I enjoy cooking, though I haven't done it as much lately because a person has a choice of about 2000 online restaurants to choose from in Jakarta and sometimes it's incredibly easy to simply be lazy when you can have any cuisine delivered to your doorstep with the click of a button.
And my current kitchen is even smaller than the one I had in Kyrgyzstan and I only have a small toaster oven and a two-burner stove, so making elaborate dishes is a bit of a struggle.
One wonderful thing that does enhance cooking pleasure here is the wealth of condiments at a person's disposal. I am fairly strange in that enjoy condiments as much as I do essential ingredients like meat, potatoes, fruit, or vegetables. In fact, I might enjoy condiments as much as anything in the culinary world. It is because they add the special missing touch that changes a dish from ordinary to magnificent.
I have to say right now, my favorite condiment is chipotle. As you can see from the picture, I currently am in possession of a FOUR different chipotle condiments, as well as a can of whole chipotle peppers. That's a chipotle record for me. Why do I love chipotle so much? It isn't particularly versatile, oh but if you have something that requires a hot, spicy sauce, it is a magnificent choice. What makes chipotle special is that it is both spicy and beautifully smoky at the same time. It's what makes a condiment special: blending two opposite taste profiles into a harmonious whole.
Chipotle is wonderful with scrambled eggs or in soups. I especially love to include it in my homemade chili. Below is a picture of a chili I recently cooked and where I included all four of my chipotle condiments and a few of the whole chipotle peppers. I didn't have any chili powder, but an unused condiment I had stashed in the drawer came to the rescue.
When I ordered food from the brand new Taco Bell in Jakarta they included several packets of Taco Bell Hot Sauce in the delivery. I'm not a big fan of Taco Bell Hot Sauce, but it tastes a great deal like chili powder and shares many of the same ingredients, so I opened them and squished all six packets of TBHS into my chili and it functioned just as I had hoped.
The final result, you can see, was the most deliciously hot, smoky, and sweet chili you've ever tasted. (What gives my chili a sweet flavor? you might ask. Adding several chunks of Lindt 85% cocoa chocolate gives it a richness and slight sweetness that mellows out any sharp edges any of the spicy chipotle and TBHS might provide.)
The Joy of Condiments. They might seem ordinary, but they can really spice up your life.
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