What Tabasco is to Avery Island, harissa is to Tunisia. This brick red tomato, garlic and spice paste is stirred into stews, served as a condiment for elaborate couscous dishes, and used as a rub for meat. Though originally Tunisian, it's ubiquitous in Moroccan and Algerian cooking as well, and tends to show up wherever North African food is served, whether at a Parisian kebab joint or a Manhattan merguez sandwich stand. I like to use it to spice up bean dishes, mix it with a little mayo for a sandwich spread, and stir it into yogurt as a dressing for cold lamb.
You can find harissa in cans or bottles at many North African and Middle Eastern markets, or you can make your own. Mediterranean food expert Clifford A. Wright has a good recipe on his website, using guajillo chiles easily found in Hispanic markets.
Piment d'Espelette grown in just a handful of villages in the Basque country of southern France, is as beloved in their region as paprika is in Hungary. The small red peppers can be used fresh, or hung up in bouquets to dry then ground into powder similar to hot paprika. First introduced to France by returning New World missionaries in the 1500s, the Espelette is now an essential feature of Basque cuisine. The village of Espelette holds a Celebration of Peppers each October, with Espelette-infused dishes, banners made from hundreds of red and green peppers, and street performers painted red to resemble the pepper itself.
Espelette goes especially well with seafood, mild cheeses, and hearty vegetable dishes. In Paris, I ate monkfish over white beans in an Espelette cream sauce. It was divine, silky and smoky with just a teeny-tiny kick. You could substitute hot paprika, but it wouldn't be quite the same. You can find ground Espelette in some gourmet markets or online at Amazon.com. There's a trove of Espelette recipes at Epicurien, which is in French but can be translated by Google to decidedly mixed results. I'm especially keen to try the sauteed shrimp with Espelette and Bayonne ham.
I know. Could we get over the eggs already? You already know I can't because I love hard boiled eggs, plus, I have this "thing" for salt and pepper shakers.
It's been a while since I've cooed over a set of salt and pepper shakers, so it's about time.
The Mini Lantern Salt and Pepper Shakers don't actually effect an "Ohmigod, how cute!" but they do get points for being totally functional, doing double duty as shakers as well as lights for the table. Each shaker has three white LED bulbs with built-in reflectors for even more brightness.
Because you always want to be prepared for a power outage just as you're about to reach for that salt shaker.
The set of shakers is available from HomeWetBar for $24.99
The last thing to add to Slow Cooker Chili before you turn the dial and set it on its long slow journey to chili awesomeness is seasoning. Like any slow cooked dish, using fresh herbs to season is a waste of fresh herbs. Stick with dried herbs and spices, which have more concentrated flavor.
I will be frank with you. If I am making chili during the week when I am busy with life, then I resort to store-bought chili powder along with an extra hit of ground cumin. I realize that there could be all kinds of strange and unusual ingredients that have been ground into that bottle of chili powder, but I don't mind being ignorant to them for the sake of convenience. If I'm making chili on a lazy weekend afternoon, then I add dried spices individually. If you're ambitious, you can grind the spices yourself and make your own chili powder to use in the future. Chili powders include, but are not limited to: ground chili, oregano, cumin, cayenne pepper, paprika, and garlic powder.
Seasoning the Chili: Add ½ c chili powder to the beef, vegetables (and beans if you added them) in the crock pot. I like heat in my chili, so I throw in some additional cayenne pepper (about 2-3 additional Tbsp) as well as cumin (additional 1 tsp) for a smokier flavor. Add salt and pepper to taste, though salt is something you can always add when you serve it.
Designboom, a mod blog devoted to the latest and greatest in product design, recently came out with the winners of its 2006 Dining in 2015 contest. The challenge was exactly as it sounds: to design a food-related product that would be useful in 2015 at work, in travel, or at home.
Chefs and designers from Italy and Japan judged the entires and came up with the top three and an honorable mention.
Let's start from the bottom and work up. The honorable mention [ed. note: shown in photo] was an eco-friendly solution to dinner prep: silicone and nylon triangle-shaped buckets that allow the cook to boil three different foods all in one pot, thereby saving energy, time, and water. I totally expect it to be selling out on QVC in no time.
Third place? A creative ceramic salt and pepper shaker that forces you to physically break open the canister to access the spices inside. The goal of the project? There isn't any, really, but we bet it's really, really fun to break open. Save it for a day when you're really pissed off at someone, and then smash away. (But don't get carried away - - then you'll just have a mess of salt, pepper, and white ceramic shards to clean up).
I haven't added salt to food in 15 years. I have high blood pressure and don't want to risk any possible increase. Besides, a lot of food we eat already has enough salt in it and I haven't missed it. If I add anything at all, it's pepper or one of the many flavors that Mrs. Dash gives us.
