Chipotle Garlic Edamame and Fire

Let my misadventure yesterday with a fire extinguisher, Not A Drill, prompt you now to go find the red canister where you are and thoroughly visualize Pulling the pin, Aiming while standing six feet away, and Spraying while Sweeping Side to side (PASS). Why? Because an enormous flame rising from a pot of greasy chili is no time for thinking. Or reading instructions. Or trying to figure out which black plastic piece is the spray lever. It might save you whole feet in fire damage, whole neurons that are not drenched in adrenaline. The skin on your knuckles might stay whatever color it normally is, your trachea and upper airway might never know the sting of ammonium sulfate. Get thee to a Fire Extinguisher and PASS.

Especially if you make these—HOT HOT HOT– but in this scenario, when it is your mouth on fire, might I recommend a tall glass of milk? Dry chemical tastes awful.

Chipotle Garlic Edamame

Adapted from Food and Wine

Ingredients:

One 14-ounce bag frozen edamame pods

1 T olive oil

1 chipotle chile in adobo (stemmed and seeds removed), minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp ground cumin

Coarse salt and ground black pepper

Cook edamame according to package instructions. Drain and pat dry.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat EVOO and chipotle, garlic and cumin. Add warm edamame pods and cook, stirring, until garlic is softened, 1-2 min. The pods will be bright green with flecks of red chile.

Remove from heat. And then, how you choose to eat these pod-coated beans is a matter of preference. I recently brought these to a party and proceeded to put the whole edamame—seed and peach-fuzz shell—into my mouth. I was told, rather vehemently, “You can’t do that!” Is it poisonous?! I asked, finger poised to tickle my uvula (by far the nastiest sentence I have ever written). The consensus at the party, without Google’s input, was No, Edamame husks are not poisonous, just hard to chew and possibly hard to digest. It is now weeks since I ate a handful of whole edamame, and I have not yet died. If anything, I am singing a new tune—just a spoonful of chipotle makes the fiber, go down! (Yes, you should see Saving Mr. Banks.)

And I’m serious about the extinguisher. If you blew me off in the first paragraph, I implore– now is the time.