Better Home Cooking Basics: #40 Wear Gloves when Working with Chili Peppers.

This is one of those do-what-I-say-not-as-I-do lessons. A few years ago I made some spicy guacamole by grating jalapeno peppers into my mixture - bare handed. Turns out my hands felt like they were burning for hours afterwards. I tried everything from soaking them in alcohol to milk. Milk seems to have the most cooling effect, fyi.

This past weekend when I was making harissa I barely touched the chili peppers I was working with but I swear the skin on my hands has memory burn or something because they started to sting a little bit. A few hours after making the harissa I washed my face & smoothed on some moisturizer. To my surprise there were still chili oils in my fingers & now on my face which was burning. I quickly swabbed my face with cotton pads soaked in milk & the burning slowly went away.  The moral of this story is - wear gloves when working with peppers. Oh & don't dare touch your eyes if you haven't - ouch!


Get more of my better home cooking basics here.

Gluten-Free Cornbread with Jalapeño

Chris made lobsters for dinner the other night so I took care of the sides. I feel like corn or cornbread is a natural pairing with lobster so I made just that, cornbread. I adapted a recipe on the cornmeal bag to be gluten-free and spiced it up with jalapeno pepper.

What do you eat with lobster?


PS: happy 7-11 free slurpee day!

Pasta with Minty Hot No Cook Sauce

On Saturday, I caught up on some of my DVRed Food Network shows.  I watched Giada make a super easy sauce that looked interesting (mint + habanero peppers!)  & easy (minimal cooking required), so made it that night. Since all you are doing for this recipe is just boiling some water for pasta, this is really a perfect summer dinner.  I bet it would make great left overs - but there weren't any... next time.

Now, I'm thinking that maybe I dreamed the whole thing because I can't find the link on line, so I'll give you my rendition at the very least of what I believed to have watched Giada make.

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2. 2 cloves of garlic (roughly chopped)
3. 2 handfuls of fresh mint leaves
4. 1 jalapeno pepper (or habanero) - halved with seeds & ribs removed (leave the seeds if you want it extra hot!)
5. 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
6. salt
7. pepper
8. 1/2 cup freshly grated roman cheese*

Make it!

1. Puree the first seven ingredients together in a food processor or blender & set aside.
2. Cook pasta in salted water until al dente.
3. Drain pasta & toss immediately with romano cheese (if you only have parmesan - use that too - this extra cheese helps the sauce stick to the pasta. mmm cheese!)
4. Add the minty hot sauce to the pasta, toss & serve.
5. If you're up to throwing another ingredient into the mix add some cut steamed asparagus.

 

Check after the jump to see if this recipe was hubby approved...