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Feral vegetables
Jul. 17th, 2021 01:41 pmThe Guardian had an article about courgettes/zucchini that can unexpectedly go rogue and start producing toxic quantities of cucurbitins
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/17/tim-dowling-homegrown-courgettes-poisoned-us-all
Something similar happened to me once with the local bell peppers. I'd made a nice pot of ratatouille, and then noticed a nasty,completely inexplicable, very painful, burning sensation in my hands. After much frantic Googling in case I had suddenly developed some hideous neurological complication, it occurred to me to lick a finger, whereupon the familiar taste of chilli gave me a hint about what had happened. I learned from this that bell peppers can, when so moved, revert to their ancestral, ferociously hot condition. I had to throw out the ratatouille, it was too hot even for tastebuds accustomed to Southeast Asian food; we don't use gigantic quantities in most of our cooking, it's not supposed to override all the other flavours. I asked around, and sure enough, at least one colleague had had the same experience, and it was a known thing for locals, who sensibly just picked those out and used them as if they were chillies.
The lesson being, taste your vegetables before you cook them.
It took me a while to scrub my hands clean with detergent, though I understand that oil and alcohol dissolve the capsaicin as well.
Sometimes, the vegetables eat you.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/17/tim-dowling-homegrown-courgettes-poisoned-us-all
Something similar happened to me once with the local bell peppers. I'd made a nice pot of ratatouille, and then noticed a nasty,completely inexplicable, very painful, burning sensation in my hands. After much frantic Googling in case I had suddenly developed some hideous neurological complication, it occurred to me to lick a finger, whereupon the familiar taste of chilli gave me a hint about what had happened. I learned from this that bell peppers can, when so moved, revert to their ancestral, ferociously hot condition. I had to throw out the ratatouille, it was too hot even for tastebuds accustomed to Southeast Asian food; we don't use gigantic quantities in most of our cooking, it's not supposed to override all the other flavours. I asked around, and sure enough, at least one colleague had had the same experience, and it was a known thing for locals, who sensibly just picked those out and used them as if they were chillies.
The lesson being, taste your vegetables before you cook them.
It took me a while to scrub my hands clean with detergent, though I understand that oil and alcohol dissolve the capsaicin as well.
Sometimes, the vegetables eat you.
