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

For all of you that don’t subscribe to the Fiery Foods Magazine, your missing out! You can subscribe to the Fiery-Foods Magazine here. Anyways, In the latest issue, the back cover featured the newest must have for any true Chilehead, the Monopoly Chileheads Edition – Only 5,000 will be release, so get yours fast! I’ve already pre-ordered ours from Fireroast.com – Daniel’s Salsa. It’s also available from Dave’s Gourmet and CaJohns –

Now here’s a game guaranteed to create fiery competition between players! Soon you’ll learn who can take the heat and prosper and who will crash and burn in scorched poverty. This game is for those who like it hot…this game is for ChileHeads! Those wonderful palate-abusing spicy food fanatics who dare fiery foods to satisfy their need to eat the heat. With each roll of the dice, players will flourish financially or burn money. Temperatures may rise as players are thrown to the coals by savvy property buyers who invest wisely while building their empires. Will your business radiate wealth and success in a blistering rise to greatness or be promptly snuffed out? Only one player with a burning desire to succeed will win. Only one player can reign supreme, standing upon the ashes of the defeated.

You can also find it at Jazz Foods –

By Patricia Aaron
For the Journal
NEW MEXICO’S OWN: From mid-September until frost, green chile matures and turns deep red. Green chiles that turn red in the fields signal the coming of autumn in New Mexico, just like the yellow cottonwood leaves and blooming chamisa.
New Mexicans have traditionally harvested and strung red chiles into colorful strings called ristras, Spanish for “strings.” Ristras are an ingenious way to prevent mice and birds from damaging the pods as they dry in New Mexico’s sun for use during the winter. When it’s time to make chile sauce, cooks cut the pods from the ristras.
DESCRIPTION: Nearly all peppers start out green. If left to ripen before picking, they turn red, yellow, purple or whatever, depending on the variety. Green chile maturing into red chile is like an immature green apple ripening into a red one. The more mature the pepper, the hotter it is.
Chile peppers come in a staggering variety— Cayenne, Serrano, Tabasco and Paprika as well as Big Jim, Sandia, Barker and New Mex 6-4 or Hatch. All can be dried for later use.
NUTRITION: Generally speaking, the more vivid the color, the more nutrients the pepper contains. Red and yellow peppers are the real nutritional bargains. They have twice as much vitamin C as green ones— about 170 milligrams in 3 ounces. A red pepper has 9 times as much beta carotene (a precursor of vitamin A) as a green one. Peppers also contain potassium, plus a little folic acid, calcium, some fiber, carotenoids and beneficial phytochemicals.
TO BUY: Purchase a chile ristra with mature red chile pods. Hang the ristra in full sun where there is good ventilation. The chile can turn moldy and rot without proper air circulation. Mold causes discoloration which detracts from the ristra’s natural beauty and would preclude using the chile as food.
Chile pods from ristras sprayed with plastic, shellac or insecticide are not edible and are to be used for decoration.
TO USE: To make red chile purée, select 12 large red chile pods. Remove stems, seeds and yellow veins. Wash pods in warm water, lifting pods out of water and changing water several times.
In a large pan, cover washed chile pods with warm water. Let stand 1 hour for pods to rehydrate. Add warm water as needed.
Simmer pods and water 10 minutes. The pulp should be soft, thick and separate from the skin. In a blender, process pods and some of the water to a smooth purée. Press through a sieve to remove peel.
TO SERVE: Spoon Red Chile Sauce over meats, tacos, chile rellenos, eggs or beans. Serve as a dip with chips or fresh vegetables. Use as a sauce in enchiladas and other casserole dishes. Flavor soups and stews.
If you’d like directions for making a chile ristra, call 243-1386 in Albuquerque and request brochure “Using Chile … Making Ristras.”

RED CHILE SAUCE
1 cup red chile purée
1 cup water
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
In a medium-size pan, combine chile purée, water, garlic, salt and vegetable oil. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in oregano and simmer 5 minutes. Makes 2 cups.

