Under the Mango Tree--Tamsin Barzane

The weather is changing, and a rash of damp, dreary days has sprinkled itself over the region. People are getting worried about the swine flu, with alarums clamoring. My ancient bones are complaining and creaking like a Halloween skeleton, and dragginess is a watchword. If it were Spring, we'd be talking tonic (Pappy's Sassafrass tea, anyone?). But it isn't! It's the Fall that acts as overture to a loooooong winter.

And I have a remedy for you.

It is my cure all for sore throats, blocked noses, aching sinuses, the blues, and whatever ails you. And it came my way in Nigeria, decades back. It is...the mighty habanero pepper!! Now some of you don't know the habanero, known to English-speaking West Indians as the Scotch Bonnet--or the ata rodo, the Yoruba name that most other Nigerians use, too. You know the jalapeno, the chipotle, the banana pepper, but not the habanero. Others know it and dread it! It is high up on the peppery Scoville scale, and one pepper can make a pot hot enough to down a Cuban! It was born in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, but the Portuguese took it off to West Africa where it flourished and jumped into the cooking pots, changing the cuisine several centuries ago.

Now a Yoruba cook cranks it up! Not everyone in Nigeria can take it, but that was the level I started with. They're full of vitamin A, full of flavor with a capital F--jerk chicken wouldn't be jerked without that peppa!!! You can't tame your mouth with water or beer (though the latter tastes good with it). Only milk or ice cream can really do the job. Don't be afraid--it's worth it.

Groceries in Puerto Rican neighborhoods have ata rodo--buy a lot and just pop your extras in a plastic bag in the fridge, so you have them at a bargain price all winter long--when you need them most. Dried doesn't do it--they retain the heat but lose the flavor.

A simple way to try it is delicious and fast--I learned it when the power would be shut off and I couldn't use the blender to make Nigerian stew. Put some water on the burner. Heat some oil in a skillet and get your knife out--chop up four or five Roma tomatos and a third or a half of a purple onion--and chop up one ata rodo. But be careful, especially if you wear contacts! It takes a day to come off your fingers--put a plastic bag over your hand to cut it up. By the time it's cut up, the oil should be hot, and throw it all in. Water boiling? Throw some pasta in (or make some rice). After your sauce has been on high for about five minutes, lower the heat. Add some salt, some basil, some powdered ginger. By the time the pasta is cooked, the sauce is ready.

Less than half an hour, you've got a hearty meal that will clear your head and make you glad to be alive! A little bit of the tropics will fill your kitchen and your stomach--and sometimes clean you out the next morning! Enjoy yourself.