Smouldering Chocolate Fireballs

Ancient Central and South Americans have been combining chilies and chocolate since at least 595 A.D., why shouldn’t the folks over at The Chilli Pepper company.

Ingredients: sugar, full cream milk powder, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, cream, marc de champagne, concentrated whey, alcohol, jalapeno chilli powder, orange oil, milk proteins, soya lecithin, natural vanilla.

With mother’s day around the corner chocolates are always a good idea. When I received these little gems in the mail, I rushed over to visit dear ol’ Mom and kill two birds with one chocolate.

Bouquet: It smells like chocolate.

Texture: The chocolate is firm and doesn’t get “melty” when handled.

Taste: The first thing I (and Mom) noticed was the high quality of the chocolate. The outer chocolate has a light milky orange taste and despite being very firm, yields to the tooth quite easily. The center has a smooth crème de champagne taste that is really nice. At the finish the Jalapeno flavor enters, bites you, and then leaves just as quick.

After all was said and done, I was happy with the chocolates and more importantly Mom was happy. Don’t forget your mom on May 11th I’m sure these chocolates would do the trick.

The Chilli Pepper Company
www.chileseeds.co.uk

It’s MANGO MADNESS in MAY!!!!

Our Multi Award Winning Make Me Moan Mango will heat up any Spring Fling …BBQ that is!

For the month of May, purchase 2 bottles of Make Me Moan Mango and receive 1 free Rub Me the Right Way Sweet or Hot Rub!

A perfect BBQ combination!

Order Now!
www.threehottamales.com

Dumb and Dumber hot sauce

First impressions: My first impression of this sauce from looking at the sauce, looking at the label, and looking at the ingredients was that it was just another generic cayenne type sauce with way to much vinegar in it because the manufacturer wants to make more sauce for cheaper. I don’t have a problem with these types of sauces because I do really like vinegary sauce if I’m in the mood for it, the only problem is there are so many that are all the same thing all made as cheap as possible so they can try to sell them with a novelty label. The sauce itself is light red and basically looks like a watered down version of a cayenne sauce, where you would normally find a brief description of the sauce trying to convince you that its something you will like this bottle instead has a brief description for the novelty label. the only positive that I got in the first impression is that the first ingredient is habanero peppers rather than cayenne peppers.

First taste: I opened it up and was pleasantly surprised by the smell, garlic and vinegar. I meant to take a small swig from the bottle but underestimated how watery this stuff is and got a mouthful. Same as the smell garlic first then vinegar and with so much of it in my mouth at once I can say it was a little too salty but latter when I put it on my food that wasn’t an issue. this sauce was basically what I was expecting except for the garlic, yea I read it in the ingredients but was still surprised by how garlicky it was and how there was actually enough garlic in it to stand its ground next to the vinegar. I love garlic and it really makes the difference that turns an otherwise generic vinegar type of sauce into something wonderful and unique. Time to make dinner.

Dinner: as I was taking that first sip that turned into a mouthful and savoring the flavor trying to analyze every ingredient in this simple sauce my wife was making a snack, English muffin cut in half with a slice of tomato, fresh green and purple basil from my aero garden, and a slice of pepper jack cheese toasted in the toaster oven. I told her I didn’t want any but as it was toasting and the fresh basil hit my nose I couldn’t help but think how great this sauce would be on it. I made some up and it was fantastic, garlic and basil and cheese with a vinegary tanginess, damn it was good. and even with all the other great meals I made with this sauce it was definitely the best use of it, unfortunately I didn’t take pictures so I got some hungry howys thin crust mushroom pizza for the actual review pictures and if you prefer vinegar based sauces on your pizza this is about as good as your going to find. It’s not my favorite sauce for pizza but it could be my favorite sauce of this type for pizza. All in all I was really impressed with it.

Ingredients: habanero peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, salt, and vegetable gum.

Distributed by www.risquehotsauce.com (that’s it for manufacturer info on the bottle) and if you go to the site like I tried to do for research you will see that it has nothing. It must of closed down or something. I did a quick search for dumb and dumber hot sauce and found nothing, just a few links to pages that have something to do with the movie and a link to a youtube video of someone putting hot sauce in his eye. Good luck finding this stuff, but if you do pick a bottle up because its worth trying.

Appearance/marketing: 2/10 I never would of bought this stuff in the store unless it was on a clearance rack or something. I think that if the same sauce was sold with a little more serious approach it would do better, even if it’s the same label but just has a description of the sauce on it instead of the explanation of the label. I don’t think anyone would expect the garlic level in this sauce and just mentioning that would let me know that its got something to make it stand out from the category of sauce that it is in.

