So, recently someone gave me some Thai hot peppers. I make a lot of condiments, mostly salad dressings, from my herb collection (more than just a garden... it's more like an herb obsession). So I thought I'd try a little sweet-hot vinaigrette with the Thai hot peppers. As I stood there in front of my herbs, trying to decide what other flavors needed to be in this dressing, my eyes settled on the stevia plant. I realized I could counterbalance the hot of the Thai peppers with the sweet of the stevia -- without adding calories or a bunch of chemical sweetener! Whoo hoo! I chopped off a bunch of stevia and headed into the house to experiment. The recipe below can be adapted however you like. I'll give suggestions but this is mostly for proportions.
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup some sort of acid. I made three dressings using: balsamic vinegar (my favorite), white wine vinegar (also good), and lemon juice (very good -- you could add lemon zest, lemongrass, lemon balm, lemon thyme, lemon basil... whatever lemon-y herb you have on hand)
1,000 cloves of garlic (or however much you like!) About 1/2 to 1 tablespoon, or a couple cloves, crushed.
2-3 Thai peppers, seeded and chopped finely or whatever peppers you can handle (Serrano would be good here or habanero)
2-3 tablespoons fresh stevia, chopped finely or 1-2 tablespoons dried stevia, crushed
Other ingredients that I think would blend well with these flavors (pick one or two -- not too many flavors in one dressing):
ground coriander, ground cumin, salt and pepper, lemon pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, lime juice and lime zest. You could also add honey if the stevia isn't doin' it for ya. (Honey goes great with the garlic/lemon combination. I recommend tupelo if you can find it.)
I assembled this in a blender, hit "pulse" for a minute or so and then into salad bottles. Let it all infuse in the fridge for a couple days. Made a salad yesterday: you could smell the pepper and taste the flavor, but it wasn't clear-your-sinuses hot or anything. The stevia sweetened nicely and balanced out the vinegar and pepper flavors. Really nice with spring greens, sharp cheese and capers on the salad. mmmmm....
Really great dressing. I highly recommend it if you've got stevia and peppers laying around! Enjoy.
Stevia Lovers! New recipe!
Wow! That sounds great! Got to print this off...
Barb
Let me know what adaptations you make!
Well, as much as I love garlic I will reduce the 1,000 cloves to about 500... ;-)
Other than that, I'll let you know...
Barb
Over dinner, my husband decided I should try something sweet and sour, adapted from above. I'll LYK...
Barb