Ham Sandwich Indicted!

Making salsa has become a summer ritual for me--it's a perfect way to preserve those delicious tomatoes that are piling up at farmer's markets, and the flavor combinations are incredibly flexible and open to interpretation. Our hot central Ohio summer has provided us with great peppers as well, and there's really not a better way to make use of them. This year, as I am living without a functioning kitchen, my salsa making happened during the last of a series of canning classes I taught at Oakland Nursery.  Over a dozen folks came out to chop, dice, and put up a dozens of jars of salsa and tomato jam.  Twenty pounds of tomatoes later, everyone went home with a couple of jars of delicious tomato products.  Just for fun, we also did a heirloom tomato taste test, taking advantage of huge variety of colors, flavors and textures available. Over the years, I've tried and tweaked several salsa recipes, but find myself using one from Mary Anne Dragan's Well ...

Yeah, I know it's been over a month since I've posted anything--believe me, I've tried, but wasn't quite feeling the inspiration. Don't get me wrong, the kitchens at Ham Sandwich, Inc. have been hard at work the past month churning out homemade BBQ sauce, brandied peaches and plums, an obscene amount of baked goods, and a damn delicious pork shoulder--but writing down my assorted adventures was feeling a bit trite, even forced. It happens. Fortunately for you folks at home, I tackled the new and mildly dangerous land of hot sauce this weekend, and am pleased to say that I survived to post about it, with all my mucous membranes intact. Yay! See that rounded red pepper in the foreground of the picture above? That's a fresh, evil Naga Jolokia Ghost Pepper, one of four given to me by a former coworker as obsessed with food as I am. (Shoutout: Lauren, you'll be sorely missed around here!) See the jalapeño tree in the picture below? If I had a more recent pho...

I'm sure that by now, pretty much everyone is familiar with the current darling of the condiment world, Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. A product of Huy Fong Foods, it's been made in California since the 1980s, but has seen a surge in popularity in the last few years, thanks to appearances on Iron Chef, use by celebrity chefs, and write-ups in The New York Times . In fact, this past January Sriracha was named the 2010 Ingredient of the Year by Bon Appetit magazine. So what's the massive appeal? The ingredient list is spectacularly simple: red jalapeno peppers, garlic, salt, sugar, vinegar in a paste in a squeezable bottle. It manages to be spicy without being overbearing (see previous post on Jolokia peppers), and adds great depth of flavor to pretty much anything--soups, marinades, sauces (it's GREAT in pasta sauces), dips and dressings. I thought I'd post my current favorite use of Sriracha since tomato season is not too far away. Come to think of it, a dash of Srirach...

(Image courtesy of www.tastethefear.com) During my weekdays, I spend my time prosecuting those who violate the laws of man. Apparently, my weekend nights are spent violating the laws of nature... The Bhut Jolokia pepper is, without any hyperbole, the hottest pepper in the world. The chart above compares the jolokia with other, more common peppers, as measured in Scoville units. The Scoville scale is named after the American chemist Wilber Scoville, and measures the amount of capsaicin in a pepper. Last night at a cookout, two of my genius friends reconstituted a bag (8 or so) of dried jolokia peppers, then pureed them in a blender. I was told they were going to be "Scoville shots:" a tablespoon or so of jolokia puree mixed with a shot of vodka. My response, was that they were idiots. The jolokia is used, after all, as a pepper spray to ward off wild elephants in India, and being considered for use in non-lethal riot control. Two hours later though, caving less to pee...