Taste: 7.9/10 the vinegar, garlic and habanero’s where all balanced perfectly. I really enjoyed this sauce.

Heat level: mild. It does build a little more than I expected because of the habenero’s, but for a habanero sauce its really not that hot.

Overall: 7.5/10

Doctor Craigs Cajun Hot Sauce

Ingredients: Rice vinegar, Habanero pepper, Pineapple, onion, Garlic, Natural liquid smoke flavor, Brown sugar, Cornstarch, Cayenne pepper, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate to extend freshness.

Smell: smells like a Cajun sauce, but with a twist. I can definitely smell the natural liquid smoke flavoring, and the pineapple. That give it that twist.

Taste: the main flavors in this sauce are the smoke flavoring and the pineapple, with the Cajun as a background flavor. By Cajun I mean the little bit of vinegar and the cayenne peppers that make the traditional Cajun sauce. This sauce also has habanero’s and they give it an extra kick. It is defiantly not your average Cajun sauce; in fact the differences are almost enough to not even consider it a Cajun sauce at all. It is really good though. Even though it is really sweet and I don’t like sweet I loved this sauce.

Meal: the first thing I tried this on was an egg and it was a great match, I fried it so that there was just a few drops of runny yolk left and then let the sauce mix with the yolk while I was eating it. the first thing I noticed was the smoked flavor and then the little bit of sweetness, with a little bit of heat that didn’t really build enough to notice until I was taking the last few bites. Because of the liquid smoke flavor to it I decided to try it on a burger. Liquid smoke is something I haven’t used in a while but my father used to put it on burgers and jerky so that’s why I thought the sauce would be a good match on a burger plus I had been day dreaming about a burger with chopped scotch bonnets and bacon in it for a while.

The first picture there shows 10 good sized, fresh from my garden scotch bonnet peppers, bacon in the middle, and a pound of hamburger. The second picture shows everything mixed together and made into 2 burgers, the larger of the two is the one I am using this sauce on, the other ended up being a hell no burger. After mixing everything together I cooked the burgers on the grill. I had my hart set on a onion bun that I purchased a package of the night before, but when I went to get it out I noticed they where moldy, and not just a little bit either I don’t know how I missed it when I bought them but I wasn’t going to have one. Instead I took two pieces of bread, and buttered and garlic salted one side of each the way I would make garlic bread. I cooked the one side the same way I do garlic bread also which is just on a pan until it starts to brown. Putting the garlic sides in the middle so my hands where touching the regular side I constructed my burger with a piece of cheese and some doctor craigs Cajun xtra hot sauce. I almost forgot the picture but remembered after a couple bites.

This picture is just to show how thick this burger is, it really was a large burger. The bacon and scotch bonnets gave it a really good flavor and added a good amount of heat to it on top of the sauce, I ate the rest of the bottle of sauce before writing this though so that I can accurately describe the flavor and heat level of it.

Buying info:
MFD. By Bobbees bottling
Louisburg, NC. 27549
www.doctorcraigs.com

Flavor: 8/10

Heat: 2.9/10 its not really hot, but its hotter than most Cajun sauces you just have to let it build a little.

Smell: 8/10 there is nothing that really stood out more in the smell or taste of this sauce.

Price: The website is still under a lot of construction, but they do have it set up to buy some sauce, the price is decent and includes shipping in it, but the only thing is you have to buy 2 bottles in order to place an order. I see why they do that, the price of shipping is included and it’s cheaper per bottle to ship two.
I always buy a couple bottles to make the most of shipping myself, but overall I think it might hurt there sales. If it’s a sauce you have never tried why buy 2 bottles? They do have another type of sauce also so you can get one of each but id recommend getting 2 of these if though.

Overall: 9/10

Tony Legner’s Habanero Premium Steak Sauce: $8 a bottle

A new release at the 2008 Fiery Foods Show - this sauce was so hot off the press at show time that Tony had not yet even announced the line up. Hopefully those that attended managed to give it a whirl and grab yourself a bottle. Tony’s Cat-5 Food Polish is still one of my favorite dusts for a bland dish and knowing that Tony’s restaurant is as successful as it is, I was more then willing to give his new sauce a try.

Up Close

Looking at the sauce, it’s doesn’t look like any steak sauce I’ve ever seen before. The appearance is almost a translucent brown with flakes of ingredients running throughout.

