Salmon cakes:
2 cooked salmon fillets, about 8 oz. each, chopped
½cup each: crumbled corn flakes, chopped red bell pepper
¼cup mayonnaise
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, deveined, finely chopped
3 green onions, white and some green, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon seafood seasoning blend, such as Old Bay
1/8teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 eggs, beaten
½teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Poblano dressing and greens:
½cup each: mayonnaise, plain yogurt
1 poblano pepper, roasted, seeded, peeled, chopped (see note)
1 clove garlic
Juice of one lime
1/8teaspoon hot red or green pepper sauce
½teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper

Mesclun salad mix, optional

For salmon cakes, mix together salmon, corn flakes, bell pepper, mayonnaise, jalapeno, green onions, cilantro, seafood seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, eggs, salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl. Form mixture into 16 patties. Transfer the salmon cakes to a baking pan; cover. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, for dressing, combine mayonnaise, yogurt, poblano pepper, garlic, lime juice, hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste in a blender or food processor; puree. Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry the patties in batches, adding additional oil as needed, until browned and cooked through, turning once, about 5 minutes each side. Remove; transfer to paper towel-lined baking pan; cover patties loosely with foil. Arrange greens on four plates; top with cakes. Top with dressing.

Note: Roast the poblano pepper over the flame of a stovetop burner using tongs, charring all sides. Place the roasted pepper in a paper bag to cool before peeling and seeding.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS.

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, peeled seeded and diced
1 medium cucumber, peeled seeded and finely chopped
1 large green pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 large clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 jalapeño chile, seeded and chopped
2 cups tomato juice
1/2 cup extra virgin
olive oil
Salt and pepper

To Make
Mix together half the tomatoes with the onion, cucumber and bell pepper in a large bowl.
In a blender, purée the remaining tomatoes with the tomato juice, garlic, olive oil, jalapeño, salt and pepper. Stir into vegetables and mix well. Keep refrigerated until served.
(Optional) Whisk in some sour cream right before serving to make it creamy

Great to serve at barbecues or when you are sipping tequilas, this warm dip is based on a runny cheese and cream sauce that gets its chunky texture from tasty pieces of onion, tomato and jalapeno pepper.

Ingredients

1 large onion
2 teaspoons olive oil
5 medium tomatoes
2 jalapeno peppers or 1 tablespoon chopped jalapeno peppers in brine
200g (7oz) Red Leicester cheese
100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) double cream
Salt and black pepper
Tabasco sauce
To garnish: 2 sprigs of coriander
To serve: corn chips, soft tortillas or pitta breads

Directions

1 Preheat the oven to moderate. Put a kettle of water on to boil.

2 Peel and chop the onion and fry it in the oil in a small saucepan over a low heat for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.

3 Peel the tomatoes and cut them into quarters. Remove and discard the seeds, slice the flesh finely and set aside.

4 Rinse, dry, halve, deseed and finely chop the jalapeno peppers, if necessary, and set aside. Grate the cheese and set it aside.

5 Put the corn chips, tortillas or pitta breads into the oven to heat.

6 Add the cream to the softened onions in the pan and raise the heat. Just before the cream reaches simmering point, add the cheese and stir until it melts.

7 Add the tomatoes and jalapenos to the pan and stir gently. Season carefully to taste with salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce.

8 Rinse, dry and strip the coriander leaves from the stems. Pour the dip into a warm serving bowl, garnish with the coriander and serve with corn chips or with fingers of soft tortilla or pitta bread.

Deep-fried jalapeno peppers are a popular appetizer at many restaurants. Here is a home version.

When cutting or handling fresh jalapeno or other hot chili peppers, it is wise to wear gloves and avoid contact with your eyes. Some cooks may be sensitive even while the peppers fry and will wish to have good ventilation in the kitchen.

This recipe uses red jalapeno peppers in honor of the Kansas City Chiefs, but green jalapeno peppers can be substituted. The recipe is for Dorothy Brownlee of Kansas City, Kan.

Fried jalapeno peppers
Makes 12 appetizer servings

24 fresh red jalapeno peppers
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese
3 cups dried bread crumbs
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Vegetable oil or shortening, for deep frying

Slice off tops of jalapeno peppers. Cut down one side of each pepper. Carefully peel out the seeds and membranes. Rinse and dry peppers. Cut off portions of cream cheese and pat around each pepper, covering each pepper completely.

Place bread crumbs in a shallow dish. Combine eggs and milk in a second shallow dish. Dip each cheese-covered pepper in egg-milk mixture, then roll in bread crumbs.

