Jalapenos, serranos, poblanos–you’ve probably savored all of these medium-to-hot chili peppers in foods, and they just don`t do it anymore.
Maybe the thrill is gone. The zing no longer lingers.
Do you crave the ultimate capsicum high? The exotic kick of ingesting a safe though temporarily incapacitating substance?
Then maybe it’s time to just say yes to habaneros.
Habaneros are the hottest commercially grown peppers in the world. We’re talking between 200,000 and 350,000 heat units on the Scoville scale, the scientific method of measuring pepper piquancy. That makes them 50 to 100 times hotter than jalapenos–already picante for some tastes.
But habaneros, once almost exclusively cultivated and consumed in the Yucatan region of southern Mexico, have lately found a growing audience in more northern climes, including Chicago. With the explosive popularity of hot foods and hotter salsas in the last few years, it was only a matter of time before some commercial growers north of the border cashed in on the habanero’s legendary ferocity.
The pepper has begun popping up more frequently in local produce bins. You can now find the golden-orange, oddly aromatic, walnut-size delicacy from specialty foods stores and Mexican-American mercados without too much difficulty.
“The people who buy them are adventurous. They want something that’s real, real, real hot,” says John Kriarakis, manager of Lorimar Produce, 1824 W. Division St. “I can’t see people eating them just as they are–they have to be mixed into a salsa or something or into a recipe that calls for something hotter than jalapenos.”
Lorimar, popular among Wicker Park’s Latinos and Anglos alike, tries to offer habaneros whenever they’re available. This past fall, you could buy green (unripe) and gold habaneros there for $1.49 a pound; this winter, they are going for $3.89. The fall habaneros came from California; during the rest of the year, they are shipped mostly from Jamaica, Kriarakis says.
Jamaican scotch bonnets, similar to habaneros, also belong to the Capsicum chinense species. (Virtually all other chilies grown in Mexico and the U.S. are of the Capsicum annuum species.) Although the name habanero refers to a specific pod type from the Yucatan, the entire species of chinense often is sold as habaneros. In any event, they’re all similar in look and taste and firepower.
Jimmy Bannos, chef/owner of Heaven on Seven restaurant, 11 N. Wabash Ave., makes three different sauces with habaneros, but he also says he eats the pepper three to four times a week at home.
“If I’m having a steak, I like to eat them fresh,” he says. “I love the flavor. Once you start eating them, your palate gets galvanized. Sometimes you need an extra kick. Once you get started you can’t stop. You gotta build yourself up to it.”
“A lot of Mexicans use them; a lot of chefs use them for recipes,” says Breck Grigas, president of Worldwide Produce, a division of La Preferida Foods. “They’re looking for something different to put on their menus. Every year, volume increases–they’re getting more popular. More people ask about them as they learn about them and see recipes.”
Worldwide sells produce to Lorimar and other mercados, as well as to major local food chains. They have offered customers fresh habaneros for five years–about as long as they’ve been cultivated in the U.S. Grigas insists that his domestic habaneros, which are shipped from early September to late November, are every bit as hot as the real enchilada; imported scotch bonnets, he says, pick up his slack most of the rest of the time.
GNS Spices Inc. of Walnut, Calif., which supplies Worldwide, is the largest commercial grower of habaneros in the country. Mary Garcia says that she and her husband, Frank, cultivate 30 acres of gold habaneros for the fresh and dried market; immature green ones are less piquant.
“At first, we couldn’t get anyone to buy them,” she says. “But in 1993 we ran out of dried habaneros for the first time. And this year has been a special year.”
Three times a year during harvest in the fall, GNS sends ground habanero samples to Silliker Laboratories in College Station, Texas, for Scoville heat tests. Silliker, based in Homewood, is one of many food labs around the country which perform the piquancy test for growers. The Garcias guarantee that their product has at least 200,000 heat units, which would still make it a Big 10 on the 10-point Scoville scale.
Daniel Suarez, owner of Blue Island Produce Inc., 2320 S. Blue Island Ave., says he has been carrying habaneros for about a year. His little bombs, however, come from Homestead, Fla., shipped from December to February or March.
“A lot of people can’t handle this hot stuff,” Suarez says. “This stuff is fire. But every now and then, people want something different. A lot of people like spicy things, and if more people knew how to prepare a sauce, they’d use them more. Ten years ago, people didn’t know what a mango was, or even a jalapeno.”
At Burrito Buggy, 206 W. Van Buren St., chef-owners Marco and Veronica Aceves make a blended habanero sauce with olive oil, onions, cilantro and garlic. It’s served on the side with Mexican entrees.
“We do tell people to be careful, and they say, `Yeah, yeah.’ But the heat gets to them,” Marco says. “There has been a surprisingly nice demand for it–some Board of Trade traders are gung-ho for this sauce. People have brought in their own (back-yard garden) habaneros and I’d make the sauce for them.”
Alex Smith, a market analyst at the Board of Trade, eats hot peppers every day and a habanero two to three times a week.
