the capsicum project

PEPPERS,peppers,peppers...capsicum annum'09

2009-08-03T10:40:00.005-04:00

This are some pics from my rooftop garden! All of this peppers(capsicum Annum)had an early crop...most of the plant are re-flowering now for the second or main crop.

Holiday Time! in the summer...

2009-07-23T11:09:00.020-04:00

Holiday Time peppers, a member of the Annum specie and so called a ornamental pepper will be the next victim.

All I can think when I first saw the first Holiday Time peppers ripen was, cool they look like tiny tomatoes or a Christmas garland if you also consider their name...that's where I'm going to take this dish" holiday's in the summer" if you will. So the first thing that came to mind was to make a puree of the peppers and turn them into a "liquid pepper" or encapsulate the pepper puree in a thin film of alginate or the technique called "esferificacion" . When I harvest what I could out of my plant(4 ripen ones and 2 unripe) last Tuesday there were also some red cherry tomatoes ready for harvest and some oregano flowers, hum??? I thought we also got a Smoked tomato gazpacho "consomme" on hand from a special, yes this is the way to go...after taking some pics of the peppers and tasting them(they are some what simple flavor peppers,grassy, a little bitter and

the ripen ones slightly piquant) it made perfect sense to pair all this elements on a fresh summer dish that was brite like a garland on the holidays.

"Liquid Holiday Peppers"salted and goat cheese stuffed holidays, smoked tomato gazpacho "consomme", "smoked"cherry tomatoes and oregano flowers

The salt brougth out the flavor on the shy ripen holidays as well as the oregano goat cheese did with the bitter "green"ones, balancing those flavors. I made a puree with the flesh of ripen holidays and added some cherry tomato to balance those flavors without overpowering the pepper. A few "smoked" tomatoes tie in the flavors of the refreshing consomme and for a deeper flavor and crunchy texture we made some "chicharrones" out of the tomato skins...At the end I was satisfied with the textures and flavors that complemented the Holiday Time peppers, ornamental? who said that? all it

takes it's a little work and imagination!

DONT FORGET TO WATCH THE "VIDEO" ON THE CHILE WHISPERER CHANNEL!

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheChilewhisperer

Taming the Heat, controlling the "heat" trough culinary methods and the help of science

2009-07-12T20:44:00.007-04:00

That is what I called this chapter of the project back in '05. By taming the heat I mean been able to "extract" or pull out the heat of hot peppers with the ultimate goal of tasting the pepper without burning. That is what I which when I taste an amazing flavourful pepper like a Habanero or Scotch Bonette, yes the heat is enjoyable for some of us but it does tend to overpower other flavors and hence a dish...How can I get more Habanero flavor into a dish without adding more and more of it's heat? Can I make a Habanero be heat less or less hot? those are some of the questions that drive this project.

Fallowing this line of thinking is that I started experimenting on taming the heat, at first by using culinary logic...so I took some hot peppers, the most inoffensive ones first (to control the personal damage)like serranos and jalapenos. First thing that came to mind was to peel the outer flesh of the peppers and taste that, uff ! mild, hell! not even hot , just green grassy pepper flavor (that's what I previously though in one of those moments of enligthtement) so it was confirmed that if I did not touch the inner membrane, "ribs" or seeds of the pepper I could get rid of the heat aka capsaicin.

Now that just sounds too easy as its the case with a nice fleshy pepper but what about the thin skin peppers like habaneros ? or peppers that are so small that their is almost no distinction between was skin, flesh, ribs or seed? or the ones where the ribs and seed run the whole length of the pepper? more questions came around. We still have not cook the peppers, Have you ever chop a Habanero and saute it in hot pan? and all of the sudden you got to run for it with crying eyes, loose nose and even some heavy coughing...well that's just not fun.

So what about letting science help us a bit?
I though. Doing some research I found that Casein acts a "soap" when encounter with Capsicin so that may be a solution...I also talk to a few expert in the area and heard that alcohol, sugar and even hazelnut can help me in my quest. This are experiments i will be conducting this fall with the help of some of our hottest peppers in my roof garden.

Local Pimientos del Padron fritos, heirloom tomatoes, sea salt and lemon verbena oil (recipie)

2009-07-06T12:01:00.009-04:00

Local Pimientos del Padron
1 dz Pimientos del Padron
1 sm red heirloom tomato
10 ea Lemon verbena stems(8")
1 c soy bean oil
1/4 tsp sea salt( fleur de sel or similar)
3 c soy bean oil ( for frying)
1. start by making the lemon verbena oil 1-2days ahead of time. Place lemon verbena sprigs on a vacuum bag or air tie bag or container, add the cup of oil and seal, place in a warm area (110F) or a water bath for a 24 hrs and then at least another 12 hrs to cool, strain and reserve your lemon verbena infused oil.
2. Clean your peppers and "tame" them if necessary( the batch of peppers i got from my farmer were mostly hot ones, so I tame them by cleaning out the seeds and ribs or placenta then washing in water witch will make them less hot) I do keep a couple of whole one because some of us like it HOT.
3. Heat the frying oil to 375F and fry quickly the peppers until they start caramelizing, drain into paper towels and season with sea salt.
4. slice and dice the tomatoes(kept at room temperate not cold) and season with salt and lemon verbena oil.
5. WATCH THIS VIDEO for the plating:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXeH7h3g4O8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Urc13nakrs