——————————————————————————–
Patricia Aaron is the extension home economist with the Bernalillo County Extension Service and New Mexico State University

Although I’m not a big fan of football, there’s something about the excitement of the season combined with the chill of fresh autumn air that revs up the appetite for spicy, filling foods.

When I tag along to see a game at someone’s house, I don’t concern myself with what the defensive line is up to, but with what’s on the menu — spicy chicken wings with lots of dipping sauce. They’re easy to eat with one hand, an important consideration when you’re perched on a sofa, balancing a paper plate loaded with food.

I recognized the value of dipping sauce while in Shanghai. I was in a Western-style restaurant where Buffalo wings with blue cheese dressing was on the menu. But when the wings arrived at our table, there was no dressing to be found. When I went to the restaurant another time, I brought my own bottle of dressing.

It was also in China that I tasted a subtly sweet hoisin-based sauce that had the makings of a great dip for spicy chicken wings.

At home, I tinkered with ingredients I had seen in a sparerib marinade, adding the tartness of plum sauce, the warmth of star anise, the low-voltage heat of chili paste, and the fiery punch of fresh red chile peppers.

I envisioned a dipping sauce that was creamy and cooling to the taste buds, flavors that didn’t mask or clash with the delicately assertive Asian flavors.

The result: mahogany-colored chicken wings baked in a robust marinade that whispers of Chinatown spices. The accompanying sour cream dip is flavored with bits of salty feta cheese and pungent cilantro. It’s a diverse and delicious pairing — casual enough for football buddies and sophisticated enough for before-dinner nibbling.

——————————————————————————–
Spicy Asian Chicken Wings
If you want to use the marinade as a dipping sauce, double the recipe and reserve a third of it after bringing it to a boil and before mixing it with the raw chicken.

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup plum sauce

1/4 cup sherry

1/4 cup Asian sesame oil

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

1/2 cup chopped green onions

4 garlic cloves, grated

1 fresh chile pepper, chopped (with seeds)

1 tablespoon chili paste (add more if you like it hotter)

2 whole star anise

2 pounds chicken wings, trim off wing tips, and cut the wings into 2 pieces

Dipping Sauce (see recipe)

INSTRUCTIONS:
Combine the hoisin, soy and plum sauces in a saucepan. Add the sherry, sesame oil, ginger, onions, garlic, chile pepper, chili paste and star anise; stir well to blend. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Put the chicken wings in a glass or plastic container and pour the cooled sauce over them. Remove the star anise. Turn the wings in the sauce to make sure each is coated thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate preferably overnight, but at least 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a baking sheet with foil; oil the foil.

Remove the chicken from the marinade (reserve the marinade) and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, then turn the wings over and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, until the wings are a rich brown and cooked through, basting with the reserved marinade every 15 minutes.

Immediately remove the wings to a serving plate (if allowed to cool on the pan, the chicken will stick to the foil).

Serve at room temperature with the dipping sauce.

Serves 4 as an appetizer

PER SERVING (without dip): 460 calories, 25 g protein, 17 g carbohydrate, 31 g fat (7 g saturated), 95 mg cholesterol, 2,115 mg sodium, 1 g fiber.

——————————————————————————–
Feta, Cilantro & Sour Cream Dipping Sauce

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon white wine

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

INSTRUCTIONS:
Whisk together all ingredients and pour into serving bowl. Refrigerate until serving time.

Yields about 1 3/4 cups

PER TABLESPOON: 40 calories, 1 g protein, 1 g carbohydrate, 4 g fat (2 g saturated), 7 mg cholesterol, 50 mg sodium, 0 fiber.

Linda Furiya divides her time between San Francisco and Shanghai. E-mail her at food@sfchronicle.com.

Publish Date : 11/19/2004 10:53:00 AM Source : Onlypunjab.com Team

The Sinus Buster is the world’s first commercially produced hot pepper nasal spray manufactured by SiCap Industries of Altamont, New York. The Sinus Buster uses Capsicum, a natural oily resin derived from certain varieties of hot peppers. The active medicinal chemical in Capsicum is “Capsaicin,” the ingredient that puts the “hot” in hot peppers.

