even tho i had six different kinds of chilis only two decided to sprout :-(
good news: one of them is the habanero!
i’m so looking forward to the first harvest :D

as i mentioned before i was on a mission.

today i sowed the seeds, to be more precise:
habanero
serrano
pasilla
anaheim
jalapeno
and something that might or might not be pimento

i’ll upload child pix as soon as there’s something to see ;-)

which reminds me of something.
i have yet to check up on the chiles i had sown last year before i left!
time to take a trip downstairs and out to the greenhouse.

in totally related news:
i have left-over seeds, plently
any takers? ;-)

update for reasons of clarification:
i’m talking about the chile pepper, not the country that is called chile

Yo tell me ze way to ze next supermarkett please

Das ist ein Aufruf an unsere Leser aus Berlin: wer kennt nen guten Asia-Supermarkt in der sexy Hauptstadt? Also ein Geschäft, in dem auch die ganzen Asiaten selber einkaufen gehen. Ganz konkret suche eine billige Quelle für “YumYum Instant Noodles”. Gerne auch kartonweise, sollte der Preis einer Packung unter 30 Cent liegen; sonst könnte ich ja auch einen normalen Supermarkt mit Asia-Ecke nehmen.

Auch wenn der vorgeschlagene Asia-Supermarkt kein YumYum im Angebot führt, möchte ich wissen wo er ist. Dort gibt es nämlich oft den “geilen Shit” für günstig und besser als im herkömmlich bieder-neudeutschen Supermarkt.

Auf meine Magenschleimhaut lasse ich nur Wasser und YumYum

YumYum hingegen ist ein Grundnahrungsmittel. Es ist mir egal, wo ich das herbekommen; hauptsache es ist billich! :-)

here we go again, and this time i even remembered to take pictures while cooking!
this should serve up to three people

for the spice mix

• 1 habanero chili
• 2 serrano chili
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp honey
• juice of 1/4 lemon
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp cooking oil

for the hache itself

• 3/4 to 1 lbs ground meat
• 1 or 2 bell peppers
• 3 small zucchini
• 1/2 lbs tomato sauce

for the side

• 2 spring onions
• rice or noodles
• a fresh salad should go well with it too

the spice mix is easy to make, just mince the chilies into little pieces and mix it with the rest of the ingredients.

slice the zucchini into slices and cut the bell pepper into medium sized pieces.

heat some oil in a wok or large frying pan and fry the meat.
half way add the spice mix.
when fried properly add the vegetables and fry some more.
add the tomato sauce and let it cook for a while.
in case there is not enough water in the sauce add some to prevent it from sticking to the pan or burning.

serve with rice or noodles, sprinkled with spring onions.

for 2 to 3 servings of pasta sauce:

• 1lb of classic and plain tomato pasta sauce
• 1 hand full of mushrooms of your choice
• celery
• 1 spring onion
• 1 habanero
• oil
• salt

cut everything into little pieces (yes, i know, it’s getting boring).

heat the oil in the pot you want to make your pasta in.

once hot put in the celery.
salt it a little, stir well.

add mushrooms and spring onion and the habanero.

after some more frying, add the tomato sauce.

let it cook for a couple of minutes.

you’re done.
yummy spicy pasta sauce!

if you want to serve more, be careful about increasing the amount of habanero ;)
it might get too spicy pretty much instantly

sorry for not being able to show you any pictures, it was just too delicious. i had to eat it right away.

with noodles or other side dishes this should serve 2:

- 2 chops of pork – 2 tbsp brown sugar – 1 big jalapeño pepper (kinda spicy) – 2 pasilla peppers (slightly spicy, not too much) – 1/2 cup butter – salt – pepper – ground cumin

- noodles, rice, sauce, whatever you want with it

cut everything into short stir-fry sized slices.
heat the butter in a deep frying pan.
add meat, passila and jalapeno.
cook with lid closed till most of the meats pink color is gone, that way the meat takes on the nice jalapeño flavor.
add sugar and spices.
let it cook for a couple of minutes, make sure there’s enough liquid in the pan.
towards the end cook with lid opened so water can vaporize.
continue till the meat and peppers start to actually fry a little.

if you serve it like this, you might want to have a little sauce.
otherwise it could get a little dry, depending on your side dish.

variation:
add cream in the end to get a nice and rich sauce.

what you get:
a nice and easy meal.
each bite starts off sweet and shortly after the (not overly) subtle heat of the jalapeños sets in. it’s not really violent, but adds to the overall flavor quite nicely.

like most geeks, nerds, and hackers, i too like spicy and asian food.
while not necessarily spicy, chinese bbq is very much asian.
and the best thing is: last week while shopping for office supplies we found one chinese bbq take-out place right next to the office max down at the stoneridge mall in pleasanton.

the place is in between the tri valley seafood reastaurant and the 1+1 chinese supermarket (which i just can’t find on the internet or even the yellow pages, must be an underground store :p).
it looks like the chinese go there too, which is a good sign ;)

you can score a nice meal with 2 bbq items (two kinds of pork, duck, chicken) and either of the two styles of noodles or rice for under $7.
even better is the amount you get, which is good for at least two meals.

anyways, if you’re not up to getting the bbq chinese style, i mean: the whole duck is hanging in the window, just waiting to get chopped into little pieces; this might not be exactly what you’re looking for.

yesterday, after watching the new bond i even got a little extra.
2x bbq & extra vegies for both & two crab soups on the house for even less than what you would usually pay for 2x bbq.
looks like they had a good day.

and here’s the question:
why even bother cooking if you can get chinese food for less money than it would take if you’d prepare it yourself?

i guess i’m really gonna miss all the yummy asian food back in germany :/

no, i’m not talking about them tho it boils down to something that might be a little similar to what they do.
weird stuff, in weird places, and everything’s a little unexpected.

so, i was thinking soup today, something asian styled maybe, prolly towards vietnamese soup.
i say styled for a reason. i’m lacking the soup base and all that stuff, and as you might know, it really doesn’t taste like the real thing if you’re missing just one little ingredient.

anyways, since i’m not that much of a soup fan in general (the one thing i really love is the vietnamese one) it’s a very… uhmm, thick soup.
lots of content so to say.

anyways, as i was working my way thru the ingredient list i ended up with something like this

• 2 medium sized pork chops, chopped into small slices
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1/3 of a big white onion
• 1 mini eggplant
• parsley
• some other herb thingy

well now lets honor the improv part.

the plan: soup
half way thru: a nice stew
in the end: the best pasta sauce ever

i just put a new marinade to the test and it turned out very well, so i thought i’d share.
i only made enough for 2 pieces of meat (which translates to 1 american piece i guess)

• honey
• brown sugar
• 1 serrano pepper
• 2 habanero peppers
• oil (i used corn oil)

mince the peppers very well.
mix the minced peppers with brown sugar, honey, and oil.
marinate your meat and let it rest for a couple of hours.

this marinate also works pretty well for eggplant slices, which are great if you grill them.

beware of the sweet taste, for the peppers will come after you ;)

it all began when i saw a bunch of jalapeños at the albertson’s in dublin.
somesthing snapped, i had to take seeds back to germany!
SCNR.

so far i got seeds from jalapeño, habanero, serrano, and anaheim.

i think i can get one or two more kinds of chile at the safeway here, but next saturday i’m gonna go check out the farmer’s market near lake merritt.
hopefully i can get my hands on some chiletepin, cayenne, red savina, dorset naga, tabasco, or scotch bonnet to complement my collection.

if you know of any other kind of chile pepper that is worth collecting and growing, please post a comment and tell me!