Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Next Level of Heat

"Naga Jolokia" (Ghost Pepper)
After my post from a few weeks ago a Disc golfing buddy of mine from San Diego sent a few home grown ghost peppers.  I have wanted to try them for some time now and was excited to get a hold of some seeds so that I may grow my own

I wasn't sure just how strong the pepper would be.  I diced it up very finely as I would a habanero and extracted the seeds so that I could plant them later.  On a normal pizza I would add about three times as much habanero.  I thought this would be about right since the ghost pepper is supposedly 3 to 4 times as hot.
Whole wheat dough, ghost pepper, bourbon barbecue sauce, onion, cilantro, green pepper, garlic (1.5 bulbs worth), carrots.
Avocado and bean sprouts added after cooking.

It payed off to go conservative with the ghost pepper.  I was definitely aware of it's heat in almost every bite.  The fat in the avocado and the water in the sprouts both worked well to neutralize the spice.  This was my first time adding bean sprouts to the mix and as I ate each slice i kept adding more of them.  I was very pleased with my dinner and will most likely make a very similar pizza in the next day or two but with twice the amount of ghost pepper.
Just because I'm cooking with the hottest pepper known to man doesn't mean it couldn't use a little more. 4 types of hot sauce were needed to make it perfect.

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