So I wanted to eat something today that would neutralize the holiday fats, sugar, sauce/gravy, salt accumulation in my system. And I thought about making sinigang again..inspired by my successful first attempt a few days ago. Sinigang is a popular Filipino sour soup (usually tamarind based) and pretty much the same way you can adobo anything, you can also sinigang anything! Today I decided to go for salmon because I am out of chicken and pork and I am too lazy to go to the grocery store. To hear me talk or write about this you'd think I invented the sinigang! Actually I am just feeling a little smug about finally being initiated into the art of Filipino cooking. At 39 at that! When everybody else learned this from their mothers, grandmothers etc from when they were as young as 7! And of course I have to go the extreme end of the pole for this to finally happen! Anyway, let's go back to my to die for salmon sinigang.
I have all my support groups online to help motivate me or teach me how to cook so I turn to them like a drowning person clings to a lifesaver. For my sinigang today I decided to ambush my sister in law in Sweden..as soon as I saw her online (after she clicked "like" to one of my posts) I called her via Face Time and bombarded her with questions that would have evoked a lot of eyeball rolling and litany of "are-you-kidding-me" from other people who aren't family .. but my sister in law, God bless her, answered with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement that motivated me to make my perfect Salmon sinigang. So I took all her tips and instructions to heart and planned on a little "modification".
A backgrounder on the "modification". People who know me well know that I am notorious for having a very, very high tolerance for hot and spicy. My preference for hot(ter) and spicy(-ier) is not something I am particularly proud of since I have seen how it can either elicit some unwanted innuendos or cause people to ask really, really personal questions like if I have hemorrhoids already from eating all these spicy food..and I can really get defensive by enumerating all the medical benefits of eating hot and spicy. So again for my sinigang today, I planned to really make it hot..after all I am cooking just for one so I don't have to worry about taking anybody's hot and spicy meter into consideration.
I am not the ultimate chef (yet) so my supply for ingredients are limited to stuff I can actually identify and spell but I do have different kinds of pepper and chili in my limited supply because I categorize them under food basics - so I have cayenne, crushed chili, chili powder, cayenne pepper sauce, long green chilis, jalapeno etc and the usual pepper (black, peppercorn). I used to swear by Tabasco and would add tabasco on anything but now it tastes like water to me. Not hot enough. And then a couple of days ago I was introduced to the ultimate form of chili powder that made everything else look and taste like placebo. I attended the first of two Christmas eve dinners I was invited to. This was at my neighbor downstairs. Turned out they were also hardcore hot and spicy fans. My neighbor is a Filipina living with her Canadian boyfriend and the Canadian boyfriend made this amazingly delicious, hot and spicy (my level of hot and spicy so it's actually deadly for everyone else) pork sisig (a favorite Filipino beer match). It was hands down one of the best sisig I've ever had! I guess they were watching me devour the sisig without even pausing to wipe a tear or soak my tongue with whatever I was drinking - so this was proof enough for them to believe me when I say I love hot and spicy and I am not just saying it to please my host! It was like passing a sort of test I guess. So my prize for that night was that they gave me a bottle of something called Bhut Jolokia Powder 100% pure and they said it is the hottest chili ever and made me sprinkle a little on my fingers so I can taste how hot it is..they were amused when I had to sprinkle twice before I can agree that well, it's hot. But then I drank two glasses of wine before that so it might have masked how hot the powder really was because I woke up the next morning with the tiniest hint of mouth sore right were the powder landed.
And that's the little backgrounder to my sinigang..I grabbed several long green chilis and sprinkled a hint of the Bhut Jolokia powder and added these with the sinigang mix, lime juice, tomatoes, onions, radish, greens that I used for the salmon sinigang.
While waiting for my sinigang to cook I googled on Bhut Jolokia powder and this is what I discovered:
The Bhut Jolokia, or Ghost Chile, so named for its ghostly bite, is the hottest chile pepper in the world. Also known as the Naga Jolokia and Bih Jolokia, or poison chile pepper. The Bhut Jolokia is twice as hot as the Red Savina Habanero and has a slightly smoky flavor. Imported from India.
- Firehouse Pantry Store
Well that was more than enough to "fire" up my excitement for the soup I was making and I was pleased beyond anything that I now have in my possession the hottest chili pepper in the world! My neighbor told me that this was more potent than pepper spray and I realized that's no exaggeration! So that means I can use it for self defense as well, in case there's a break in or something.
The verdict? I was in food heaven with my comfort soup. I love how it warms the heart and satisfy my chili-specific taste buds. I am glad I added more than the usual amount of lime juice because the sourness of the soup was in perfect harmony with the hotness of the chili and the mildness of the salmon. Of course I might sound like I am bringing my smugness to a higher level by singing praises to my own creation but I am happy with my sinigang. And happier because I am now armed with this bhut jolokia powder!
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