ANger of Bhutan

Nope no Free Tidbits this past saturday. Fabio’s “cultural exchange” items of pepper seeds from Bhutan had come to fruition and we had a few of these pods of mystery this Saturday at Wayland’s. From Fabio’s tales, it seems those Bhutanese eat hot peppers like a salad. I was actually surprised at how large these were. Generally speaking, smaller peppers tend to be hotter. So maybe these aren’t that hot? In appearance they seem pretty similar to jalapeno. So the thought is we’ll cook something tonight utilizing the peppers, a thai curry and the chana masala from the magic powder pack we bought in BC. Gotta QC the goods, make sure it’s not too sweet, not to rancid, you know? So one of the peppers is cut open and slivered. We each take a tiny piece and taste test them. Hoo baby! These guys are hot! Not habanero hot, but they’ve got more than a decent punch to them! It’s gonna be a good one tonight!

We come to a debate on whether one pepper is enough, is two too many? It is hot, but we’ve got a good amount of curry and the last time we did this the hotness of the peppers we used then got seriously diluted down. Wayland decides to cut into the smallest one. It may be smaller, but that doesn’t mean much. When he splits this one, the inside is packed full of that evil white goodness, hardly any seeds. Contrary to what some people think, the seeds of hot peppers are not the hot part. In fact the seeds themselves, if cleaned are not hot at all. It’s that white connective tissue that contains all the fun, and this little one is full of it!

Time to make those Bhutanese proud! Initial cook is pretty quick on these, but they need time to simmer and meld all that good stuff. Hanging out, drinking some beers, and cruising, we notice there’s been a car idling in the street out side for quite a while. Lexus IS isn’t quite your typical suspicous hooligan vehicle, but still kinda strange. Wayland goes outside to go ask if they need any help (the passive aggresive way to say, what the heck are you doing here?) while Dave snaps pics. No answer from the IS, they hastily take off. Perhaps they were lost and thought we were the suspicious ones, but still ayashii. Wayland calls it into police. Must be a slow night, two patrol officers actually show up later.

Sampo-ing the goods gives us a peek of what we’re in for. Tasty? oh yeah! Burn? Bruddah! So here’s dinner, chana masala, red Thai chicken curry, saffron rice (from all in one packet that just throw in rice cooker). Sorry for the blur, this camera’s macro focus has a hard time. Good stuff! Only thing I’d say is chana masala needs to cook for a long time. Even though we used canned instead of dried, the chickpeas we’re still pretty firm. Perfectly edible and yummy, but not as creamy as we’ve had elsewhere.