Smell: It smells like a steak - not a steak sauce, but like the little sauce that drips off a steak after you cook it. To put it bluntly, the smell of this sauce is drool inducing.

Perfect for a t-bone

Steak was the only way I could foresee trying this sauce out on, given the name, at least to start. I cooked up a mean t-bone and went to town. The sauce does have a bit of a heat tickle to it which is surprising given that the smell does not alert ones senses to the presence of the habanero. Coating the steak nicely, the consistency of the sauce is a bit thinner then a typical steak sauce (like A1). The flavor though, is out of this world. With a sauce this tasty, you could make anything taste gourmet.

The sauce by itself is ever so slightly sweet, with the undertones of spice and a hint of mushroom. On the steak itself, it’s like the sauce draws out the already great flavors of the steak. Laura & I went through almost half the bottle with this one steak and I tried it out the other night on burgers - fantastic! If you’ve got any sort of plans to grill this summer, do yourself a favor and get yourself a few bottles of Tony’s steak sauce - you won’t be disappointed.

Tony Legner’s Culinary Productions
1003 East Concho Street
Rockport, Texas 78382
361-386-0084

NEXT DEFCON EVENT, 5/3/08!!!

The 2nd Annual New England Regional Chili Cookoff

Pleasant View, route 83/452 South Road, Somers, CT 06071

May 3, 2008 will welcome more than 40 Chili Cooks from across the country to Pleasant View in Somers, Ct as they compete for an opportunity to represent the New England Regional Chili Cookoff at the World Competition later this year.

The DEFCON Crew will be serving up our culinary masterpieces of wingdom to the masses! Hand-cooked by The DEFCON Creator himself!
The event will benefit the Enfield Food Shelf.
Sanctioned and governed by the International Chili Society, cooks will compete in Red Chili, Chili Verde and Salsa categories. There will also be non-ICS categories for a Youth Division for kids under 18 years of age and People’s Choice Chili that the public will vote the best. Cash awards totaling $2500 will be distributed to winning teams.

The event is open to the public from 11am to 4pm. Tasting kits will be sold at the gate for $5.00 and two canned goods per adult, kids under 10 free. Live entertainment featuring local talent Acoustic Rick and the New England Regional Chili Cookoff All Star Band will take the stage. Food vendors and crafters will be on hand. A hot pepper eating contest will be sure to heat things up!
*For more information, www.chilict.com or madmike@chilict.com

FOOD NETWORK IS LOOKING FOR AMAZING STORIES FOR A GROUNDBREAKING NEW SERIES!!!

Do you or someone you know have an amazing food related story to tell? Do you know someone who has gone from being homeless to the owner of their own restaurant, makes pop art out of pineapples, or eats nothing but peanuts? Do you know someone who is battling food fears or phobias? Has food helped to cure an illness, changed the course of your life, or helped to inspire you in some dramatic way? We are looking for all types of stories even those that are odd or humorous to feature on and upcoming series for the Food Network.

Casting is underway, so Email a brief description of your story with your contact information and picture of yourself ASAP to michaelraptis@alroker.com or call 646.723.9848 to be considered for the show.

I’ve never made a brisket before and never thought about trying one until moving here. You see, brisket might well be the staple of Texas BBQ. If a BBQer can cook a mean brisket, well, then they can cook just about anything. After my 2nd trip to Southside Market (I have to travel to Austin for work) - I decided to attempt my first brisket - after all, how hard could it be?

Following some advice that I found online, I picked up a “packer” cut brisket at the market on Friday night and went to work. I seasoned it with the 6 Pepper Blend Seasoning that I picked up at Southside (note: good on brisket, too powerful for ribs) and fired up the BGE. I put the brisket on the BGE around 7pm, with the intention of letting it slow cook all night long. It barely fit on the grill by the way.

Around 11pm, before heading off to bed, I checked it and noted that the temp had creeped up to almost 300 degrees (it was supposed to hold at 200). Seeing that the brisket was cooking way to fast, I pulled it off and wrapped it in foil. I dampered the fire down to 225 and put the brisket back on. Off to bed I went.

At 5am on Saturday, the brisket fumes were getting to me and I dragged myself out of bed and pulled it off the grill. You can see just how tasty it looked - now imagine the smell of that in your house at the butt crack of dawn. We most certainly had brisket for breakfast.

