Webster’s Definition of Guacamole: A popular Mexican specialty of mashed avocado mixed with lemon or time juice and various seasonings (usually chili powder and red pepper) Sometimes finely chopped tomato, green onion and cilantro are added. Guacamole can be used as a dip, sauce, topping or side dish. It must be covered closely and tightly to prevent discoloration.

My definition: Yummy – when made right.

This past weekend, since I had an extra day, I made sure to do as much cooking as the wife would allow me to do. On Saturday I decided to put together some [tag]guacamole[/tag] and then nachos for dinner. Not exactly gourmet food, but tasty and satisfying nontheless.

Nick’s Guacamole
Ingredients

• 3-4 Large Haas Avacados (or 5-6 small) – Make sure they are ripe
• 1 medium red onion
• 2 limes
• 2-3 Fresh Jalapenos
• Salt (I used coarse kosher)
• Pepper (fresh ground)

Also, I had originally planned on adding some fresh chopped cilantro, but the wife picked up parsley instead. Recipe turned out fine without it, but you can make it either way.

Step 1: Cubing the Avocados

Slice your avocado lenthwise, and then twist to seperate the two sides.
Carefully, cut your avocado (still in skin) crosswise into small cubes.

Now, using a spoon, you can easily scoop out the cubes from the avocado. This really helps speed up the process and it’s a snap to do.

Step 2: Chopping the Onion & Jalapeno

Chop your onion and seeded jalapenos finely.

Step 3: Putting it together

I didn’t get a photo of one step. Prior to adding all the ingredients together, you need to mash the avocados with a potato masher, but not too much, as you will do some additional mashing when you add in the other ingredients.

In this step, add all the onions, jalapenos, salt & pepper, as well as the juice of one lime. Mix well.

Step 4: Guacamole

Now, since I hate tomatoes, I made my batch without. But if you like them, then mix in some fresh chopped tomatoes last. You don’t want them watering down the guac too much.

Nachos
Below are the Nachos I made, topped with the Guacamole from above.

By Tony Kindelspire
The Daily Times-Call

You’ve heard of concept restaurants? Two years ago, that’s all Dragon Wingz Gourmet Hot Wingz was — a concept.

Chris Andre and his wife, Terri Koleber, didn’t have any restaurant experience, but they had a plan: open a hot wings restaurant in Firestone, near where they lived, and then open another in Longmont.

“One restaurant’s a job, and with two restaurants you’re making money,” Andre said of his thinking at the time.

The couple brought in Mark Wolfe as a consultant. Wolfe had assisted with hundreds of restaurant openings during his years in the business, and had a decade of experience working with wings shops.

One of the original concepts of Dragon Wingz was to offer what Koleber calls their “mega-sauce collection” — nearly 50 different varieties of sauce to choose from.

Another part of the concept that was almost a happy accident is that Dragon Wingz uses only Maverick Ranch all-natural, free-range chicken. Credit Wolfe with that one.

A fan of one of the morning shows on Denver radio, Wolfe was attending a “Live Audience Friday” event hosted by the station, and Maverick Ranch was catering the event.

Wolfe instantly fell in love with the meat, and a few days later Dragon Wingz signed a contract with Maverick.

“They had been doing chicken for stores, but nobody would buy the wings,” Wolfe said.

Now, Dragon Wingz buys them to the tune of 800 to 1,000 pounds a week. “In football season it’ll probably jump to 4,000 pounds of wings a week,” said Wolfe, who reverently speaks of Super Bowl Sunday as “the day of all days.”

The Firestone restaurant stayed open about nine months, but the trio finally gave up on the town when they were denied a liquor license. Town fathers viewed Dragon Wingz as a fast-food restaurant and saw no need for such a place to sell cold beer.

The Longmont location, in the Fox Creek Village shopping center at 17th Avenue and Pace Street, opened last month.

The owners are hoping to make business even better after this weekend, when they and other businesses in the center host a grand opening party.

