If you think jalapeños are hot, don’t even read this…
The bhut jolokia, also known as the ghost chili, is one of the hottest chilies in the world. Until a couple years ago, it was #1 on the planet for hotness. It was recently surpassed by another chili which, I assume, is probably only suitable for chemical warfare.
Did you ever have wings at the bar that were so hot you had to sign a waiver because they were gonna assault your mouth and then destroy your ass the next day? Get within two feet of a dozen wings like that and they burn your eyes. That is not what the ghost chili is about.
I have a ghost chili plant that I grew from a seed last year. It produced a handful of chilies but, unfortunately, I had to freeze them because of timing. Fast forward several months to this past February, when I used a couple of ’em in my award winning chili. I sampled one of ’em and it was definitely hot, though not as hot as I expected. I figure that was because it was frozen for a while.
This year, however, the same plant produced upwards of 30 chilies, most of which I harvested yesterday afternoon.
I incorporated four of those chilies into my chili that I made yesterday for today’s fantasy football draft party. So I HAD to try a fresh chili…. and holy shit was it an experience!
I chopped and seeded the four ghost chilies and tried a little bite. For starters, it is a very sweet smelling chili. There is no hint of the terror lying ahead. The flavor was that of a very sweet pepper, more so than your standard green peppers. I thought that maybe the chilies are only hot when grown in their native India.
Then the burn started….
It took about 30 seconds for that tiny little bite to destroy me. And that shit got hot! Now I like hot foods, so it wasn’t necessarily a big deal. But it got so hot that I tried the usual remedies to stop the pain. I started with milk… It seemed to work for about 10 seconds, then the burn returned. Bread? same deal.
Holy shit are these chilies hot!
Again… I put four of them in my chili last night. As it simmered, I sampled it a few times and it’s got a nice heat to it. At least a minute of burn with every bite!
Now why would I make my chili so zesty? REVENGE!
There are a handful of guys (one of whom is my boss) at today’s draft party who don’t like beans in chili. Seriously! That’s dumb! Apparently they don’t put beans in chili in Buffalo, NY. So, to appease the whiners, I always leave the beans out of my “draft” chili. Yesterday I added the heat to make up for the lack of beans!
Good thing is, my batch of chili is so freakin’ huge that a lot of it stays here. And that portion has extra beans, which my girlies and I love!
So Will, Jamie and Diane… If you read my blog know that I’ll be freezing some of this chili so y’all can try it next weekend! It’s out of this world!
Oh yeah…..I’ve heard that people handle ghost chilies with surgical gloves. I’m stupid, so I do not. I’ve washed my hands at least a dozen times last night and this morning…. and my fingers are still burning. The burn transfers to anything I touch, so pissing has to be aided with a toilet paper shield!
And just in case you were interested, HERE is a previous version of my award winning chili!
For Shiggles 