You can see on the brisket, there’s a slight smoke ring to it - but not as good as I would have liked. The meat itself was just slightly tough - the high early temp didn’t allow it to slow cook like I would have liked.

Nevertheless, the brisket was still excellent for sandwiches. Not one I would serve just sliced and on a plate, but it certainly was tasty enough for a good BBQ ‘wich. Next time notes: lower & slower - more smoke. Anyone else have brisket tips to share?

Review: Goonie Nick is back with CaJohn’s Jolokia Select!

Limited Edition Jolokia Select

Background: It has been roughly 10 months since I have written my last review for the HSB. I just want to begin by saying that HSB is the greatest chili blog site around with the world’s greatest chili heads! I do belong to other blogs in the genres of movies, weather and science but none of these compare to the HSB. The HSB is composed of a great community of companies, individuals, fans, manufacturers, and hobbyists. While I have been inactive in terms of my reviews and comments, I have followed HSB religously every single day!

So what brought me back to becoming active after 10 months? One evening I was browsing ebay and I decided to purchase CaJohn’s Jolokia Select Puree. With this purchase came all the memories of the anticipation, curiousity, and excitement of posting reviews on the HSB. I simply had to try this product and be able to share my feelings with the rest of the hot sauce community.

In the past year I have tried a few products with the Naga Jolokia and felt that the heat levels weren’t quite were it ought to be for a pepper receiving a SHU rating of around 1 million. I have tried CaJohn’s Sauce 10 and Nagasoreass, Danny Cash’s Naga Sabi Bomb, Montego Bay’s Hell’s Inferno, and pepper pods from Mexico Institute. While all these products were great in quality and taste I didn’t feel they were hotter than some of the hottest natural sauces on the market.

I feel that in terms of pure heat for a natural sauce the top 3 are CaJohn’s Habanero Select, Fatalii Select, and CaJohn’s No Naga Sauce 10. (Not in any exact order) (No Naga Sauce 10 went on to become a manufactured product titled, “Scorch”. CaJohn informed me that I did play a significant role in his decision. I stated in my reviews of Sauce 10 and No Naga Sauce 10, that I honestly felt that No Naga Sauce 10 (Red Savina, Fatalii, and the Orange Habaneo) was actually hotter than Sauce 10 (Red Savina, Fatalii, Orange Habanero and Jolokia.) However, it is important to note that those products did contain other ingredients in them, than the jolokia, which makes it impossible to give a fair assessment of the heat level of the jolokia, in sauce form. With this being said, here I am back at what I enjoy doing!

Label: A white label with orange trim is wrapped around a traditional 5 oz. bottle. On the front of the label is a flame with JOLOKIA below it. To the right of the front label is CaJohn’s company address. To the left of the front of the label is Jolokia Select Puree, Warning Extreme Heat!!!, World’s Hottest Chile! The label is very similar to other limited edition or trial runs of CaJohn’s sauces.

Ingredients: Jolokia Chiles, Vinegar

Appearance: The sauce is close to a 50-50 mix of orange and brown in terms of color. I am able to see what might appear to be as other ingredients such as garlic, onion, black pepper, etc. However, this is not the case because this sauce was created from reconstituting dried Jolokia chilies and vinegar. The ratio is 80% pepper and 20% vinegar which is the recipe CaJohn uses for all his Select Purees! I remember conversing with CaJohn a few months ago where he informed me that the process of this sauce would take time as he was waiting for the Jolokia chiles directly from the source itself, India.

Odor: After opening the cap and taking a smell of the sauce I was actually very pleased. This sauce smells great! The sauce has a very similar fruity smell to the dried pods that I have had. It is not as fruity, due to some vinegar, but nevertheless still very fruity. I gave this sauce to a friend of mine, who has never had hot sauces and told them to compare Jolokia Select to Jolokia Pods and they responded, “That it is just about the same.” If I had to be held at gunpoint and compare it to another habanero, in terms of odor, I would say it resembles the chocolate habanero somewhat. However, the chocolate habanero has more of a BBQ rich and deep odor as compared to the fruity odor of the Jolokia.

