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Posted on: December 24, 2007

Turn Up The Heat For The Holidays

Add some spice to your home with traditional holiday colors in the form of nontraditional holiday décor. Chili peppers aren’t just for eating and making you gasp for cool air – add them to wreaths, trees, window trimmings and more

By Jeff Schnaufer
CTW Features

Seasonal spice makes everything nice! Image courtesy iStockphoto

Red and green are traditional holiday colors, but did you ever consider them as holiday flavors?

Mixing red, green and other chile peppers into your holiday menu can add a bit – and a bite – of Southwestern spice to your holidays.

"Color and chile peppers make everything better," says Danise Coon, program coordinator at the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

"Not only do chile peppers add heat, they add a lot of flavor," says Dave DeWitt, editor of Fiery Foods & BBQ Magazine. "This is specifically for people who want something a little different for the holidays."

Just how hot can you go? That depends on your palate. The heat created by chile peppers is ranked in Scoville Heat Units. The bland bell pepper, for instance, registers zero Scoville units, the Anaheim chile measures under 1,000 Scoville units, the jalapenos on your nachos can range from 4,000 to 50,000 Scoville units and the habanero checks in at a blistering 210,000 Scoville units. This variety of heat and tastes allows for some creative cooking during the holidays, from turkey mole to red chile pork tamales. Each holiday season, DeWitt chops up chipotles (roasted jalapenos) and mixes it with gravy. "The flavor just really works," he says of his chipotle gravy, "especially when you serve it over garlic mashed potatoes. Everybody goes nuts for it." For a decorative twist this holiday season, consider adding green or red chile peppers to your wreaths or simply hanging bright red dried chiles in strings – called ristras – outside your front door.

"They're fun to decorate with," says DeWitt. "You can put them on the tree and around your windows."

Chile seeds and plants can also be a unique holiday gift for your family's garden. And you don't need to live in New Mexico or Arizona to grow them. "Chiles can be grown as far north as Alaska," says DeWitt. "I've known people who have grown them in New Jersey and New Hampshire and have done well with them."

The gift of growing chiles is one that lasts year round, since they are perennials. "I have chiles in my greenhouse that are 12 years old," says DeWitt, who lives in Albuquerque, N.M. "They're going to be teenagers."

Even the hottest chile pepper in the world is available to grow on your own. Researchers at the Chile Pepper Institute recently discovered that the Bhut Jolokia, a chile from India, scorched the Scoville scale at more than 1 million units, nearly twice the heat of the former record holder, a habanero pepper called the Red Savina, which measured only 577,000 Scoville units. Coon says the Chile Pepper Institute is selling Bhut Jolokia seeds at a record pace – more than 7,000 packets of seed since March. "We're getting calls from all over the world," she says, including Australia, Germany and even India. "That's kind of funny because that's where they originated."

But the heat generated by the Bhut Jolokia is not for everyone. Even DeWitt. "I like my food medium hot," he says. "It's all well and good to have the world's hottest chile. But I don't have to eat it."

For a traditional Southwestern holiday treat, Coon suggests the following recipe for posole, a savory pork stew:

Posole Rojo

1 large head garlic 12 cups water 4 cups chicken broth 4 pounds country-style pork ribs 1 teaspoon dried oregano (preferably Mexican), crumbled 2 ounces dried New Mexico red chiles 1 1/2 cups boiling-hot water 1/4 large white onion 2 teaspoons salt, plus 1 teaspoon 2 (30-ounce) cans white hominy (preferably Bush's Best) 8 corn tortillas About 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil Accompaniments: Diced avocado, thinly sliced iceberg or romaine lettuce, chopped white onion, diced radishes, lime wedges, dried oregano, dried hot red pepper flakes Peel the garlic cloves and reserve 2 for the chile sauce. Slice the remaining garlic. In a 7 to 8 quart heavy kettle bring water and broth just to a boil with sliced garlic and pork. Skim the surface and add oregano. Gently simmer pork, uncovered, until tender, about 1 1/2 hours. While pork is simmering, wearing protective gloves, discard stems from chiles, and in a bowl, combine chiles with boiling-hot water. Soak chiles, turning them occasionally, for 30 minutes. Cut onion into large pieces and in a blender purée with chiles and soaking liquid, reserved 2 cloves of garlic, and 2 teaspoons salt until smooth. Transfer pork with tongs to a cutting board and reserve broth mixture. Using 2 forks, shred the pork. Discard the pork bones. Rinse and drain hominy. Return pork to broth mixture and add chile sauce, hominy and remaining teaspoon salt. Simmer posole 30 minutes and, if necessary, season with salt. Posole may be made two days ahead and chilled, covered. While posole is simmering, stack tortillas and halve. Cut halves crosswise into thin strips. In a 9 to 10-inch skillet, heat 1/2 inch oil until hot but not smoking and fry tortilla strips in 3 or 4 batches, stirring occasionally, until golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer tortilla strips with a slotted spoon as fried to brown paper or paper towels to drain. Transfer tortilla strips to a bowl. Tortilla strips may be made 1 day ahead and kept, covered, at room temperature. Serve posole with tortilla strips and bowls of accompaniments.