Technically, Dragon Wingz is fast food, but in the literal sense, not in the McDonald’s-Burger King-KFC sense.

“We bake it first and then we fry it,” said Wolfe. “Most wing places fry their wings to cook them. We don’t. We bake them.”

After 20 to 25 minutes of baking, the wings are put into a fryer for about three minutes to “crisp up.” After that, they are promptly coated in one of the many sauces in a variety of categories: traditional, barbecue, Asian, Caribbean, mustard, hot and even fruity.

For any sauce that rates four or five peppers on the heat scale, customers are required to taste it first, Koleber said, adding that the rule had to be put in place after too many overconfident customers ordered hot sauces thinking they could take the heat, only to discover they were out of their league.

Only two sauces, “Harold’s Dangerously Hot” and “Semper Fry,” have a rating of five peppers, but that doesn’t stop people from trying them.

“You get the posturing with the high school kids, of who can eat the hottest sauce,” Wolfe said.

“I think they’re trying out for the role of alpha sauce taster,” adds Koleber.

Part of Koleber’s job is to track down the sauce producers — offering the ones she likes shelf space to sell bottles of their sauce, as well as a spot on the menu. Magazines such as “Fiery Foods” and “Chili Pepper” are good sources, she said.

Most of the sauce brands aren’t recognizable, but that’s by design, Koleber said.

“Some of the big-name companies were not willing to come through,” she said. “I think that all of these small-business saucemakers realize that small businesses have to stick together.”

Aside from being director of operations, Wolfe also holds the title of director of franchising. The franchise concept has been there all along, he said, because of Dragon Wingz’ simple approach to its business practices.

So far, franchising inquiries have come in from Loveland, Texas and Montana, Wolfe said, adding that franchise fees are approximately $200,000 and require a 10-year commitment.

The owners are taking their time in choosing franchisees, he said, but everything from the chicken and sauce distribution network they’ve established to the method of cooking and serving the customers make it “primed for franchising,” he said.

“We took the KISS concept” — keep it simple, stupid — “to a new level,” Wolfe said.

Tony Kindelspire can be reached at 303-684-5291, or by e-mail at tkindelspire@times-call.com.

COALS
1888 EASTCHESTER ROAD
718-823-7002

Chef Bill Etzel first tried grilled pizza in New England, and he was hooked. The former librbarian convinced his childhood friend to open a restaurant devoted to it. 5 months ago thier dream became a reality when they opened Coals right across from the Albert Einstein college of medicine, in the Morris Park section of the Bronx.

There are nine kinds of pizza on the menu plus a daily special, and they all start with Bill’s secret dough that uses a bit of whole wheat.

Firecracker Pizza

Ingredients:
Pizza dough (from local pizza place or made from scratch)
1/2 cup bel paese cheese
1/2 cup fresh tomato sauce
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano cheese
1/2 cup corn kernels
2 tbls roasted jalapeno olive oil (specialty food stores)
1 tsp chopped parsley
2 tbls olive oil

Instructions:
Use 1 cup of rolled dough.
Press out till thin on cutting board (may need to use a little olive oil so it doesn’t stick)
Then add it right on top of hot grill (indoor grill or barbcue grill)
Within seconds it will bubble. Using tongs, check underside for char marks.
When visible, flip over to cooler side of grill brush with olive oil.
Drizzle bel paese, tomato sauce, pecorino romano, corn and jalapeno oil.
Move to hotter part of grill, add parsely. As oil starts to bubble, remove from grill.
Slice and serve. Serves 1 person

Okay, on Thursday of last week I started getting sick, so I vowed to beat the cold by consuming as many peppers that I could.

Well, I succeed. I kicked that cold’s ass. I made a small serving of pasta that had 2 habaneros, 2 serranos and 2 jalapeno peppers mixed in. I couldn’t taste it, but I know it was hot because I started sweating one bite into it. The wife wouldn’t even try it.