The Salt Institute has a large FAQ page about salt. You can find out what salt exactly is, how much is produced in the U.S., effects it has on the human body, how animals react to salt, how much salt an athlete needs. There's even a huge list of recipes that contain salt. Recipes that contain salt? Wouldn't that be too big a list to have even on the web? Actually, they're recipes for food where salt is a vital ingredient.
It's been a while since I've posted about my favorite things on the table (other than food, of course): salt and pepper shakers.
The Lift n Shake is a cute reminder that after putting down all those calories, you need to hit the gym. The happy little weightlifter is made from cream plastic; the barbell is plastic as well. Salt and pepper is on either side of the barbell. Just lift it up and tilt to shake. You won't build muscle, but that's okay.
An Indian woman has set her sights and taste buds on breaking the Guinness record for eating the most hot peppers. And not just any hot peppers. Anandita Dutta Tamuly plans to eat as many Bhut Jolokia, or ghost chilis, as she can.
Tamuly hails from the state of Assam, where the pepper occurs as a natural hybrid. She seems pretty confident that she can scarf a record-smashing amount of what Guinness recently named the world's hottest chili pepper. On Indian television she recently chowed down on 60 of the fiery peppers in two minutes. Tamuly became a fan of the ghost chili when her mother smeared some chili paste on her tongue to cure a childhood infection.
The current record is held by Anita Crafford who consumed eight peppers in a minute. They weren't ghost peppers though, far from it. They were jalapeños, which are about one one-hundreth as hot as the dreaded Bhut Jolokia. Sheesh, what a wimp!
A Mexican man, Manuel Quiroz, loves chilies with a passion. Perhaps disturbingly so. Not only can he "down dozens of Mexico's spiciest chilies," but he can "rub them on his skin and even squeeze their juice into his eyes without so much as blinking." Why on earth anyone would want to do that on a regular basis - or how they came up with such a bizarre idea in the first place - remains to be seen, but Manuel to showcase his unusual... talents. He believes that he can eat more chilies than any person on the planet and wants to prove his claim with a title. Unfortunately, there are no contests to crown the "World Chili-eating Champion" just yet, so Manuel will have to wait. With the popularity of eating contests, however, he many not have to wait long. The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFCoE) seems like they are always keen to add new events and if they can get any of their current champs to agree to participate, you can bet that they'd be willing to sponsor such a contest.
Get ready, y'all. Valentine's Day is just over two weeks away, and though the holiday is probably my least favorite "holiday" of the year, I can't help but pay it much attention because 1) hearts are my favorite shape, and 2) pink is my favorite color. Trust me, if I had my say with the Universal Holiday Design Council, I'd make Thanksgiving pink and serve everything from heart-shaped casserole dishes.
But I will take great advantage of Valentine's Day until the rest of the world changes and swoon over things like these heart-shaped salt and pepper shakers. Yes, they are being marketed as wedding favors, but I can ignore that for now. The shakers stand 3¾" tall, are shiny chrome, and are $4.99 from Bliss Wedding Markets. If you are planning a romantic dinner in, these would be darling on the table, but I'd plan to use them every day.
Popular ingredients to combine with chocolate include mint flavoring, peanut butter, crisped rice, nuts, dried fruits and cacao nibs. Some chocolates even add chilies and cinnamon for extra flavor. The combination of lemon and pepper, however, is one that would seem to suit fish or chicken better than chocolate. Nevertheless, Swiss chocolate maker Frey used that very combination in their Citron & Poivre Chocolate Bar.
I was gifted a bar of this chocolate for Christmas and was somewhat hesitant to try it. The mild burn of chilies suits cocoa, while pepper can be more aggressive. Would the lemon be too bitter? The promise of high-quality extra dark Swiss chocolate made me set aside my doubts and taste the bar.
