The Spice Thread

[5co77ie]

Chilli's actually taste nice. Lovely fruitiness to them.

Roasted chilli's.... mmmmmmmm

a mate of mine makes roast potatoes without chillies or olive - does anyone else do this? Seems really weird to me not to roast them like that, that's like those carvery places do - euck

Edited January 8, 2014 by 5co77ie

[zero000]

Does anyone here grow their own chilies? I've always meant to have a go at it.

On an unrelated note I ate a whole (unspecified) chili from the free burma tent at Glastonbury one year and it reduced me to a snotty, teary mess. I'm weak in comparison to some of you nutters in this thread

Edited January 8, 2014 by zero000

[5co77ie]

yeah I grow my own, I know Boris does too he grows the Butch T Scorpion Chili or Trinidad Moruga Scorpion - I forget which, and has started growing Carolina Reaper plants I believe! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Reaper

me I have 7 basket of fire chili plants. Here's one providing Christmas decoration a few weeks ago:

they now easily provide enough chili to add to most evening meals, and are still festooned with flowers

Edited January 8, 2014 by 5co77ie

[The Nal]

a mate of mine makes roast potatoes without chillies or olive - does anyone else do this? Seems really weird to me not to roast them like that, that's like those carvery places do - euck

Yeah. Thyme, garlic, goose fat, bay leaves, red wine vinegar.

Where do you buy the chilis? Are they easy to grow?

[5co77ie]

in the case of mine - they were a present from someone who bought them in a garden centre.

for exmple this is it:

http://www.g-l.co.uk/products/gardening/grow-your-own/growing-kits/unwins-gro-sure-chilli-kit-basket-of-fire.html

There are loads of grow your own kits - just plant the seeds in compost and water them -real easy to grow

(I put all these thyme/rosemary, garlic, goose/duck fat, bay leaves, cider vinegar in from when I parr boil them.)

Edited January 8, 2014 by 5co77ie

[Uncle Liam]

I think Katster grew some as well.

I'd like to get into as well.

[The Nal]

in the case of mine - they were a present from someone who bought them in a garden centre.

foe exmple this is it:

http://www.g-l.co.uk/products/gardening/grow-your-own/growing-kits/unwins-gro-sure-chilli-kit-basket-of-fire.html

There are loads of grow your own kits - just plant the seeds in compost and water them -real easy to grow

(I put all these thyme/rosemary, garlic, goose/duck fat, bay leaves, cider vinegar in from when I parr boil them.)

Righto. Moving house in a few weeks hopefully and will be growing my own herbs. Will defo try chilis.

(On the spuds, parboil few mins, roast with salt and pepper 30-40 mins, then add the other stuff, roast for another 40 mins, leave in the oven with the oven off while making gravy, carving etc).

[zero000]

they now easily provide enough chili to add to most evening meals, and are still festooned with flowers

They look great don't they? They must taste nice too! I'm definitely going to give it a go, cheers for the pointers.

[5co77ie]

(On the spuds, parboil few mins, roast with salt and pepper 30-40 mins, then add the other stuff, roast for another 40 mins, leave in the oven with the oven off while making gravy, carving etc).

(nah, peel, par boil with green pepper corns, a dash of cider vinegar, fresh bayleaf, whole cloves of garlic (peeled), and fresh herbs (rosemary, sage or thyme) for around 15 minutes until they're on the edge of becoming mash - no salt. (drain - save the liquor to steam vegetables with and then to make stock).

In the pan add a large spoon of fat, seasoning (salt/pepper), a couple chillis (thinly sliced with kitchen scissors), mash the garlic cloves you added earlier, remove stalks of fresh herbs and roughly chop, add a finely chopped shallot - in the pan roll the potatoes in the mix. Then pour whole lot into roasting tray around the joint.

Cook for 30-40 mins, then add the whole olives and a touch of olive/rapeseed oil) a touch more seasoning, roast for another 40 mins, leave in the oven with the oven off while making gravy, and leaving the meat to rest for 10 minutes).

Good luck with the move

Edited January 8, 2014 by 5co77ie

[The Nal]

Nice! do they turn our crispy that way. Only thing I add spice to in a roast are carrots really. And they're boiled.

[5co77ie]

Nice! do they turn our crispy that way. Only thing I add spice to in a roast are carrots really. And they're boiled.

Yeah the fact they're so 'fluffy' from the boiling makes them crispy and the herbs/chili/etc help a crust form - I tend to turn/shake them every 20 minutes.

I like to steam my carrots with fennel seeds, or over the festive season juniper berries.

*apologies for the thread turning into mumsnet!

Edited January 8, 2014 by 5co77ie

[windy_miller]

I love hot food too, but it has to have some flavour to it. I put Encona hot sauce on just about anything because I love the taste as well as the heat. I had some Naga sauce that I hardly used because it was stupidly hot but without any flavour.

I have a chilli plant that was doing quite well outside in the summer, but I've brought it indoors for the winter and it seems to be dying even though I am watering it (all the chillies are starting to shrivel up). Does anyone have any ideas?

Slightly related, I got a Japanese cookbook for Christmas and have spent the last few days preparing all the necessary things to make a proper Ramen! I've made Chicken stock from scratch, with Pork Shoulder (chasu) cooked in the stock. I've also made a marinade for the eggs and pork, and the flavouring for the soup (tare). Its all in the fridge ready to go, I've basically just got to put it all together tonight and add some noodles and seaweed! Can't wait!

[5co77ie]

I've not cooked Japanese before but I'm a big fan of Yo! Sushi let me know if the book is worth getting.

