Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

I was watching triple-D on Food Network and Guy Fieri was visiting a place that specialized in Haitian food. The chef cooked a lot of dishes with the scotch bonnet, very similar to a habanero. Guy marveled that the dishes weren't super-hot. The chef explained that by cooking with the whole pepper - not puncturing it or exposing the inside, that the intense heat wasn't imparted on the rest of the dish.

Anyone ever done anything like this? Mrs. 87 doesn't like hot food, so I tend to stay away from jalapenos or scotch bonnets, but am intrigued at being able to extract flavor without "intense" heat.

Whatever you do, DON'T eat a ghost pepper whole, or even close to whole. As a matter of fact, just stay away from them. It's bad...a deep burn...immediately regrettable...throat closing...eye watering...hiccup inducing...

1987alum wrote:I was watching triple-D on Food Network and Guy Fieri was visiting a place that specialized in Haitian food. The chef cooked a lot of dishes with the scotch bonnet, very similar to a habanero. Guy marveled that the dishes weren't super-hot. The chef explained that by cooking with the whole pepper - not puncturing it or exposing the inside, that the intense heat wasn't imparted on the rest of the dish.

Anyone ever done anything like this? Mrs. 87 doesn't like hot food, so I tend to stay away from jalapenos or scotch bonnets, but am intrigued at being able to extract flavor without "intense" heat.

Scotch bonnets, habaneros, jolokias, lemon drops... all members of capsicum chinense... and all share a distinctive "citrus" flavor along with their extra-hot pungency. That's what the cook wants to impart when cooking caribbean foods. They pair great with pineapple, papaya, mango, coconut, etc... Jamaican jerk is almost always made with a chinense species member.

I've made a pot of chili with a whole bhut jolokia pod that wasn't cut, punctured, or "open" in any other way, and it was relatively mild. It's like zesting a citrus fruit, you get the flavor but not the heat. It makes sense as the capsaicin is produced in the connective tissues inside the fruit, none of which would be exposed until the skin is broken. That's why you can handle a bhut jolokia all day long and not have any troubles, all the "heat" is on the inside.

G:

Thanks for the additional insight! I'm really interested in experimenting with this concept.

That is interesting. Jerk is one of my favorite flavors, and I'm almost out of the authentic stuff I smuggled back from my honeymoon a few years ago. I may have to look into putting it together on my own.