Matt Bray – Page 75 – PepperScale

Filius Blue Pepper Guide: Heat, Flavor, Uses

What are Filius Blue peppers? Shades of blue are one of the least common color schemes of pepper plants. The Filius Blue, therefore, stands out among ornamental peppers, with its tiny chilies taking on deep dark indigo blue and purplish hues. It’s a compact chili …

Spicy Glazed Carrots

by Matt Bray

A sweet and spicy side…

Matching the earthy sweetness of carrots with butter and brown sugar is already a delicious pairing. But when you add in some chili powder and a pinch of cayenne powder? Now we’re talking a spicy side delight.

This is a great side dish for roasted turkey, ham, or even steak, so keep it at hand during holiday season or for dinner parties. It’s a quick recipe to make that has a lot of flavor for the effort. The cayenne pepper powder is optional, but just a little pinch brings a nice warmth to the carrots.

Apache Pepper Guide: Heat, Flavor, Uses

by Matt Bray

What are Apache peppers? Best known for its compact shape, the Apache pepper is a dwarf plant perfect for container gardening, both indoors (in a sunny corner or window sill) and out. But don’t let the size of the plant lull you into thinking there’s …

Papa a la Huancaina

by Matt Bray

A popular Peruvian appetizer…

Who doesn’t love the idea of potatoes with a spicy cheese sauce? That’s simply what the popular Peruvian recipe papa a la Huancaina is: boiled potatoes topped with a cheese sauce spiced up by the deliciously summery-sweet aji amarillo pepper. It’s made all the better by the addition of hardboiled eggs and black olives – very rustic in flavor.

Papa a la Huancaina is typically served as an appetizer, but it’s so heavy it can also work as meal in its own right. The recipe calls for Huancaina sauce (which you can find the recipe for here).

Naga Viper Guide: Heat, Flavor, Uses

by Matt Bray

What are Naga Viper peppers? What do you get when you cross three super-hots? The Naga Viper. It sounds like a crazy pepper joke, but this extreme chili – a wicked offspring of the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Naga Morich, and ghost pepper (Bhut Jolokia) – …

Explosive Ember Pepper Guide: Heat, Flavor, Uses

by Matt Bray

What are Explosive Ember peppers? Ornamental peppers come in many colors, often brightening up landscaping like Christmas lights, but few have the sense of drama of the Explosive Ember pepper. It’s a bold look – pods in shades of jewel-tone purple and red against dark …

Huancaina Sauce

by Matt Bray

A delicious Peruvian cheese sauce…

Peruvian huancaina sauce is a must for the delicious traditional potato dish papas a la huancaina. But this mix of queso fresco, sunny aji amarillo peppers, and onions has more culinary options that that. Use it as a veggie dip, as a side to salsa for Mexican and Peruvian meals, or pour it over cooked veggies as you would any cheese sauce.

Aji amarillo peppers provide a cayenne pepper level heat and a tropical-sweet undertone to the sauce. It’s a unique, summery taste making for one terrific alternative to typical (and often boring) cheese sauces.

Chinese 5-Color Pepper: Unexpected Shades

by Matt Bray

A beauty that brings in shades of purple and cream…

Scoville heat units (SHU): 30,000 – 50,000
Jalapeño reference point: 4 to 20 times hotter
Origin: China
Products and seeds: Chinese 5-color pepper on Amazon

With its many hues and dark foliage, the Chinese 5-color pepper is a real beauty in the garden. It’s multi-colored, like the aurora pepper or Bolivian rainbow, but what makes it stand out from the pack is the unexpected shades it takes. Layers of purple and cream are in play, along with the more familiar yellows, oranges, and reds. Best of all, the Chinese 5-color pepper, even with its significant medium heat, delivers in the taste department, too – more than most other ornamental peppers – so it’s a great fit for edible landscaping projects.

Minorcan Mike’s Datil Pepper Sauce: More Than Sweet Heat

by Matt Bray

Datil hot sauces are often known for their sweetness. And that’s certainly true in spades for Minorcan Mike’s Datil Pepper Sauce. It’s a “sweet heat” sauce at its core, but there’s a tasty catch with Minorcan Mike’s…it finishes with a heck of a lot more …

Harissa Tomato Sauce

by Matt Bray

Spiced bite…

Harissa tomato sauce is more than spicy ketchup. There’s a real robust spice here – a mix of cumin, coriander, and caraway provide an earthy and fresh zing. We use sambal oelek as a base for the sauce instead of going with freshly ground dried chilies like a a typical homemade harissa. It provides the needed tomato sauce base while packing plenty of heat. You can pick up sambal oelek in most grocery stores or online.

Use harissa tomato sauce as a dipper – it’s delicious with fresh or toasted pita, fried foods (like mozzarella sticks), and French fries. It’s also an interesting option as a pasta sauce for those that enjoy spicier fair.