by Dave Dewitt
heat scale
medium
This recipe is by permission from Lois Ellen Frank, and it’s taken from her book Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations (Ten Speed Press, 2002). Both the venison and the juniper berries are available from mail-order sources. The juice from wild grapes might have been available to the Mayas, but probably not wine. Lois has adapted this recipe for the modern kitchen.
THE SAUCE
1
tablespoon dried juniper berries
3
cups unsweetened dark grape juice or wine
2
bay leaves
1 ½
teaspoons dried thyme
2
shallots, peeled and coarsely chopped
2
cups beef stock
THE STEAKS
6
venison steaks, 8 to 10 ounces each
2
tablespoons olive oil
1
tablespoon salt
1
tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
4
whole dried chiles de árbol, seeds and stems removed, crushed
To make the sauce, wrap the juniper berries in a clean kitchen towel and crush them using a mallet. Remove them from the towel and place them in a saucepan with the grape juice or wine, bay leaves, thyme, and shallots. Simmer over medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until the liquid has been reduced to 1 cup. Add the stock, bring to a boil, then decrease the heat to medium and cook for another 15 minutes until the sauce has been reduced to 1 ½ cups. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve and keep it warm.
Brush the steaks on both sides with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the steaks on the grill and grill for 3 minutes, until they have charred marks. Rotate the steaks a half turn and grill for another 3 minutes. Flip the steaks over and grill for another 5 minutes until done as desired.
Ladle the sauce onto each plate, top with the steaks, pattern-side up, and sprinkle the crushed chiles over them.
CERÉN BEANS
yield
4 servings
heat scale
medium
Three varieties of beans were found beneath the ash in the village kitchens of Cerén. Certainly they were boiled, and since they are bland, they were undoubtedly combined with other ingredients, including chiles and primitive tomatoes. The Cerén villagers would have used peccary fat for the lard and bacon, and of course they would not have had cumin. But they probably would have used spices such as Mexican oregano.
3
cups cooked pinto beans (either canned or simmered for hours until tender)
1
onion, minced
2
tablespoons lard, or substitute vegetable oil
5
slices bacon, minced
¾
cup Mexican chorizo sausage (not Spanish chorizo)
1
pound tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
6
serrano chiles, stems removed, minced
1
teaspoon cumin (or substitute Mexican oregano)
Sauté the beans and onion in the lard or oil for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. In another skillet, sauté the bacon and chorizo together. Drain.
Combine the beans and onion with the drained bacon and chorizo in a pot, add the other ingredients, and simmer for 30 minutes.
TLATONILE
yield
4 to 6 servings
heat scale
medium
A classic recipe descended from the Aztecs, tlatonile is a pipián from Jalcomulco, Veracruz. Pipiáns are spicy dishes from Mexico that utilize ground nuts or seeds. In Mexico, these are most often pumpkin or squash seeds. This recipe is from Susana Rodriguez and was collected by Kraig Kraft.
2
pounds pork or chicken (thighs and legs)
2
chayotes, or use yellow squash, sliced
8
ounces of hulled pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 ½
ounces of dried ground chile, preferably chile de árbol; Susana used a local variety called chile puya, a variety of de árbol
3
Roma tomatoes, halved
1
bunch epazote (a Mexican herb also known as wormweed or Mexican tea)
¼
cup cooked rice
Salt to taste
Brown the pork or chicken in a stockpot. Add enough water to cover, add the chayote, and simmer until cooked.
Meanwhile, grind the pumpkin seeds until they form a thick paste. While the seeds that Susana used were quite high in oil and exuded oil when pressed, I had to add oil to my ground seeds at home.
Combine this paste with the dried ground chile, the salt, and a small amount of water.
Once the meat has cooked, add the halved tomatoes, the pumpkin-seed paste, and the epazote. Serve in bowls with a teaspoon of rice in the bottom.
STUFFED ROCOTOS (ROCOTO RELLENO)
yield
6 servings as an appetizer
heat scale
hot
This recipe evolved from the Inca people and became a signature dish of Arequipa, a city spectacularly located in the Andes of southern Peru. Famous throughout the country, it has become a national dish, right behind ceviche and ají de gallina. The garlic and onions are post-Columbian crops, although the Incas may have used a few species of wild alliums occurring in the Andes, such as Allium juncifolium. The Peruvians typically accompany stuffed rocotos with beer, although a red wine is also appropriate. Note: This recipe requires advance preparation.
6
rocotos (large jalapeños may be used as a substitute)
2
tablespoons vegetable oil
1
medium onion, finely chopped
3
cloves garlic, minced
½
pound ground beef
½
teaspoon ground cumin
¼
cup pitted olives, chopped
1
teaspoon salt
2
teaspoons raisins
1
egg, lightly beaten
6
yellow potatoes, boiled and cut in half
1
cup grated mozzarella or Gruyere cheese
¼
cup milk
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
One day prior to serving, cut the tops off the rocotos. The tops may be saved as a garnish. Remove all seeds and veins. Soak the rocotos for 24 hours in a bowl of water with 2 tablespoons salt, changing the water at least twice.
Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onions, and cook until tender. Add the garlic and fry for 2 minutes. Add the meat and cumin, and fry until cooked. Add the olives, salt, raisins, and the beaten egg.
Stuff the rocotos with this mixture.
In a glass baking dish, arrange the rocotos and potatoes. Add the milk and arrange the cheese atop the rocotos.
Bake at 400 degrees F. for 40 minutes.
A breakfast nook on the cliffs of Negril, Jamaica. Photograph by Mary Jane Wilan. Used with permission.
two
NEW WORLD CHILE CUISINES, PART 1 The Caribbean
The Amazon Basin was the center of origin for the chinense species that spread throughout the Caribbean, but the oldest known chinense specimen ever found was a single intact pod that was discovered in Preceramic levels (6,500 BC) in Guitarrero Cave in coastal Peru. Such a discovery considerably predates the generally accepted time of chile pepper cultivation and suggests the possibility that the pod was introduced later to the archaeological site, or that by that date wild chinense pods had migrated far from the center of origin and had been collected by early hunter-gatherer civilizations.
Since both wild and domesticated forms of the Brazilian chinense exist today (there is some debate about the wild varieties), it follows that the species was domesticated much in the same manner as the
annuum species was in Mexico. First, it was a tolerated weed with erect fruits. Then, as humans planted the seeds and tended the plants, there was a gradual evolution by human selection to larger, more pendant pods.
The domestication of the chinense species occurred around 2000 BC, and, according to ethnobotanist Barbara Pickersgill, “its domestication was probably connected with the development of agriculture in tropical forests. It seems reasonable to assume that C. chinense was domesticated east of the Andes by these tropical forest agriculturists, who were probably responsible for the domestication of manioc.” She adds, wryly: “As a condiment, the chile pepper probably formed a welcome addition to any diet consisting largely of manioc starch.” By about 1000 BC, domesticated chinense varieties had spread to the Pacific coast of Peru.
The cultivation of the chinense species produced many pod types and varieties. Bernabé Cobo, a naturalist who traveled throughout South America during the early seventeenth century, probably was the first European to study the chinense species. He estimated that there were at least 40 different pod types of the chiles: “Some [are] as large as limes or large plums; others, as small as pine nuts or even grains of wheat, and between the two extremes are many different sizes. No less variety is found in color . . . and the same difference is found in form and shape.”
FEATURED PEPPERS: THE CHINENSE SPECIES IN THE ISLANDS
The dispersion of the domesticated chinense species into the Caribbean and Central America occurred in two different directions. Some chinense varieties spread into the isthmus from Colombia and eventually became common in Panama (as the ají chombo) and Guyana (as the “tiger tooth”) and Costa Rica (where it was called the panameño). But apparently their spread north was halted before they reached the Yucatán Peninsula.
Meanwhile, during their great migrations, the ancestors of the Arawaks and Caribs transferred the chinense from the Amazon Basin through Venezuela and into the Caribbean, where pod types developed on nearly every island. The seeds were carried and cultivated by Native Americans as the chinense species hopped, skipped, and jumped around the West Indies, forming—seemingly on each island—specifically adapted pod types that are called “landraces” of the species. As we have seen, each landrace gained a name in each island or country, although the terms “Scotch bonnet” and “habanero” are used generically throughout the region. The pods of these landraces became the dominant spicy element of the Caribbean, firing up its cuisines—and its legends. Barbara Pickersgill believes that the habanero was “a historic introduction from the West Indies” into Yucatán, completing chinense ’s island-hopping encirclement of the Caribbean Sea.
I will cover the habanero in detail later on in this chapter, but it is important here to address the circumstances that led to the development of what we now call “superhot” chile peppers in the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). The fascinating fact about all these superhots is this: all the hottest chile peppers in the world originated in Trinidad and Tobago, including the ‘Bhut Jolokia’ that was transferred to India in 1854 when the governor of Trinidad, Lord George Francis Robert Harris, took the seeds to Madras when he became governor there (the full story is online at http://www.fieryfoodscentral.com/2010/11/05/lord-harris-the-ghost-pepper-governor/).. But how and why?
BASIC BREEDING STARTS WITH A MUTATION
Ever since the domestication of the five Capsicum species, human choice is the most important factor in the development of new chile varieties. Humans are selecting the plants to use in breeding because they have more useful variations than the other possible plants. Horticulturists call this “differential reproduction,” and this term simply means that some parents will have more offspring than others because of human choice. Differential reproduction selects for more useful variations and against less useful variations. For example, in the development of the bell pepper from the poblano, pepper breeders were selecting for large size and reduced pungency, and they ended up with a very large pod with no pungency. And that entire breeding project began with a mutation that added to the genetic diversity of the population. Breeders used the mutation to start breeding the bell pepper and, in successive grow-outs, selected the seeds from the largest and mildest pods until the bell was achieved. Using the bell pepper development as a guide, here is how I think the superhots of T&T were developed, sometime before 1854.
