Chilehead

Thanks for the warm welcome from a fellow New Englander Chris I am glad you tried to use the scotch bonnets. I find them to have a flavor more suited to fruit then the habenero. Both are so hot though, it's hard to tell sometimes! I hope your friend recovers. Nothing is better then lots of hot stuff and laughter! I messaged my friend. I am waiting to hear back from him. Will keep you posted. -Jim

Chris, I worked at a seafood store in OP, KS. We sold it back in '94. I believe we had some IB in the store when we sold it. Now I can't say for certain, but my friend who bought the store went out of business shortly after. It's possible he may have some IB laying around. I will contact him today and find out. One thing about IB that I recall is the exotic taste which makes my tongue think scotch bonnet rather then habanero, or perhaps a mixture. Any thoughts on that? We used to have so much fun eating hot back in that KC fish store. The IB label inspired us to create a saying for eating something very hot: "It opens the Godhead up!" I guess you'd call it 3rd eye culinary philosophy

I've heard you have to use hot stock/cold roux, cold stock/hot roux, hot stock/hot roux and cold stock/cold roux and it can end up amounting to a holy war in some circles. Onion skins is a classic stock technique for adding colour without flavour. ← We always used to keep some roux on hand near the stove. It was very thick, not liquid at all. We'd then whisk it into a hot liquid. This way we could estimate when we have added the right amount of roux without adding too much. Never got any lumps. I have always had much better results this way then other methods.

Thanks for sharing Johnny. That's a great looking product. I just called Chad at Gulf Shrimp in Southington and asked if he could get some uncooked for me. He said it's not a common item because restaurants around here stay away from them due to the size. Those Ga. shrimp look awesome. I remember getting Florida 'Hoppers' from Destin Ice & Seafood back in the early 90s. Beautiful IQF product with a great size range, price and taste. I used to get 10-15's for $6.95 a pound. I could also slack them out in a matter of minutes if a customer needed them, so on a slow day I wouldn't need to grab a 5# block. I used to market them as "Florida Hoppers" in an attempt to compete with the inferior 'Tiger Shrimp' which was the most brilliant marketing campaign I remember. I had customers coming in asking for 'Hoppers!' Quite satisfying for me! Great looking dishes everyone. Peter, your creation looks amazing. Bravo!

For those of you in the northwest corner of Connecticut, I am pleased to report a very tasty little joint opened recently. The place only seats about 10 people in an old breakfast/diner type atmosphere. It's not the average Mexican fare found around this part of the country. Rather then tortilla soup and nachos, you will find pozole and tamales. The entrees are dishes like pork adobo, chicken in green sauce, that kind of thing. Very nice, very tasty. I imagine I'll be putting on a few extra pounds this holiday season The proprietors name is Simon. Las Delicias Latina 433 Main Street (across the parking lot from Dairy Queen) 860-482-8833