But let me tell you, I beat the cold and didn’t get sick all weekend. I managed to eat so many peppers that any viruses in my body were:
A. Burnt Out
B. Scared Out
C. Flushed Out

Until today.
I disregarded the weather report this morning and left the apartment without an umbrella. I hate umbrellas, especially here in NYC, since most people don’t seem to have a clue about how to handle their umbrellas and usually cause me to have to dodge my way around them or get hit. And don’t get me started on the people that have umbrellas big enough to shelter a small family. What the hell is the point of those?

Okay, so no umbrella. Usually no big deal. Well today it was raining. Raining like Oregon rain. So I got soaked walking the two blocks to the subway station. Good thing I’ve got a Timbuk2 bag that’s completely water proof.

So here I am, getting sick again and it’s a Monday. UGH…

but yesterday I did cook some mean ribs, so look for posts on those pretty soon

Chile Pepper Magazine has a great archive article on the Healing Power of Peppers.

Looking for a job? How about becoming a Pretzel Editor? Or Chief Cheese Puff Editor?
Taquitos.net has been a long time favorite of mine, especially when I have a long list of things to do and just want to waste some time.

Reviews I Recommend:
- Blair’s Death Rain XXX Hot Habanero Kettle Cooked Potato Chips
- Blair’s Death Rain Hot Cajun Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

Source SF Gate

On the short list of a network of savvy gardeners, a strawberry- shaped chile known as cherrapeño is exploding in popularity in the Bay Area.

Cherrapeño ‘Sparky’ is a hybrid, a cross between a cherry bomb and a jalapeño that has a kick like a supercharged jalapeño. It has just been released by Orsetti Seed Co. of Hollister (San Benito County). It has been grown for the past few seasons in experimental trials by the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County (of the University of California Cooperative Extension).

It’s consistently stood out at the Master Gardeners’ annual fund-raiser, the Spring Garden Market.

For the first two seasons after the chile was introduced by the master gardeners, members of the master gardeners’ team scrambled to land batches of cherrapeño pods to make chile jam, a runaway favorite appetizer. Chile jam is a standard at public tastings hosted by the gardeners, events that draw hundreds of visitors. The fire-engine-red jam is usually served on a block of cream cheese with crackers or tortilla chips. When fresh, the chile has a sweet flavor followed by spicy heat.

Orsetti seed representatives hope to fill a niche since during the 2003- 2004 season there was a shortage of cherry-type chiles, the preferred variety for pickling, said Greg Orsetti, a vice president with the company.

Less than 1 percent of chiles that go to trials are released, Orsetti said, adding that his company this season had more 1,500 varieties of jalapeños available for one particular trial.

“It’s pretty intense,” he said. In demonstrations, researchers seek chiles “with good architecture, good cover protection (for pods that may be damaged by the sun), appearance, wall thickness, good production,” as well as other factors. Master Gardeners’ chile team members organized a letter-writing and telephone campaign directed at Johnny’s Selected Seeds of Winslow, Maine, urging the company to test the chile, and it did, although it is not being carried in the 2005 catalog.

Propagation: Because it is hybrid it won’t reproduce a like plant from harvested seeds. However, master gardeners have maintained cherrapeño plants through winters by establishing them in pots and protecting them during cold months. Before winter descends, cut the plant branches way down and remove all pods. If growing from plants, do not put into the ground until May 1, when soil temperature is compatible for hot-weather vegetables.

“I grew my cherrapeños in full sun — hardy plants produced high yield, ” said Oakland gardener Charlie Quaid, a regular at the Spring Garden Market.

Harvest: Pick chiles when they are mostly red and use within a couple of days. Do not refrigerate.

Availability: Cherrapeño plants can be purchased at the Spring Garden Market, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 2 at Prusch Park, 647 S. King Road in San Jose. Orsetti seeds are available from Osborne International Seed Co., (360) 424- 7333, and Siegers Seed Co., (800) 962-4999. “The seeds are accessible even if they aren’t in catalogs,” Orsetti said. To contact Orsetti Seeds Inc., call (831) 636-4822 or visit www.orsettiseeds.com.

