[CH] Love the hot stuff

Linda Hutchinson (lipant@sympatico.ca)
Thu, 16 Mar 2006 22:34:40 -0500 

Love the hot stuff

Spice it up until the temperature rises

By Leah Eskin
Chicago Tribune

Hot sauce is hot. Just one drop, the tiny bottle swears, will provoke 
abandon, ignite passion, inspire love. The front label may glow crayon red, 
orange or yellow. But the back panel is strictly code blue. Hot sauce 
bottles up sultry, steamy, scorching seduction with a twist top. No wonder 
the lonely taco never messes with match.com.

The condiment corral may seem sedate, what with the mayonnaise lounging in 
creamy silence and the capers swimming circles in the brine. But the shelf 
is stocked with shockers: Desert Pepper Trading Company XXX Habanero Pepper 
Sauce, XXXtra Hot, stands ready should "a hankering for a little excitement" 
flare up. Bee Sting Mango Passion Pepper Sauce suggests lavishing the 
sweet-hot slather on anything, save "sensitive areas." Thankfully, the 
fridge light clicks off automatically.

In cookbook, menu and other adult literature, the steak submits to the 
subtle serrano or ardent ancho. Shrimp blush pink at a dash of dashing 
chipotle. Fish goes steamy over a splash of salsa picante. Barbecue works up 
a sweat. Some sauces, ranked scorching on the Scoville scale of heat units, 
swear they pump up the heart rate and raise body heat. Which must be why the 
fine print cautions: refrigerate after opening.

Peppery prose sometimes forgoes passion, opting instead for sheer fear. The 
"all killer, no filler" boast. The "radioactive" spice register. The "this 
sauce will blow you away" dare. The passivist may prefer his beans bland.

Is there truth to such spicy innuendo? Does the innocent green chili, 
squeezed into sauce, turn saucy? Are peppers naturally naughty? Is salsa 
seductive?

Perhaps. In the pantry it's mild oysters and fruity champagne who share a 
reputation as racy. Hardly the same flavor profile as the pungeant chili 
pepper, crushed, salted and preserved in vinegar. And yet its bottled 
intensity inspires intense admiration.

Imagine the surprise of Christopher Columbus, who, having landed on sultry 
Hispaniola, discovered a brilliant new vegetable. He bit it. it bit back. He 
later escorted the chili pepper home, where it was greeted with curiosity, 
enthusiasm, rapture. In a heartbeat, the chili inspired crushes on every 
continent, thrilling the cuisines of Asia, Africa and Europe. If that's not 
love, what is?

A love expressed in succinct package-back tribute. Perhaps the 
pepper-promotion professional is confounded by the hot that prickles the 
palate, as distinct from the hot channeled by the microwave and the hot 
found between the covers of the juicy paperback.

The confusion seems simply semantic. And yet, pervasive.

Achiote shrimp

Servings: 2

Ingredients:
2 Tbsps. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. prepared achiote paste*
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. coarse salt
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1 Tbsp. grapefruit juice
1 pound medium shrimp, deveined and peeled, tails on if you like
Cilantro leaves, chopped

1. Toast: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add garlic and cook 
until golden and fragrant, 1 minute. Add achiote, pepper, sugar and salt. 
Cook, mashing with the back of a wooden spoon, to a thick paste, 2 minutes.

2. Thin: Pour in lime juice and grapefruit juice, thinning to a sauce.

3. Coat: Add shrimp. Cook, tossing, until shrimp are cooked through and 
coated with beautiful orange/red sauce, 4 minutes. Transfer to a shallow 
bowl and sprinkle with cilantro.

4. Serve: Enjoy solo, over rice or dipped into a bowl of smooth guacamole.

*Achiote paste, ground from annatto seeds, can be found alongside other 
Mexican staples at the enlightened grocery store or neighborhood tienda. 
Also available online at GourmetSleuth.com or MexGrocer.com. For a spicier 
dish, substitute two chipotle chilies canned in adobo sauce, crushed.

--Inspired by Rick Bayless, master of subtle spice
Copyright © 2006, The Chicago Tribune
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Linda
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