Never underestimate the power of a good quickie. Unless you’re in an airplane lavatory. The airlines frown more and more on that sort of thing these days. But enough about my checkered past. Here’s a straightforward, simple recipe for a chipotle mayo that goes great with anything it wants to.
5 Routes to Sweet Heat (That Don’t ALL Involve Chiles)
Lately, I’ve been posting a lot of recipes for spicy desserts. Not just because we writers are a lazy lot people who try to get the most out of a subject. Over the last few years we’ve seen more sweet offerings at the National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show. Seeing a tendency like this at one show would be happenstance, twice coincidence, and three shows, well, that’s an outright movement. The easy route to sweet heat is the strategic application of cayenne or chile pepper to chocolate. While I’m as easy as the next guy, there’s no real art to just adding a chile to an existing dessert recipe and calling it a day. Here are some sources of heat to consider when you start your own adventures in spicy dessert.
9 Cool Climate Chile Gardening Tips
Growing chiles in cooler or cold climates isn’t as easy it is here in Los Angeles or in New Mexico. Part of our series, The Pepper Growing Season, deals with chill chiles in detail. Here’s a dashboard of tips for you northern chileheads to get your heat on:
Habanero and Lime Cheesecake
Between the lime and the habanero in this cheesecake recipe, you get a lovechild of sweet, sour, and hot. The other parents tend to tone down the hab’s fire from a roar to rumble, so it isn’t overpowering.
Grilled Banana Splits
When I think grilled desserts, my mind instantly hones in on hot sweets. Busting out barbecued ice cream dishes on the grill really advertises your grill master Kung Fu, though. Take this grilled banana split for example…
Chinese Man Eats 5 Lbs of Chile Peppers A DAY
According to a report from The Daily Mail, a man in China downs five pounds of chiles each and every day. I don’t eat five pounds of food each day, let alone all chile peppers, all the time.
Sangrita de Chapala (Chapala’s Little Bloody Drink)
This particular version of sangrita, or “little bloody drink,” comes from Chapala, Mexico, where the bartenders have not succumbed to the temptation of adding tomato juice to this concoction, as the norteamericanos do. The bloody color comes from the grenadine, so this is truly a sweet heat drink that is also salty. Some people take a sip of tequila after each swallow of sangrita, while others mix one part tequila to four parts sangrita to make a cocktail.