How to cook: Quaid finds the firm, fleshy fruit “excellent for jams and salsas — also very good with eggs.” And he says the deep, red color is outstanding in a green salsa. “My favorite is a flame-roasted cherrapeño salsa made with tomatillos, onions, garlic, cilantro and lime juice,” Quaid said.

Resources: “Chile Head Sampler Volume 1″ is a collection of more than 30 original recipes by Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County. The 35-page guide also includes chile-growing information and tips on extending the season, such as dehydrating, marinating, smoking and freezing chiles. Copies are $6, plus $1.50 for shipping and can be ordered from Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County, P.O. Box 5502, San Jose, CA 95150.

Menlo Park writer Laramie Treviño is chairwoman of the Chile Head Sampler committee and an ex-officio chile team member with the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County. E-mail her at home@sfchronicle.com.

No matter what you call it; snapper, bearded clam, cooter cleavage, the pink taco or beavage, there is nothing that tastes or smells like Camel Toe Hot Sauce.

Camel Toe – Quite possibly the only hot sauce on the market with it’s own song and model. Bob & Tom have a CD out called Camel Toe and it features a song with the same name.

While at the 2005 Fiery Foods Show I had the privelege of meeting Tahiti Joe and the Camel Toe model (forgot her name).

I was drawn like a moth to a flame (to the hot sauce of course ) and was quite surprised at the flavor of the sauce. Most hot sauces that have funny/sexy labeling do not have any decent flavor, your buying the label only. Camel Toe proved that theory wrong with excellent chipotle and mango flavoring. This sauce would go perfect on hamburgers, steak or anything else you can think of. You can buy Camel Toe Hot Sauce from Sweat ‘n Spice. Enjoy!

I’m getting sick. I know because I wasn’t at all hungry today. Three day weekend coming up and I’m getting ill. Fun! So I’m taking some of my own advice and I’m going to burn the evil sickness out of my body.

For the next few days I’m going on a pepper rampage, going to try to consume as many of the vitamin rich heat poppers that I can. Either I will overload my system with vitamins or everything will get cleaned out. Or both. This could get ugly.

I added 4 drops of Pure Cap to my chips and salsa for lunch. Sad thing was that I couldn’t even taste the heat, but the guy next to me had to leave the room. Tonight, I’m going to make another round of Spicy Spaghetti, this time with more Habaneros and Serrano Peppers.

I’d better put some toilet paper in the freezer and buy more beer. Happy holiday weekend to me!

More information on the Health Benefits of Peppers:
Cayenne Pepper
General Pepper Health Information
Spicy Food Treatment

Blair has another new reserve coming out and it’s going to be just as hot as Blair’s 6 A.M.
Blair’s newsletter note is below:

Hello, Well After lots and lots of work – Blair’s(me) 16 million Reserve is nearing completion (Close enough for pre-orders to happen now)… To understand how difficult this was to produce, you have to think about this as an experiment – A long Time consuming experiment, that has been my goal since I learned who Mr.Scoville was… So yes since 1989 it has been my mission to do this – A Crazy mission some would say – But you gotta follow your passion…..

NO ONE HAS EVER PRODUCED ANYTHING LIKE THIS – Pure Capsaicin. Do ya get it??? JUST THE PURE CRYSTALS….NOTHING ELSE…….. Here is what you get – one 1ml Nalgene Pharmaceutical grade vial. Each Hand filled by volume. The vial is then placed into my Famous Reserve bottle that has been filled with some protective packing so the vial will stay in place, Then I seal The English bottle with a Food grade silicon cork to ensure no air gets in….. Next It’s topped off with White and Gold Resin…. (your Reserve collection will look great with this very unique addition)….