Surprisingly, it was delicious. The lemon flavor came through as very zesty and bright, not at all bitter and with a much cleaner flavor than orange, which tends to linger in the mouth long after you have finished a piece of orange chocolate. There was only a hint of pepper, although if you were to eat the whole bar in one sitting it would probably be more noticeable. The chocolate itself was excellent, with a silky smooth texture that melted right into your mouth. I would definitely buy it again (it is sold at some select Target stores) and plan to keep an eye out for the brand's other unusual flavors, like Rhubarb & Aloe Vera (in white chocolate), Coeur de Macadamia (caramelized macadamia nuts in milk chocolate) and Pécan & Caramel (pecans and crunchy caramel pieces in milk chocolate)
Not only is this the perfect Halloween goodie for anyone who prefers something a little more adventurious than a candy bar, but it would make a great addition to a scary movie marathon or Fear Factor-themed dinner, based on the names of the sauces alone. Haunted Hot Sauce combined "flesh-eating zombies with spicy food products" to produce a line of spicy sauces with names like "Flesh Feast and "Ghoul Drool." To further add to the appeal, each sauce is packed in its own cedar coffin! Their full line includes:
Fleshfeast - Medium/Hot with cayenne peppers, garlic and other spices
Return of Fleshfeast - Hot with cayenne peppers, garlic, coarse ground black pepper and other spices
Revenge of Fleshfeast - Very Hot with cayenne peppers, garlic, coarse ground black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes and other spices
Ghoul Drool - Medium/Hot with jalapeno peppers, garlic and other spices
"There's nothing like putting yourself through a lot of pain for no reason."
Truer words were never spoken - especially not if you're an amateur about to enter a Jalapeño-eating contest sponsored by the International Federation of Competitive eating, pitting yourself against professional gurgitators. The contest was held on Sunday at the State Fair of Texas and included 6 amateurs against pros Rich LeFevre, Sonya Thomas, Pat Bertoletti and Erik Denmark. Jalapeños are a particularly difficult food to eat because, although they are small, they can be quite painful. Some eaters reported a loss of feeling in their faces and a general dizziness, in addition to sickness, after the competition was over. The pros used some tricks that they picked up on the circuit, including drinking Pepto Bismol before the competition and using milk, rather than water, to dull the burn of the peppers' oils. Unsurprisingly, the well-prepared pros came out on top:
First place: Rich "The Locust" LeFevre, 247 jalapeños
Second: Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, 239
Third: Pat "Deep Dish" Bertoletti, 226
For comparison, the amateurs seemed to average around 50 or so.
I'm a real pushover for Asian interpretations of classic American fast food, whether it's kimchi pizza or Japanese hot dogs. My latest find is the crinkle-cut fries at Xiao La Jiao, a Sichuan spot in Flushing, Queens, a hotbed of top-notch Chinese food in New York City.
I don't read Chinese, but there was a real disconnect between the menu and what came out of the kitchen when I ordered a dish listed as potatoes in spicy sauce. The last thing I expected was a plate heaped with crinkle-cut fries.
Upon closer examination I noticed these were no mere Ore-Ida imitators. Spicy sauce was nowhere to be found. But I didn't mind because the fries were liberally dusted with cumin and hot pepper and had been fried along with minced green onions. Unlike many Sichuan dishes the toasty flavor of the cumin combined with the hot pepper didn't quite make for super spicy fries. That said, they still packed a pleasantly lingering heat. Xiao La Jiao ("Little Pepper") 133-43 Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, Queens, 718-939-7788.
Piment d'Espelette grown in just a handful of villages in the Basque country of southern France, is as beloved in their region as paprika is in Hungary. The small red peppers can be used fresh, or hung up in bouquets to dry then ground into powder similar to hot paprika. First introduced to France by returning New World missionaries in the 1500s, the Espelette is now an essential feature of Basque cuisine. The village of Espelette holds a Celebration of Peppers each October, with Espelette-infused dishes, banners made from hundreds of red and green peppers, and street performers painted red to resemble the pepper itself. 
I know. Could we get over the eggs already? You already know I can't because 
It's been a while since I've cooed over a set of salt and pepper shakers, so it's about time.
I haven't added salt to food in 15 years. I have high blood pressure and don't want to risk any possible increase. Besides, a lot of food we eat already has enough salt in it and I haven't missed it. If I add anything at all, it's pepper or one of the many flavors that Mrs. Dash gives us.
An Indian woman has set her sights and taste buds on breaking the Guinness record for eating the most hot peppers. And not just any hot peppers. Anandita Dutta Tamuly plans to eat as many 
A Mexican man, Manuel Quiroz, loves chilies with a passion. Perhaps disturbingly so. Not only can he "down dozens of Mexico's spiciest chilies," but he can "rub them on his skin and even squeeze their juice into his eyes without so much as blinking." Why on earth anyone would want to do that on a regular basis - or how they came up with such a bizarre idea in the first place - remains to be seen, but Manuel to showcase his unusual... talents. He believes that he can eat 
Get ready, y'all. Valentine's Day is just over two weeks away, and though the holiday is probably 
Popular ingredients to combine with chocolate include mint flavoring, peanut butter, crisped rice, nuts, dried fruits and 
"There's nothing like putting yourself through a lot of pain for no reason."
I'm a real pushover for Asian interpretations of classic American fast food, whether it's 
DIY Foods: Making homemade sausage
Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
Fruit juice: An invitation to diabetes?