[windy_miller]

Righto. Moving house in a few weeks hopefully and will be growing my own herbs. Will defo try chilis.

(On the spuds, parboil few mins, roast with salt and pepper 30-40 mins, then add the other stuff, roast for another 40 mins, leave in the oven with the oven off while making gravy, carving etc).

According to the Good Housekeeping cookbook (an absolute Bible for any kitchen), you should put the spuds in cold water, then bring to the boil for one minute, then drain.

[windy_miller]

I've not cooked Japanese before but I'm a big fan of Yo! Sushi let me know if the book is worth getting.

This is the book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Soul-Cooking-Tonkatsu-Kitchens/dp/1607743523/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389202828&sr=8-1&keywords=japanese+soul+cooking

Its not for the faint hearted. The list on ingredients for most of the dishes is immense, and you won't have heard of half of the stuff. Luckily you can get Mirin in Sainsburys, so I had all the necessary stuff to make Ramen!

[The Nal]

According to the Good Housekeeping cookbook (an absolute Bible for any kitchen), you should put the spuds in cold water, then bring to the boil for one minute, then drain.

Sort of what I do. Cold water to a boil and then simmer for a few mins. Its really just to ruffle them up a bit.

On the Jap stuff, Ive made sushi a few times. Really good. But not so much on the presentation! Fair fooks to those sushi chefs.

[5co77ie]

This is the book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Soul-Cooking-Tonkatsu-Kitchens/dp/1607743523/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389202828&sr=8-1&keywords=japanese+soul+cooking

Its not for the faint hearted. The list on ingredients for most of the dishes is immense, and you won't have heard of half of the stuff. Luckily you can get Mirin in Sainsburys, so I had all the necessary stuff to make Ramen!

That's a shame that typeface gives me a headache!

[Boris]

Ah... Chillies my favourite subject. I'm no 'hard case' and can easily embarass myself with an 'overdose' which invariably causes me a hiccup attack, but I keep coming back for more, that's true enough. I have chilli of some sort with most meals and normally have a few types even on my desk at work in case of need. I've not yet devised a truly portable solution but I know there are keyring type 'survival' kits you can get. Pretty sure I've toted a bottle or two of chilli sauce around with me all the time at the last few Glastos too. Yes I grow 'em although last year's crop wasn't great. I'm hoping to find what was wrong but basically in general the superhots are harder to germinate. Amazingly my best plant this year was a Trinidad Scorpion Butch T that had overwintered in a pot on our driveway almost completely neglected.. we do live in Spain I should admit but I'm impressed that it lived through the winter with almost zero attention. I made 'Riley's Purgatory' powder from them recently and by god this is a powerful devil's dust.. goes a very long way! This year I'm hoping, as Scott correctly says, to raise some of the new world champ, the Caroline Reaper which can top 2 million SHU. Anything stronger than that like some of the evil sauces you see I presume have chemical capsaicin added. You can even buy pure capsaicin although I think it's beginning to be banned.

[5co77ie]

According to the Good Housekeeping cookbook (an absolute Bible for any kitchen), you should put the spuds in cold water, then bring to the boil for one minute, then drain.

I meant 15 minutes from cold putting on the gas ring - crikey 15 minutes boiling they'd be dead Jim.

[Uncle Liam]

I made Hummus tonight.

In it I put the usual garlic, olive oil, tahini and lemon juice.

Then for the LOLS I put in Coriander, fresh ginger, 5 scotch bonnets and 4 Jalapeno's. And very nice it was!

Lovely kick to it although I'm glad I didn't put in any insanity sauce, which was the original plan.

[5co77ie]

Ah... Chillies my favourite subject. I'm no 'hard case' and can easily embarass myself with an 'overdose' which invariably causes me a hiccup attack, but I keep coming back for more, that's true enough. I have chilli of some sort with most meals and normally have a few types even on my desk at work in case of need. I've not yet devised a truly portable solution but I know there are keyring type 'survival' kits you can get. Pretty sure I've toted a bottle or two of chilli sauce around with me all the time at the last few Glastos too. Yes I grow 'em although last year's crop wasn't great. I'm hoping to find what was wrong but basically in general the superhots are harder to germinate. Amazingly my best plant this year was a Trinidad Scorpion Butch T that had overwintered in a pot on our driveway almost completely neglected.. we do live in Spain I should admit but I'm impressed that it lived through the winter with almost zero attention. I made 'Riley's Purgatory' powder from them recently and by god this is a powerful devil's dust.. goes a very long way! This year I'm hoping, as Scott correctly says, to raise some of the new world champ, the Caroline Reaper which can top 2 million SHU. Anything stronger than that like some of the evil sauces you see I presume have chemical capsaicin added. You can even buy pure capsaicin although I think it's beginning to be banned.

you make your own chili pwder too - how do you turn live chillies into that?

[Boris]

Just chop off the stalks and then oven bake at around 100c for an hour or two until they are really brittle/crispy. Then pulverise in a grinder. Nothing added nothing taken away (except water).

[The Nal]

Seeds included Boris?

[t8yman]

from my understanding, the seeds arent the evil most people are lead to believe. the hottest part of the chili is the white pith in the middle, thats where the majority of the capsaicin is stored as far as I know.

feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure Boris knows his stuff, and I'm happy to be corrected, but I'm sure thats the case.

[Andre91]

Coming from a family with an afro-carribean contingent, you can't beat a good ol' plate of curry goat with coconut rice and kidney beans (rice and peas ). The Scotch Bonnet's give it a kick. Lovely stuff.