You my friend, will be the very proud owner of The most exclusive Product Ever Produced….Now accepting pre-orders….. Expect Shipping to begin on or About April 18th 2005…..The VIP Pre-order Price is only $99(You will never see this price again). THIS IS A SPECIAL MEMBER PRE-ORDER PRICE ONLY VALID UNTIL 3-24-05… Then the next Pre-order price will be in effect after that and continue on up. You know how it works..By the time this Reserve is on the market you will have seen at least a 50% increase in value..I cannot wait for you to have my new 16 million in your display…..Thank you my fellow Chilihead and as always Feel Alive Blair

PS: I do not know the amount I am going to be able to produce – it is rather complex- my brick of 16 million has some useable and some not so I do not have an exact yield until I am done (I told you this was experimental) One thing I can assure you is the most that will be made is 999 even if I have enough for more – - The truth of the matter is, it could only be 400 Reserves ….I really do not know – -This makes it more fun for both of us…Again all my best …

For all of you that are big into the collector’s side of things, you know just how much a Reserve bottle from Blair can appreciate in value. Just 2 years ago, Caldera was selling for less then $200 and now days your lucky to find one under $1000.
You can pre-order the newest reserve from Sweat ‘N Spice for $159.95 – but you’d better hurry – the price will be going up and after that, who knows how high it’s going to get.

I went to the market the other day, by myself, which is never a good thing. I always come back with more condiments then food. One condiment that I couldn’t resist buying this time around was a spicy tartar sauce. Well, when you buy tartar sauce you have to buy fish, so I bought 1lb of halibut and went home.

I’ve never cooked halibut before in my life, I’ve eaten it plenty of times and I’ve seen people cook it, but I personally never had the pleasure of working with it. Mostly because the wife is not very tolerant of fish in general, so getting her to let me have raw fish in the house (that wasn’t sushi) and to cook it was a feat in itself. And she ate it!

This recipe was basically invented on the fly. Like I said, I’ve never cooked halibut and wanted to jazz it up a bit. I apologize that the measurements are not exact, but I hardly ever measure things in the kitchen anyways.

Ingredients:
1 lb halibut (cut into 2 steaks)
Chiltepine Peppers (your decision on how much)
Brown Sugar
Coconut (handful)
Pecans (handful)
Sour Cream (about 2 tablespoons worth)

Step 1: Hailbut Steaks

I bought 1lb of Halibut (costs about $17.99 a lb). I removed the skin and cut the piece lenghtwise in order to get two nice sized Halibut steaks.

Step 2: Pecans & Peppers

Chop up the handful of Pecans and place in a bowl.

I bought these Chiltepines at the Fiery Foods Show from Native Seeds – a non-profit organization that is working on perserving the foods of Native American Cultures. The bag cost $4.50 and will last me for qutie a while.
“These wild chiles are small, round and very fiery. Crumble 4-5 in hot stir-fry, chile, or anything you want to spice up. A tasty surprise in ic cream! Picked by Chiltepneras, women of a cooperative, in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico.”
Crush a few of these tiny peppers with your fingers into the bowl of pecans.

Step 3: Pecans & Brown Sugar

Now mix the pecan chiltepine mixture with an equal amount of brown sugar. The toss the mixture into a large skillet over a medium flame and watch carefully. Keep stiring the mixture so it does not stick.

You will notice that all of the sudden, the brown sugar will begin sticking to the pecans and pepper flakes and as soon as it does, it’s time to pull it off the heat.

Step 4: Mixing the Coconut & Sour Cream
Mix the cocount and sour cream together and then mix in the pecan pepper mixture. Before coating the halibut with the mixture, brush the halibut with a light cover of sour cream. Then cover the top of the hailbut steaks with the pecan coconut pepper crust.

Step 5: Finished!

Bake the Halibut at 400 degrees for about 15-20 mintues, checking periodically. You’ll notice the crust will begin turning brown and once the halibut flakes with a fork your done cooking.

This recipe was created on the fly in order to incorporate the Chiltepines and Halibut and I think it turned out very nice. Each bit provided just a touch of heat which was balanced with an equal amount of sweetness. Very tasty if I may say so myself.