How about a world tour in a 160 pages? A very hot world tour?
Author Dan May entertained us two years ago with The Red Hot Chile Cookbook. He’s back: red and hot but now saucy. This time the focus is on sauces, from mild to mouth searing.
We start in Mexico and South America, the original home of chilies. The format of this chapter is repeated for the other world regions considered:
- What are the typical and the special chilies of the region?
- What is the key history of the region?
- What are typical styles of sauces?
Chilies began in Northern Mexico, probably the Chiltepin or Tepin variety. But for food purposes, chilies were first used in Peru and Bolivia, two countries high in the mountains and a bit remote. It was Brazil and the Portuguese explorers who truly initiated the spread of chile varieties around the world.
In this chapter, you’ll find a Mexican Salsa that you have never encountered at Taco Bell:
Green Honey Salsa
Ingredients:
- 1 large green sweet bell pepper
- 3 Poblano chilies
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 4 jalapeno chilies, deseeded and cut into fine strips
- Handful of chopped cilantro
- 3 teaspoons dark honey
- Squeeze of lime juice
- 1 teaspoon of tequila
- Salt and pepper
- Drizzle of olive oil
Preparation:
Mix together all the ingredients except the oil, salt, and pepper. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Just before serving, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil.
I’ve presented this recipe right at the start for a reason. Dan May has studied not just the recipes but the cultures behind them. This is “real” recipe that reveals the research and energy Dan has devoted to this book. Here we have not one but three chilies and peppers. Honey and tequila. And olive oil, a gift from the Spanish conquistadors.
There is a mole Poblano here with 26 ingredients, surely an entire museum of flavors in a bowl.
The chapter on Africa is fascinating, for few of us have authentic African restaurants near us. It was the Portuguese traders who introduced chilies to Africa. The little hot gems permeate much of African cuisine. And it is Ethiopia that has the second largest land area devoted to chile production. What country has the most? Mexico? Brazil? The good old USA? No, it’s India. Again, thanks to the Portuguese.
The African recipes? There is a Walnut, Sesame and Chile Dressing for fish or salads. And from North Africa you’ll find a Cardamom-Infused Apricot and Almond Chile Jam. This sweet and spicy concoction can used to baste a roasting chicken or can share toast with cheese for a very with spices, herbs, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and even “high level” ingredients like chutneys.
Each recipe in the book, by the way, is accompanied by an overhead photo that has you longing for a taste.
The Caribbean chapter is an homage to the Scotch Bonnet, the very potent ingredient seemingly employed in every recipe. To temper that Scotch Bonnet, there can be some very sophisticated strategies: the Rum, Lime, and Ginger Marinade incorporates coconut milk as well to generate a very tropical flavor. To accelerate you potato salad, you just might add a little Crab, Lime and Scotch Bonnet Sauce.
The Mediterranean chapter offers some wonderful insights. Chilies came to Europe, to Spain, thanks to the conquistadors, right? Wrong. Chilies were brought back to Spain and Italy, grown, and rather ignored. They were not quite fitted to the climate and the monks who grew them were not familiar with their culinary power.
It’s the Portuguese, again, we have to thank. They took the chilies to India and from India the chilies — evolving thanks to the efforts of famers to breed and blend — arrived back in Europe, this time with recipes. The recipes here are heavy on rubs and marinades and regional gems like the Fra Diavolo Sauce of Italy. It is Italy where chilies have thrived in Europe with the country both producing and consuming more than any other. [It might be hard to find a Scotch Bonnet in Sweden!]
The USA chapter tries to explain the chile rage that encompasses this country. Hot sauce production is one of the ten fastest growth industry in the country, flamed by demand both from this country and Japan and Canada. That original chile, the Chiltepin, still grows in Texas and has become the official state plant.
It would be impossible to cover all the hot sauces stamped “Made in the USA” so Dan adroitly does offer a just a small sample. There is a Louisiana Spicy Sauce for your seafood, a Cajun Blackening Spice for your meats and a very authentic New Mexican Green Chile Sauce.
India has over 2.5 million acres devoted to chile production, the most of any country. Chiles here run the spectrum from mild to hot, and actually the most grown species are related to Cayenne and New Mexican varieties. In Indian cuisines, the chilies are dried and powdered, then applied in recipes and atop food. Here you will find recipes for curry powders and chutney, items you have tasted before. But now, with Dan’s insights, you have real, authentic recipes that will give you an eye-opening and positive appreciation of the power spice and chile can provide.
The last two chapter are devoted to South-East Asia and China & Japan, offering flavors you must have enjoyed. More curry, but now with Thai notes from Thai shrimp paste. There is Korean Chile Marinade for beef with very hot chilies accompanied by ginger, soy sauce, wine vinegar and palm sugar. Here you can find a plan for your very own Szechuan Chile Paste and happily a recipe for Japanese Pickled Ginger Salad Dressing. If you’ve never had a salad drenched with this not-subtle-at-all wonder, you need to try.
The Red Hot Chile Sauce Book is hot indeed and filled with flavorful idea. If you love chilies and you want authentic, densely blazing cuisine, then you need to get your hot hands on this book.