Heat vegetable oil or shortening in deep fryer or deep skillet to 375 degrees. Carefully lower each pepper into hot oil with a slotted spoon. Fry peppers in small batches so they are not crowded in the oil. Fry until peppers are medium brown and crisp; about 6 minutes, turning to brown evenly. Remove with slotted spoon and allow to drain on paper towels.

Per serving: 318 calories (74 percent from fat), 26 grams total fat (14 grams saturated), 109 milligrams cholesterol, 13 grams carbohydrates, 8 grams protein, 301 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.

If human fingernails tasted like pepperoni pizza, biting them would be understandable.

But in the real world, fingernail biting is an unhygienic, hard-to-quit habit. And it’s tied to the spectrum of human emotion.

We bite our nails:

In anticipation — We bite while waiting for a courtroom verdict. Or when the movie killer is about to get our hero. Or when the bases are loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

Out of boredom — We bite when that history teacher won’t shut up. Or when that certain co-worker goes on and on about his dog or her cat for the umpteenth time.

In anger — We bite when we can’t fight.

Most often, however, we bite our nails for the same reason Tulare resident Matthew Boyett does: stress.

“School work does it a lot,” says Boyett, a 19-year-old student at California State University, Fresno.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine defines fingernail biting as a sign of anxiety, chronic tension or uncontrollable compulsion that, in extreme cases, requires psychological help.

Dolores Carbajal, 35, often notices her two boys — ages 7 and 9 — chewing on their fingernails when they’re bored or uncomfortable.

“But then when I’m deep in thought about something, I catch myself [doing it],” says Carbajal, an Exeter resident. “I know I’ve been doing it since I was their age, so I worry about them.”

Carbajal can’t recall any health problems directly related to fingernail biting. But, she speculates, it might have led to more than one bout with a cold or flu.

Let the experts chew on that one.

“Fingernails are the dirtiest part of the hand,” says Melissa Janes, direction of education and infection control at Tulare District Hospital. “All kinds of nasty things are under there.”

Often, germs are spread when sick people touch their face and then fail to wash their hands thoroughly.

Biting the nails ups the germ count considerably.

Also, doctors say, severe nail biting can expose underlying tissues to infection.

But even though we know where our fingers have been — in public restrooms, on the dog, under the couch cushions digging for the lost remote — we still bite our fingernails.

Part of the problem is that there is no recognized handbook — pun intended — on how to stop biting your nails. Thus, parents have a tried a variety of tricks over the years.

Among them:

The They’ll-Grow-Out-of-It Solution — You may want to find an alternative, especially if your child’s fingertips or cuticles bleed and become infected, which does happen.

The Distraction Solution — Many children bite because they’re bored, as during long car rides. So parents find something — from coloring books to books to video games — to keep their children’s hands occupied.

The Scare-’Em-Straight Solution — You may have heard that, if you bite your nails too much, a disgusting lump of old nails will form in your stomach and rip your guts apart. Yep, Stephen King has nothing on grandma.

The Fingernail-Polish Solution — For girls, nice-looking nails that have been polished and manicured can prevent biting.

The Chili-Powder Solution — Sprinkle a little chili powder on the fingertips or dip the hand into a little jalapeño juice. This plan may backfire for Mexican-food lovers, however.

There’s also this approach: Teach children about germs and how they operate.

“If they’re educated and know what can be under their fingernails,” Janes says, “you’d think they would stop on their own.”

But old habits die hard. What would it take for Boyett to stop biting his fingernails?

“I don’t know,” he says, “maybe another limb to chew on.”

My mother tried putting that chile mixture on my hands and look where it got me!

SCIENTISTS IN TEXAS TAME THE HABANERO; SOME WONDER WHY

By Ralph Blumenthal

New York Times

WESLACO, Texas - It’s a burning issue for some hot-pepper lovers: Whatever possessed Kevin M. Crosby to create the mild habanero?

For Crosby, a plant geneticist at the Texas A&M Agricultural Experiment Station here near the Mexican border, the answer is simple: “I’m not going to take away the regular habanero. You can still grow and eat that, if you want to kill yourself.”

But for those who prize the fieriest domesticated capsicum for its taste and health-boosting qualities, Crosby and the research station in the Rio Grande Valley have developed and patented the TAM Mild Habanero, with less than half the bite of the familiar jalapeño (which A&M scientists also previously produced in a milder version).

With worldwide pepper consumption on the rise, according to industry experts, the new variety — a heart-shaped nugget bred in benign golden yellow to distinguish it from the alarming orange original, the common Yucatan habanero — is beginning to reach store shelves, to the delight of processors and the research station, which stands to earn unspecified royalties if the new pepper catches on.

