "Isn't that hot?" responses, but I've
learned to think of hab flavor as sort of a gateway to another state of
consciousness.
Henning looked very Danish, with a cold lunch plate of sausage, cheeses, and
wine. I could tell he was having fun.
Once again, I await next year's festival.
- A
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