Showing posts with label Chile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chile. Show all posts

Friday, December 09, 2022

Oregano/Mint in my Pauoa Valley Vegan Chile

There are several names for this plant I used in Hawaii called "oregano" or "mint". It's akin to the black salt I used Hawaiian black salt (combo of activated coconut charcoal and Hawaii sea salt) and NOT the sulfur-infused Kala namak the black salt from Pakistan. In the Hawaii rainforest, it grew in cascades over the rock/stone retaining walls of our garden. Once in a while things were cleared out or cut back, leading to a large pile of fresh leaves. Instead of the mana going to waste, I decided to blanch the thick fleshy oregano leaves into 2-3 pounds for freezing. (enough to pack a larger Freezer bag) And, then craving a chile opted to use these blanched leaves for a base instead of pure tomato. There is a very long list of names for this large-leafed oregano or mint used in folk medicine (2) in over 20 countries from Asia to Europe, South America, and tropical islands. 

Latin name: Plectranthus Amboinicus, Variegated or Lamiacaea:

Names used across the world or Synonyms in romaji for Plectranthus Amboinicus (1):  Thick leaf thyme, broad leaf thyme, Indian Borage, Pashan Bhedi, Karpooravalli, Patharchur, Torbangun, Daun Kutjing, Daun bangun-bangun, Pokok bangun-bangun, Latai, Suganda, Oregano, Puerto Rican oregano brujo, Cuban oregano, Sup mint, French thyme, Indian mint, Hom duan huu suea, Niam huu suea, Indian Borage, Country borage, Spanish thyme, Mexican mint, French thyme, Indian mint, Can day la, French thyme, Spanish thyme, Broad-leaf thyme. 

mild Pauoa Valley Chile (2016) at Vegan Rainforest Chile -bio hack- (2016) Pauoa Valley, Hawaii 

Additionally, after searching for common names for the Hawaii Oregano or mint to bring clarity to my recipe;- On 12/08/2022 I attended a Dr. Tau Braun Q& A. (Yesterday in terms of relation to this article). He mentioned terpenoids in some approaches to treating snake venom. When I was in Hawaii during this time June 2013-2018 several random people used to approach me and say "Hawaii doesn't have snakes." If you want to call these people perps of DoD gangstalking please do. So I took a quick look into searching for terpenoids with this Oregano, Plectranthus Amboinicus, and found a di-terpenoid (4) correlation. 

"The leaves of the plant are often eaten raw or used as flavoring agents, or incorporated as ingredients in the preparation of traditional food. The literature survey revealed the occurrence 76 volatiles and 30 non-volatile compounds belonging to different classes of phytochemicals such as monoterpenoids, diterpenoids, triterpenoids, sesquiterpenoids, phenolics, flavonoids, esters, alcohols and aldehydes."(4)

Then was quickly bound a correlating to Snake venom with Plectranthus Amboinicus article(5)  in the scientific article search. Though this is not my area of academic knowledge, I know that the time of the onset of my symptoms June 2013- November 2013 was when I made this vegan Plectranthus Amboinicus Chile recipe. I visited a homeopathic nutritionist in the early spring of 2014 and had gone for allergy testing at the hospital by the time my biotoxin illness was attributed to my severe issues of the biomechanical shutdown.  It is well documented since the 1960s and 1970s that Hawaii is a known DoD research experiment on the non-consenting public. I lived with very friendly people at the time, where some transient businessmen who contracted with the Feds for Hawaii infrastructure also resided. All of us at the property probably was exposed to natural or unnatural bio-toxins.


References:

  1. Arumugam G, Swamy MK, Sinniah UR. Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng: Botanical, Phytochemical, Pharmacological and Nutritional Significance. Molecules. 2016 Mar 30;21(4):369. doi: 10.3390/molecules21040369. PMID: 27043511; PMCID: PMC6274163.

2. Lukhoba CW, Simmonds MS, Paton AJ. Plectranthus: a review of ethnobotanical uses. J Ethnopharmacol. 2006 Jan 3;103(1):1-24. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2005.09.011. Epub 2005 Nov 9. PMID: 16289602.

3. "Three oreganos to know and grow" from Hawaii Horticulture, A Blog about gardening and plants in Hawaii. http://hihort.blogspot.com/2011/10/three-oreganos-to-know-and-grow.html

4. Arumugam G, Swamy MK, Sinniah UR. Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng: Botanical, Phytochemical, Pharmacological and Nutritional Significance. Molecules. 2016 Mar 30;21(4):369. doi: 10.3390/molecules21040369. PMID: 27043511; PMCID: PMC6274163.

5. Villalta-Romero F, Gortat A, Herrera AE, Arguedas R, Quesada J, de Melo RL, Calvete JJ, Montero M, Murillo R, Rucavado A, Gutiérrez JM, Pérez-Payá E. Identification of new snake venom metalloproteinase inhibitors using compound screening and rational Peptide design. ACS Med Chem Lett. 2012 Jun 14;3(7):540-3. doi: 10.1021/ml300068r. PMID: 24900507; PMCID: PMC4025828.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Vegan Rainforest Chile -bio hack-

I made this chile after clearing out a massive amount of fresh oregano & blanching it. I needed something to do with the oregano and so I decided to make chile with it. I call it a bio hack for personal reasons of living in the back of Pauoa Valley in the only true microclimate 12B tropical rainforest on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, just outside downtown Honolulu.
Not for novice chile cooks, this is my "Mild Pauoa Valley Chile"
Recipe:  Rainforest Vegan Chili - Bio Hack - 
  1. sunflower oil
  2. 1 diced Maui onion or vidalia onion
  3. 1/2 bulb garlic
  4. 4-5 cups of H20 
  5. 1 lb puréed fresh blanched oregano 
  6. 1 diced poblano pepper
  7. 1-2 diced Annaheim peppers
  8. 1 can tomato paste
  9. 1 large can tomato puree
  10. 1 box Vegan Boca Burger (you can sub out this for beans)
  11. 1-2 cups pinto beans (soaked)
  12. 1 -1.5 tsp cinnamon
  13. Frontier Fiesta Chile Pepper
  14. Paprika to taste
  15. 1-2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
  16. 1 sliced or diced Red Bell pepper
  17. 1 sliced or diced Orange Bell pepper
  18. 2 Jalapeno peppers no seeds
  19. 1 lb of broccoli with stems ( can sub Cauliflower)
  20. 1 tsp. black pepper (grinder)
  21. 2-3 regular dried red chile peppers
  22. 1-2 sliced, diced fresh scorpion/strawberry Habeneros with seeds
  23. 1 tsp black Hawaiian sea salt
  24. Additional cinnamon to taste

This Chile sounds like it would set your mouth on fire with fresh scorpion peppers. Ironically, with the right amount of black sea salt added to the chile the finished hotness is actually mild. And, the taste is sweet & mellow with hints of cinnamon. It takes about 2.5 hrs to cook down on a low simmer in a big pot and is a vegan chile. Like most recipes start, caramelizing the onions and garlic with the oil with maybe a pinch of salt or a dash of Earth balance. then add The oregano will be the first set of herbal steam coming from the cooking pot. It should then be overwhelmed with additional ingredients topped with the strong cinnamon smell and left to stew for a bit. The peppers go in the pot in order of weakest to strongest capsicum level. Once the Scorpion peppers are searing my nose sitting on the top of the chile with steam rising, I add the black sea salt around them. Then I let the chile mixture stew a bit longer. If it's going to be eaten immediately.