“Almost any food I make at home I throw peppers in, ” says Smith, a Burrito Buggy regular. “It takes bland food and puts it in another dimension. It’s a never-ending cycle becuase you keep wanting more and more. The peppers that used to be hot for me are bland now. I think it makes you a lot healthier too. I haven’t had a cold in five years.” But he cautions, “Not everyone’s nerve endings can get used to these things.”
In the Yucatan, Maya Indians usually roast habaneros–the contact with heat brings the juices to the pod’s surface, making it even hotter and more fragrant–before serving them chopped or sliced in a salsa with tomatoes, onion and lime or orange juice. Mayas barely eat any other type of chili; they consider the jalapeno, which doesn’t grow in the Yucatan, flavorless.
The habanero has a peculiarly pungent, earthy fragrance, much more pronounced in the fresh. Its quirky chemistry produces a subtly different taste and effect than other chilies.
Slice a pod into thin rings (don’t rub your eyes!), leaving the seeds intact. Chew slowly and savor. Hot as hell, yes. But the incendiary bite is offset by a rich, silky taste, leaving behind a soothing, mildly stuporous taste-bud sensation. Its bite doesn’t jab and persist, like that of jalapenos or serranos. Habanero heat quickly gathers steam, then quietly fades away. The taste lingers long after the back-of-the-throat burn has subsided, unlike most hot peppers.
The habanero “high,” however, is nicely euphoric. Your eyes and mouth water. You feel your face flush, and a faint deafness sets in. Your head floats, as if in a trance. You’re transported. You fly to Chichen Itza, see the stepped pyramids, serpent heads …
And then after about 20 minutes, it’s over.
SEARED RED SNAPPER WITH SPICY SLAW
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
3 cups shredded napa (Chinese) or green cabbage
1 large carrot, peeled, julienned or shredded
1/2 each, seeded, julienned: red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons each, chopped: fresh basil, fresh mint
6 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons Oriental sesame oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon minced habanero or other chili pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 red snapper fillets, about 6 ounces each
Fresh cilantro, basil and mint leaves for garnish
1. Mix the cabbage, carrot, bell peppers, cilantro, basil and mint in a large bowl. Refrigerate until serving time.
2. Mix the vinegar, oils, ginger, habanero, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Put the fish into a flat dish or pie plate. Brush the fish with 3 tablespoons of the oil mixture. Cover and refrigerate up to 1 hour.
3. Heat a large non-stick skillet over high heat until hot; lightly coat with non-stick vegetable oil spray. Add the fish in a single layer, skin side up. Reduce heat to medium-high; cook until nicely browned, about 2 minutes. Turn fish carefully cook just until fish barely flakes, 2 to 3 minutes more.
4. To serve, toss the cabbage mixture with the remaining oil mixture to thoroughly coat it. Portion some of the cabbage onto each of 4 serving plates. Serve immediately with the fish.
Nutrition information per serving: 340 calories, 13 g fat, 80 mg cholesterol, 255 mg sodium, 7 g carbohydrates, 46 g protein
SPICY SWEET POTATO SOUP
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
This recipe is adapted from “The Habanero Cookbook” by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach (Ten Speed Press. $17.95) scheduled for publication at the end of March. The authors write that they were served a variation of this soup by Arlene Lutz, a cooking celebrity in Escazu, Costa Rica. The spicy, citrusy soup makes a wonderful first-course for grilled or roasted pork, chicken or fish.
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups diced, peeled sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1/4 teaspoon grated orange rind (colored part only)
3 tablespoons whipping cream
1/2 to 1 1/2 teaspoons minced, seeded habanero or other hot chili to taste
Pinch freshly ground white pepper
Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
1. Heat broth to a boil in a saucepan. Add sweet potatoes and boil until soft, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving broth in saucepan.
2. Place the sweet potatoes and some of the broth in a blender; puree until smooth. Add puree to reserved broth, along with orange juice and rind, cream, chili and white pepper. Heat to a simmer and simmer 20 minutes. Garnish with cilantro.
Nutrition information per serving: 190 calories, 6 g fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 800 mg sodium, 27 g carbohydrate, 7 g protein
WORLD’S HOTTEST SALSA
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: About 2/3 cup
This is adapted from “Salsa,” by Reed Hearon, chef/owner of San Francisco’s Cafe Marimba. This fresh habanero chili salsa is a Yucatan staple and is best eaten within an hour of making it. The citrus-chili flavor intensifies the longer it sits.
3 habanero chilies, sliced into rings, with seeds
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
Mix together all ingredients in a bowl. Do not salt.
Nutrition information per tablespoon: 9 calories, 0 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g carbohydrate, 18 mg sodium, 0 g protein.
A chili lineup
More than 20 kinds of chilies (or chiles in Spanish) are available in the United States. Here are some of the more popular varieties, in order of spiciness. Note that chilies do vary in heat levels, so this is a general guide.
