After serving myself a steaming nice bowl and feeling pleased with myself for getting the proportions right and not cooking too much for myself as I normally do (I'm used to cooking family-sized meals, so cooking for one always throws me), I took one bite, and my head near enough exploded. Despite getting the proportions right for everything else, stupid, stupid, stupid Lettie added enough cayenne pepper for FOUR people. My mouth is burning, my lips are burning, and what is even more upsetting is that I can still detect underneath the spice and heat the lovely flavours that I should be able to eat and enjoy, but can't because it's too flippin' hot!
CURSES!
In an attempt to salvage what I could from dinner, I googled fixing over-spiced stir-fries and found this website which recommended adding fat or bland foods. Excellent idea. Why didn't I think of that? Dash to the fridge to see what I can find. Don't much fancy adding milk to the food that is already is my bowl, cos it'll just make a mess, so the only thing that's left is yoghurt. Unfortunately because I'm trying to lose weight to fit better into my bridesmaid dress, it's bloomin' zero % fat yoghurt. Typical. But it's either that, or throw in the towel (and throw away the food) and settle for tinned soup and toast, and I won't be beaten that easily. So on goes a cautious spoon and a half and it looks really weird, but mixed together it does take a little of the edge off. Still not enough to be a satisfactory meal, so back to the fridge for another good few dollops of low-fat yoghurt. By now it really looks nothing like a stir-fry but at least it's heading in the right direction heat wise. By which of course I mean spicy heat (as measured on the Scoville scale in case you were interested). By now of course the bowl has gotten so cold that it looks foul, and even though it's still distinctly spicy (might just be my poor taste buds that haven't yet recovered from the initial shock) it's undeniably cold. So back in the microwave, where I hope to the saint of kitchen disasters that the increased temperature doesn't intensify the spice. Oops, it's just beeped, so I better go check....
Ahhhh...that's better..... :) it's still not perfect (again could be my destroyed taste buds) but at least it's now edible (even if it does looks like a mess). Having learned from my mistake, and re-watched the video below, I was curious to find out just how spicy cayenne pepper is compared to other peppers. Turns out it measures 30 - 50, 000 scoville heat units on the scale which is hotter than both jalapenos and Tabasco sauce (neither of which I EVER eat willingly) and less spicy than Piri Piri (at 50 - 100,000 scoville units). Now I know that I think I'll be using cayenne pepper a LOT more sparingly.
If anyone's a bit interested in what is the best cure for hot chili mouth or why it feels so darn awful, here's another video from Mythbusters (the source of all my knowledge). The last few 'cures' are quite 'unconventional' so you might want to look away if you don't like watching grown men attempt to eat Vaseline.
Dunno about you, but I'm off to the shops for more milk...
Bye for now
xx
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