“I love it,” said Josh Ruiz, a local farmer whose pickers this week filled some 200 boxes of the peppers to be sold to grocers for about $35 a box. “It yields good and I’m able to eat it.” As for the Yucatan habanero, he said, “My stomach just can’t take it.”

By comparison, if a regular jalapeño scores between 5,000 and 10,000 units on the Scoville scale of pepper hotness based on the amount of the chemical capsaicin (cap-SAY-sin), and a regular habanero averages around 300,000 to 400,000 units, A&M’s mild version registers a tepid 2,300, or barely one-hundredth of its coolest formidable namesake. A bell pepper, by the way, scores zero.

Not everyone hails the breakthrough. Crosby, 33, a native Texan and a distant relative of the crooner Bing, said “chili pepper fanatics” have called with rude questions about what he was thinking and why he was wasting his time. A Mexican voiced complete bewilderment. Why, he asked Crosby, would you want a habanero that’s not hot?

Crosby said he sympathized. He had, after all, seen Mayans in the Yucatan eating their way through plates of habaneros dipped in salt. “I’ve heard it said it’s addictive,” he said.

But he said most people should not try this at home, not even with the most potent antidote at the ready, ice cream. (Milk is second best.)

The center’s director, Jose M. Amador, said people in Mexico had called wondering if A&M was out to “ruin” the habanero, and asking, “What are you, crazy?” There was even a move afoot in Mexico, he said, to trademark the Yucatan habanero in the same way, say, that the French protect champagne and cognac, but he shrugged off its prospects.

Actually, Amador said, he came from Havana, for which the pepper is named, but had never eaten it there, Cuban cuisine not being known for its spiciness. With the same confusion, Crosby said, the habanero’s scientific name became Capsicum chinense, although the pepper undoubtedly reached China via the tropical Americas.

Last week, Crosby was among 225 scientists, growers and processors who gathered at the 17th International Pepper Conference in Naples, Fla. Business was booming, a conference announcement said: “In recent years, interest and demand for peppers has increased dramatically worldwide, and peppers are no longer considered a minor crop in the global market.”

Specialty peppers, including hot peppers, are a particularly fast-growing part of the market.

Crosby, who delivered a paper on breeding peppers for enhanced health through plant chemicals like carotenoids, flavonoids and ascorbic acid, said capsaicin was being studied as a stroke preventive. Other chemicals in peppers are potent antioxidants and offer protection against macular degeneration.

“It’s a pretty fruit,” said Crosby, taking a bite and chewing without flinching. “It’s got the flavor but it doesn’t kill you.”

Ralph Blumenthal, New York Times
November 21, 2004 PEPPER1121

WESLACO, TEXAS — It’s a burning issue for some hot-pepper lovers: Whatever possessed Dr. Kevin M. Crosby to create the mild habanero?

For Crosby, a plant geneticist at the Texas A&M Agricultural Experiment Station here near the Mexican border, the answer is simple: “I’m not going to take away the regular habanero. You can still grow and eat that, if you want to kill yourself.”

But for those who prize the fieriest domesticated capsicum for its taste and health-boosting qualities, Crosby and the research station in the Rio Grande Valley have developed and patented the TAM mild habanero, with less than half the bite of the familiar jalapeno (which A&M scientists also previously produced in a milder version).

With worldwide pepper consumption rising, according to industry experts, the new variety — a heart-shaped nugget bred in benign golden yellow to distinguish it from the alarming orange original, the common Yucatan habanero — is beginning to reach store shelves, to the delight of processors and the research station, which stands to earn unspecified royalties if the new pepper catches on.

“I love it,” said Josh Ruiz, a local farmer whose pickers last week filled about 200 boxes of the peppers to be sold to grocers for about $35 a box. “It yields good and I’m able to eat it.” As for the Yucatan habanero, he said, “My stomach just can’t take it.”

By comparison, if a regular jalapeno scores between 5,000 and 10,000 units on the Scoville scale of pepper hotness. a regular habanero averages around 300,000 to 400,000 units, A&M’s mild version registers a tepid 2,300, or barely one-hundredth of its coolest formidable namesake. A bell pepper scores zero.

Not everyone hails the breakthrough. Crosby, 33, a native Texan and a distant relative of the crooner Bing, said “chili pepper fanatics” have called with rude questions about what he was thinking and why he was wasting his time. A Mexican voiced complete bewilderment. Why, he asked Crosby, would you want a habanero that’s not hot?

Crosby said he sympathized. He had, after all, seen Mayans in the Yucatan eating their way through plates of habaneros dipped in salt. “I’ve heard it said it’s addictive,” he said