Although Capsaicin is its’ main active ingredient, the Sinus Buster formula incorporates an exclusive mixture of completely natural herbal extracts and other ingredients that are designed to work in combination with the pepper extract. The ingredients are as follows: Oleoresin Capsicum, Eucalyptus Oil, Rosemary Extract, Ascorbic Acid as pure Vitamin C, Sea Salt, and Aloe Vera Gel in a base of purified water.

“We adhere to strict standards so we can proudly call Sinus Buster all natural. A lot of natural health and dietary supplements out there call themselves all natural, but in truth many are not. I mean I use this stuff too…everyday of my life, and I refuse to put something up my nose that’s not all natural. I’ve been on so many medications that never worked over the years, and when I discovered the power of pepper I knew I finally had the ticket. And just think…it all came from mother nature,” says Wayne Perry, President and founder of SiCap Industries.

Perry, a long time chronic cluster headache and sinusitis sufferer, first discovered the medicinal power of peppers while filming a live self defense pepper spray demonstration for a FOX News affiliate in Albany, New York. Just moments before the filming was to take place, Perry was stricken with one of his horrible headaches.

“I went through with the demonstration, and the pepper hurt like hell, but I immediately noticed my headache was gone. It was totally gone, and the constant one sided nasal congestion I always got with the headaches was also gone. I felt like it was some sort of miracle. Believe it or not, I owe my life to hot peppers. They did for me what no other medicine could ever do, and now I feel like I have to spread the word about the power of peppers,” says Perry.

Perry’s love for hot peppers is apparent in everything he does — he even sports a large tattoo featuring Chile peppers woven together with tribal overtones.

“The more I’ve learn about the medicinal properties of capsaicin, the more excited I get. It’s simply incredible stuff. We know how the capsaicin in sinus buster relieves headaches and sick sinus symptoms, but that’s just scratching the surface of what hot peppers can do. Capsaicin may even prove to have potential cancer fighting abilities as some studies have shown. At the very least, I’ve seen first hand what it can do for people who suffer from a multitude of chronic sinus and headache conditions,” adds Perry.

Since Perry first began marketing his Sinus Buster formula, his company, SiCap Industries has been flooded with thousands of letters, emails, and phone calls from people praising the Sinus Buster as their “life saver”.

One believer is Bob Haines of Altamont, New York. Haines had been a long time aquaintance of Perry’s when Wayne first decided to mass produce his hot pepper nasal spray, and at that time Haines thought Perry was a little nuts until he found out the spray also helped his own son.

“The first time Wayne told me about sinus buster I didn’t know what to think. I mean it sounded pretty crazy to me, but I knew he had those headaches for a long time and he swore the pepper spray cured him. So I took him at his word. He had been a news reporter for a long time here in Albany, and I trusted him, but I still wasn’t convinced. Anyway, my oldest son had suffered from severe headaches that would send him laying down in a dark room in gut wrenching pain. He had them ever since he hit puberty, and they were getting worse, so I gave a bottle of sinus buster to my kid and the next day I knew Wayne had a miracle on his hands. Nothing had ever worked for my son and I mean nothing, but the sinus buster did the trick, and because of hot peppers, my son is a changed person. That’s when I went to Wayne and offered to give up everything to join his company. Now less than a year later, we’ve had thousands of customers who’ve also had their lives changed by the sinus buster just like it did for my son,” says Haines, now VP of Manufacturing for SiCap Industries.

The Sinus Buster is also a hit with the media being recently featured in the Wall Street Journal, and on the Today Show.

“The sinus buster shows up in the news all over the place. We’ve been in magazines, newspapers, and in dozens of tv news reports all over the world. Lots of medical magazines and on websites. Evertime somebody in the media tries the sinus buster, they want to tell their audience about it because it really works. It’s about as close to a miracle as you’re gonna get,” adds Bob Haines