Los Primeros...Pimientos del Padron

2009-07-02T11:39:00.014-04:00

Yessss!...yesterday @ 8 pm I harvest the first "crop" (2 in total) of my peppers, Pimientos del padron witch where this first plant to flower and pollinate into the beautifully 1 1/4" peppers.They are suppose to have a ratio of 1 to 10 being spicy in the plant ( hence the nick name "Spanish roulette peppers") but so far two out of two have been spicy.
My best guest it's that they needed to be picked about a week or so ago, on Spain they are picked when the seeds have form about half way and it's a common believe that the longer that you leave it on the plant the hotter they will get. I have a few personal plants at home in witch I will leave the peppers until they ripen to a beautifully deep brite
red, most probably hotter than their brothers.

I got lucky today...Farmer Jeff (a local framer and friend) came today in the door with 5# of his Local Padron Peppers and some red heirloom tomatoes. this means that today i will make the first dish on the project with this awesome peppers, "Local Pimientos del Padron" with heirloom tomatoes, lemon verbena oil and sea salt.

DON'T FORGET to Click on the demo's for the preparation of this dish on my YOUTUBE channel , stop by in a few days for the recipe.

SO...i present my rooftop urban garden!

2009-06-25T14:48:00.002-04:00

Here are some picks of the peppers I'm growing this season"09. The plants got started at my house about a month ago and the re-potted last Wednesday 17 , 2009 and placed in their final home the rooftop urban garden on top of the Salon dinning room.

On the right a pick from the pepper row and on the bottom Aji Cobincho from Guatemala.

the capsicum project, intro.

2009-06-24T19:36:00.003-04:00

The Capsicum project (tcp) aka in my head
"proyecto chile", since i plan a Spanish version of the final project. As a cook by heart and an explorer by nature I will embark in this project with the purpose of giving us (cooks and chefs alike) a better understanding of this magical product. Here are some of my goals, as I know some more will come to mind as the project takes shape:

* I'm currently growing 28 varietals that belong to the 5 domesticated species of peppers. My goal is to observe the plants through is growing cycle to learn more about them, catalog information and study it's possibilities beyond the eye or I may say the mouth. Also to come up with new ideas for the use of the fruit, leaves or maybe even their flowers.

* we must be able to “tame the heat” or control with precision the scoviles (SHU) we use in a dish. This is our biggest challenge! and one of the strongest reasons why I started the project. While i love heat on my food am not the kind of person that likes to burn furiously from inside out, I love the flavor of the peppers per se and I think that the ta sties ones then the be the hottest too. So I figure I had to do something about it so I can control the pepper not the pepper control me.

*“Concentrating the heat” this is a technique we already use and the easiest part of the project. Watch out chili heads! I plan to make different and new hot sauces with our crops including a
"Diablo's BJ Juice" (Bhut Jolokia), if my 3 plants of bhuts give me some love.

* “Balancing the heat” this is a technique we also use and my favorite way to approach any dish I make “it’s all about balance”. By using other flavors like sweet or salty we can balance the heat of a pepper and distract our palate from the heat thus giving us an amazing dish.

Peppers have a great variety of flavors from grassy serranos, poblanos and jalapenos or deep flavor anchos, new Mexico and pancas or fruity aji amarillos, cachucas and habaneros there are also bittersweet guajillos and piquillos or slightly sour pasillas. Many flavors to work with and different heat levels to play with and that’s just for starters.

beginnings of TCP, back in 2005!

2009-06-23T18:23:00.001-04:00

I have been working on and off in this concept i call "the capsicum project" since 2005. Inspired by the works of various chefs specially in Spain which took the "knowing your ingredients" concept to streams. Books written about foie grass, wild plants, bacalao, rice, cacao and others in witch the chefs attempt to understand the product to the fullest, it's traditional ways of cooking and experiment with new ones...this made me look harder into my cooking world and ask myself which products define my cooking(Latino-American)? Peppers came immediately to mind specially hot peppers, the sweet ones form the base of our beloved sofritos and the hot ones make up our aji picante. There where so many questions that popped up in my mind, from how many kinds of peppers were there? to how to cook them to avoid the burn? can we get the burn(capsaicin)out? how by cooking it or with perhaps a "chemical"...oupsss so many questions! this is why started this project, to better understand the Genus Capsicum.