Sunday, August 2, 2009 | by nathan
Hot Mess
Hot Mess
This right here is a whole mess of red, ripe Aurora Peppers. They’re just the best things ever, and in my garden they are going insane. They are insanely hot; so much so that Brian and I have taken to calling them "Insanity Peppers," because the first time we found a couple of them ripe, we just cut them open and ate them raw. And then, four days later when our sense of taste returned, we vowed never to do that again. They’re searing hot and smoky; we were determined to find something to do with them.
One of the coolest things about these peppers – other than their amazing taste – is what they look like on the vine. They start off purple, then turn yellow, orange, and then red. They’re gorgeous:
Really, really pretty, right? They add a great splash of color to my garden. And let me just say, if you don’t have a backyard, these things do great in pots, so you really don’t have any excuse not to grow them. And after our raw-tasting of them went south, I was determined to make something out of these suckers. Then it came to me. We went out and harvested a whole bunch of these guys:
These are Beam’s Yellow Pear tomatoes, and they are growing like crazy. So we picked a whole huge mess of them, with some peppers:
We went to the store and got some fresh pineapple, some cilantro and a red onion, some salt and vinegar, and we stuck it all in a food processor, and we made THE MOST AMAZING SALSA HOLY CRAP SERIOUSLY? And the smoky, searing flavor of the Aurora Peppers were the perfect bit of spice and the perfect complement to the tomatoes. You guys, it was seriously delicious. Now there are so many of these peppers coming ripe that it’s getting a little out of control. I’ve got to find some people to take some of these, give them my salsa recipe, and then hand them a legal waiver, you know, just in case. There’s nothing like fresh food you’ve made yourself to remind you that it’s summertime. I’m going to try to make a huge batch of this stuff and jar it up and save it for winter, when it’s cold, nothing’s fresh, and I can sit back with some blue corn tortilla chips and just pretend.
| Food, Growing | Comments (0) | |


































