Recipe Sun Apr 27 2008

Dry Roasted Chili Perfume

We dry-roasted dried peppers. Vaporized hot pepper hit the back of my throat, in a strength which that part of my body might never have felt before. I've long been a fan of spicy foods, but they usually concentrate their burn in the mouth. Or the nose. Rodney warned me to open windows. I brought in a strong fan. We still couldn't help coughing. It seemed like we used a few dozen dried peppers. That seemed like an awful lot of chilies for this Oaxacan black mole. Did I make a mistake? Did the recipe call for fresh peppers? Fresh weigh more, meaning we'd need to use less. No, the instructions mentioned dried chilies. In the end, the heat of the mole softened and mellowed. With various pepper shells and seeds perfuming the air for some time, perhaps it lost some power. Sure, it was still no friend of the timid. After serving it on flanks of sautéed marinated tofu atop toasted corn tortillas, peppers, carrots and onions, the mole was also a big fan of Meleah's chocolate chip peanut butter cookies – a rich and juicy accomplice to a tender, crumbly cookie that melted perfectly in my mouth. Fill a pastry bag full of this mole, pipe it into chocolate cupcakes, and I'm sure you'll be smiling. Or tearing. Here's the recipe. You might find all of the ingredients at reasonable prices at a neighborhood bodega.

- Chris Brunn