Feel like a real Cowboy!

Ok, this is a product of my imagination, because you see, I’ve never had the chance to be a cowboy. Nevertheless, my sister and my brother-in-law adore this hot recipe!

Ingredients

-400 gram/ 14 oz of prepared canned red kidney beans
-400 gram/ 14 oz of prepared canned corn
-400 gram/ 14 oz of sliced bacon or 12-15 strips (chop the bacon in very tiny squares of ½ inch x ½ inch)
-250 gram/ 9 oz of canned mushrooms
-250 ml of tomato juice
-1 tablespoon of boukovo or 20 ml Tabasco® sauce or 20 ml of your tabasco-style sauce… (alternatively you can chop 3-4 Thai peppers or 2 chili peppers or any hot peppers you like)
-4 tablespoons of oil
-½ tsp salt

Method

Put in nonstick frying pan the oil. After it gets heated add the well drained mushrooms and the bacon and sauté them well. Then, add the canned beans (with all their broth –this is important) and the drained corn. Stir well for 5 min. Then, add the tomato juice, salt and the HOT stuff (I mean boukovo, Tabasco or the hot peppers you got). Stir once and simmer for 10 min.

That’ it! Instead of hot coffee try cool beer and you will remember me…

What is “Boukovo”?

Boukovo (perhaps the origin of the name is Bulgarian) is the spicy, very hot, flake powder made from hot red peppers (usually hot Thai peppers that Greeks call “tsuska”, but you can use any type of red HOT pepper). Boukovo is very popular in the Balkan countries and people there use it very often to spice soups, sausages, meat and casserole dishes.

How to make your own Boukovo if you cannot find it at the spice/herb store

First of all you will need 4 to 5 pounds of well dried red hot peppers. You can dry the peppers by placing them in thread chain. Take a needle with thread and sew the peppers one by one from the calyx (or the area between the calyx and the pedicle). Pass about 40 to 50 pieces in each chain. Then, hang the chains in place with a lot of sunlight and fresh air. After two months you’ll get a lot of well dried peppers.

Put on a pair of rubber gloves (and I also recommend a doctor’s mask) open the window and place the dried peppers in a plastic bag. Then start to crumble them in small flakes as I show you in the photo above.

That’s it! Remove the calices and the pedicles and place the “red hot snow” in jar with an airtight cap.

Good Hunting!

Make your Tabasco style sauce at home