Capsaicin sacs fluorescing on the interior pod wall of the ‘Trinidad Moruga Scorpion’. Photograph by NMSU. Public domain.
Note the yellow color near the seeds of this New Mexican chile. There is capsaicin in only two locations inside the chile—along the placental tissue. Photograph by New Mexico State University (NMSU). Public domain.
MUTATIONS HAPPENED AMONG
THE ALREADY HOT PEPPERS OF T&T
The mutations were unplanned and unpredictable. They radically raised the level of pungency, and they added to the genetic diversity of T&T hot peppers. The mutation was discovered in 2016 by Dr. Peter Cooke of the New Mexico State University Core University Research Resources Laboratory. He managed to make the capsaicinoid sacs fluoresce in both jalapeños and ‘Trinidad Moruga Scorpion’ peppers and then examined the pods with an electron microscope. Dr. Paul Bosland, the famed chile breeder at New Mexico State University, explained, “There, you could see that the jalapeño was fluorescing on the placenta [the tissue to which the seeds are attached], while the superhots would fluoresce all over the [inner pod] wall. It’s a very dramatic image to see. Right now we’re assuming this is a genetic mutation in superhots because we’ve never seen this in wild chile peppers.” Thus the superhots have more surface area for the capsaicinoid sacs than any other chile peppers.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS (HUMAN CHOICE) MADE SOME OF THE MUTATIONS BENEFICIAL
People liked the hotter peppers and planted those seeds. People didn’t like the milder peppers as much so they didn’t plant them. Therefore, the plants with genes for superhot chiles had more offspring than the chiles with other parents. In time, this differential reproduction caused by breeders (human choice), i.e., superhot peppers, became the norm in T&T.
Therefore, if this scenario is accurate, the more useful variation was the extremely high pungency of the newly developed varieties. Now there is one final question to answer: Why was the increased pungency such a useful variation? Considering food uses, in some cultures, the more capsaicin a pod contains, the more valuable it is. For example, if a person were preparing food for a feast, why buy seven chile pods if one would suffice to spice up all the food? Hence the name of one Trinidadian chile variety, 7-pot, which supposedly got its name from the ability of one pod to spice up seven kettles of pepper-pot stew. Given heat levels of one million Scoville Heat Units or more, it is perfectly conceivable that a single superhot pod, cut into seven sections, could accomplish this feat. Capsaicin in chile peppers is antibacterial and was used before refrigeration to reduce the spoilage of food, so the hotter the pepper, the greater its antibacterial powers.
In folk beliefs, the more pungent a chile pod, the more powerful it is in fighting evil. The East Indian population of Trinidad wraps seven red pepper pods with salt, onion skins, and garlic skins in paper and passes them seven times around a baby to remove najar, the evil eye, which is believed to cause unnecessary crying. Also, green chiles are dropped around the doorway of a house to keep away evil spirits. And in folk medicine, hot peppers have long been applied to wounds to prevent them from becoming infected, so the hotter the chile peppers, the better they would fight infection.
The story of superhot peppers does not end here. In chapter 7 I will examine how one variety of the superhots was transferred to India and over the years was thought to be native to that country. The ‘Bhut Jolokia,’ or ghost pepper, of course, was not native to India. In chapter 10, I discuss the enormous popularity of superhots with gardeners as these peppers became legendary in the United States.
A COLLISION OF CULTURES AND CUISINES
In the Caribbean, chile peppe
rs are the dominant spice in a region filled with other spices such as ginger, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and allspice. Although there is little doubt that the Indians of the Caribbean Islands were cultivating and cooking with chile peppers for centuries before Columbus happened upon the hot fruits, they left little evidence of their cuisine. First, the Arawak Indians were wiped out by the ferocious Carib Indians, and then smallpox and swine flu, imported by European colonists, rendered the Caribs extinct. Survivors joined other tribes. So the main culinary influences upon the islands were from the Old World, with the exception of the chiles, which were adopted into the new foods and styles of cooking imported from Europe and Africa.
European influences in the Caribbean included Dutch, Spanish, English, and French styles of cooking that adopted native ingredients such as fruits, seafood, and of course, chiles. The arrival of slaves from West Africa and immigrants from India added even more exotic influences to the incredible mixture of cuisines that abounded in the Caribbean region. The combination of chiles with peanuts, for example, is typically both Peruvian and African (see chapter 6) but occurs commonly in Caribbean dishes such as groundnut soup. Many Indian-style curry dishes are found in the West Indies, particularly in Jamaica and Trinidad.
