Ingredients:

- 1 large tortilla
- 1 tablespoon maui sweet onion sliced
- 1 snip of cilantro from the garden
- 2 eggs,(free range)
- 1 tablespoon Darn Hot Peppers Special Reserve Chioptle Salsa

Instructions:
Sear veggies, scrambled eggs, brown tortilla, wrap and go!

Thanks to: Chilebravo.org

Our friends at http://bhutjolokia.blogspot.com/ posted a great entry on the worlds hottest pepper the Bhut Jolokia. Take 5 minutes to get the scoop!

“…For many years, there was uncertainty about this particular chile pepper, some sources even listed cayenne-type peppers as Naga Jolokia or put it into the C. frutescens species. Eventually a field trial with comprehensive analysis by the NMSU Chile Pepper Institute (CPI) shed light on this cultivar (see our extensive

Both Assamese growers and the Chile Pepper Institute found top heat levels around one million Scoville Heat Units (SHU), and the Chile Pepper Institute’s findings for Bhut Jolokia were even awarded the
world record as the “hottest of all spices” by Guinness World Records

Read the rest of the story here.

Mr. Hot Stuff

May 9, 2008

This was soo funy I laughed out loud!

 

Have you checked out ChileBravo, not the product but the website. It is a new social networking website when you can meet, chat with and share chile recipes or hot pepper growing tips. They also have some funny videos of gringos eating habaneros. Silly gringos, eating habaneros uncooked and raw is for kids!

Family in town this week

April 29, 2008

Been having a nice visit with Virginia at the farm; we worked on making some new top secret products that we are planning to debut this summer.

Things are beginning to keep busy at the farm with the nicer weather:  like for instance the new part of garden……….see pics ………..

Dad is digging up for me on the side of the store.

Excited about next events coming up::  Makan da  Spring Festival on May  3 and 4 ;  Then Dad will go up  to the IAHSE  conference in Springfield on Mon/Tues, May 6 and 7.  Need more products for that.

Busy Busy Busy

Ancho or Poblano Mole

April 8, 2008

Some of you have been asking about more pepper recipes, and specifically for ancho or poblano recipes. Well we asked around and the one ancho recipe most people are familiar with is for making a deep dark sauce to put on anything from enchiladas to cornbread. Enjoy!

 

Ancho Mole Sauce  - Makes 4 cups

Ingredients

4 dried anchos
4 cups water
1/2 cup canola oil 
1/2 cup peanuts or almonds
1/2 cup raisins or dates
4 whole large tomatoes

1.5 ounce dark chocolate, minced

 

To Prepare

  • Place chiles in large bowl; add water over, Let stand about 2 hours, turning occasionally. 
  • Drain, but keep 1 cup soaking liquid. 
  • Chop chiles in large chunks. 
  • Heat oil in large skillet (cast iron is best) on low-to-medium-low heat. 
  • Add nuts, raisins and sauté until toasted, about 10 - 15 minutes. 
  • Move contents to blender or food processor, add chiles with 1 cup soaking liquid and add tomatoes. 
  • Blend until smooth. 
  • Return to skillet and add an  additional 2 1/2 cups water and bring to boil, whisk while boiling. 
  • Reduce heat to medium-low; add chocolate and whisk until completely melted. 
  • Reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce becomes thick and dark. 
  • Salt to taste, then allow to cool.

Spring has sprung…

April 8, 2008

 

It’s finally Spring: 
Sunshine out and rain temporarily stopped/grass needs mowing/ greenhouse is repaired after ice storm and the daffodils are everywhere. Also the Business Expo for Union County was yesterday, so things are starting to line up and starting to fill up the calendar. 
  • Opening of Farm Store this year on May 30 -31 weekend. Hours open will be changed to 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the farm store
  • May 30 weekend we will also have a Plant Sale ……..including the newest variety : BHUT JOLOKIA which is purported to be the “hottest pepper in the world”, even surpassing Habaneros;  available ONLY at the Farm Store and Springfield Old Downtown Farmer Market………..not available on website
  •  This year we will have 11 varieties of SPICES  and will be adding 3 Dry Rubs to our Spcie Rack………..more info on this to put on website soon.
Keep checking back for the latest from Rancho Bella Vista.
- Carol

 

Hi Yall,
 
I guess our winter vacation is officially over now. We were trying to squeeze a couple more weeks of relaxation time in before we get to work on germination and planting but mother nature had other ideas for us…
 
As you’ll see by the photos, we had a terrible Ice Storm here in Southern Illinois back in February.  We’re just getting caught up from the clean up now. It started on a Monday afternoon and by Tuesday morning everything was covered in ice and “light snow” on top of that.  Also Tuesday morning we woke up to no electricity…..thank goodness we have the fireplace for heat. We thought…..OK, a few hours and they’ll have it repaired.
 
Wrong…………..it was so widespread that everyone in Union County had some  variation of outages.   In Cobden, and Anna, they have Ameren electric company.  After 2 days they were back in power.  But with us ( Southern Illinois Electric Coop) it was a different story, power came back on after 5 days. We had some anxious moments about stuff in the freezers being possibly lost….but the peppers are Ok. No need to worry about running out of inventory for darnhotpeppers.com.
 
We took some pretty heavy damage to the greenhouse and are working to re-build that now. More info on the re-building effort later…
broken-cedar.jpg 
pretty-but-destructive-ice.jpg 
greenhouse-suffers.jpg 
What a winter!
 
- Carol 

 

Fun with Pepper Photos…

October 21, 2007

Xav told us he put a new toy on the website…

Check out the new Darn Hot Pepper Photo Puzzles next time you stop by, there are 3 of them 1st one is a nice picture of Rancho Bella Vista & pretty easy, 2nd one is a cute ‘lil basket of Habaneros and pretty tough to solve, and the 3rd one, pictured below, is just too hard for me. Have fun.

puzzle.jpg

Recently at our Saturday Farmers Market in downtown Springfield Illinois, I’ve had fun meeting some residents originally from New Mexico who stopped by.  These chileheads went directly to the long green peppers as if they have found a long lost friend. Week after week now I’ve been getting questions and thoughts like: where do you get these, do you grown them yourself, I haven’t seen these peppers since I left New Mexico.

For those of you who just have to know…Yes we are able to grow the long greens in southern Illinois. Although we are not growing as many peppers as New Mexico, we have enough to meet the appetite until you are able to return to visit friends and relatives in New Mexico and get your taste of down home darn hot cooking. Springfield Illinois is a great city and I am happy to meet chile lovers from around the world.