Taste: I figured that pizza would be perfect for this sauce. In my past reviews I have always stated that if a hot sauce is good on pizza, then hell it should be good on just about any other type of food. After I tried this hot sauce I was actually pleased with what I encountered. The sauce did not take away from the pizza at all and it wasn’t a typical habanero flavor that one would expect from a hot sauce or a puree. The sauce had a similiar taste to what one would expect based on having any experience with the aroma. The taste was really unique and enjoyable making you want more. However, I have to say that that taste was a little weaker than the aroma, which was perfect since you still were able to taste the flavors of the cheese and tomato sauce. What I like about this pepper is that it doesn’t simply taste like a standard puree. This conclusion leads me to state that I will be using this on wings, pizza, tacos, stir-fries, etc. I might even add a little to some soups because I really think that the hot broth might bring out the flavors of this pepper a little more than what it has straight out of the bottle.

Heat: The heat was definitely the category that I was most interested in when coming across this hot sauce from CaJohn. After having the 1st slice I really didn’t feel the heat that much as compared to some of the other hot sauces out there that are natural but very hot. However, I definitely did recognize that there was a good amount of heat here. I had a phone call and had to wait 10 mins before I could get my next slice. Before doing that I did feel the heat kick in. With his sauce it is different from many others in that you don’t get the straight up blast which means good things for the ones that like to enjoy their food before sweating. After the second slice I did begin to bead up with some sweat above my brow. I was impressed with this because from the pics you can see that I definitely didn’t use as much sauce as you might expect from my past reviews. After my third slice I did begin to feel the high that hot sauce can provide. I was sweating and it was definitely just as hot as the hottest natural sauces that I have tried. In the end, this sauce was able to play games with my mind in making me sweat but then feeling cold afterwards. The amount I had to use to get this feeling was half of what I had to use in the past with the other hottest natural sauces I have tried. CaJohn’s Jolokia Select is the hottest natural sauce out there!

Packaging 9/10
Aroma 10/10
Taste 9.5/10
Appearance 9.5/10
Heat 10/10

Overall 9.5

BELTWAY BURN – PART 1

For anyone living around the Capitol Beltway (Washington DC area), or just passing through, here is the first in a series of restaurant reviews designed to help you find great spicy food just minutes off the Interstate in Northern Virginia.

I’m hoping this will be useful to chiliheads up and down the East Coast, because sooner or later, your travels might very well bring you through the DC area on I-95.

Yeah, there are plenty of BBQ joints around here, but I want to start out with an Indian place that has been open a year in Lorton, VA, less than ten minutes North of Quantico Marine Base or South of the I-95/495 “Mixing Bowl”, and just a few hundred yards off the highway. You need to know about My Karma Indian Bistro because; a.) they have some of the best Indian food in the DC metro area and; b.) they are happy to indulge your craving for heat!

The owner, Subhash Gavri, is there most of the time, so be sure to introduce yourself and tell him you love hot, spicy food. He will be happy to make some recommendations. If you have a really good tolerance for heat, make sure he knows what you mean by “spicy”. His Nepalese chef has a heat scale that stops at “double spice”. Insist on a “triple spice level” if you want to be scorched. On my umpteenth visit recently with fellow chilihead and bon vivant, Bob Linn, we came up with the following recommendations:

For an incredible variety of flavors and spices, you have to get a few things that are not scorchers. The best feed on the menu, which is great for sharing, is the Tandoori Mixed Grill, shown here:

This is a sizzling platter of meats and seafood, each one spiced or marinated in its own unique way. Because of the intense heat of the Tandoori oven, these items cook in a matter of a few minutes and they are incredibly tender and moist. Sizzling beneath all of those goodies are lots of sliced onions. I guess you could say this is like an Indian version of fajita.

Be sure to get a basket of the Nan (Indian bread made fresh in the clay Tandoori oven). My two favorites are Garlic Nan and Onion Kulcha. Here, they are served with my favorite spicy dish from My Karma – Chicken Vindaloo.

Vindaloo is traditionally a style of cooking that surrounds a meat (such as Tandoori-roasted chicken) and potatoes with a hot, spicy sauce. Sometimes, there are tomatoes in the sauce, sometimes not, and usually it has a touch of vinegar. The version that I tried for the first time at My Karma a year ago has brought me back there at least once a month! Don’t pass up the vegetable dishes, which can be spiced up on request. They are incredibly flavorful, using spinach, eggplant, okra, onions, tomatoes, chick peas and lentils, to name a few.

For those chiliheads who are unfamiliar with Indian cuisine and might have been reluctant to try it, My Karma is the perfect place to give it a whirl. Subhash is a friendly, informative host. For those who know their Indian food, you will be duly impressed too. It is well worth your making a stop and I would bet once you eat there, you will plan your next trip thru DC to coincide with the lunch or dinner hour.

For information and directions, go to www.mykarmabistro.com .