January 3rd

January 3rd

I let the Black Bean soup go in the crock pot over night and tasted it in the morning. The beans were essentially done (I had left it on low heat), but they were incredibly hot. I had added a single chipotle chile, which I had left whole, but it had completely overwhelmed the entire pot. The chipotle was from a small batch I had bought more than a year ago from my local Asian grocery store. I don’t normally see fresh chipotles (which are actually smoked jalapenos), and was surprised to find them at an Asian grocery store, but bought some. They had a great smoky quality and were still fairly pliable. I normally would have used them up by now, but they turned out to be the world’s hottest chipotles. I always assumed they were local, but don’t really know and have started to wonder if they aren’t some type of hotter jalapeno hybrid, because I’ve never had a jalapeno or chipotle that could overwhelm an entire pot of beans. I hoped they would mellow out and the heat would distribute more evenly as the soup sat but when I got home that evening and went to adjust the final seasonings, the soup was just as hot.

I had thought about adding a cubed potato earlier to help soak up some liquid and some of the heat and regretted not doing it now. Don’t get me wrong, I like spicy black beans, but this was towards my upper limit. A little dab of sour cream would have been perfect but I had used the last of it to make the beef saag earlier last week. Luckily we did have some cheddar cheese left over and I hope d that a sprinking of grated cheddar on top would help soothe the burn. It did help, but there was no getting around how hot it all was. We liked it, and the flavors were right (the smoky notes of the chile, a sublte kiss of cumin, the earthiness of the beans) but it was hot. The English bitter helped put out the fire but I really could have used a sweeter, maltier beer.