Cooking with a Chilli Fiend

Pinocchio Chilli Peppers

August 14, 2011 at 3:20 pmCategory:chilli plants | photography

A quick update on my Pinocchio chilli plants. The plant took a long time to get to the flowering stage but as soon as it got there it’s been throwing out chillis like there’s no tomorrow! When I planted the Pinocchios I knew they’d be nice, long fruits but I wasn’t expecting them to grow as much as they have – I’m impressed.

Two of my other plants (from random nameless seeds) are much smaller in comparison, but they have a lot of little flowers and a couple of young chillis. I’m hoping they’ll be small but fiery.

My pepper plants have grown nice and tall and have some very large flower buds but no fruits yet. I also randomly planted some chilli seeds from a supermarket chilli a month ago – very late I know, but the seedlings are growing really well. If I can keep them warm and looked after, I’m hoping to get some late season chillis. Not sure how it will turn out, but worth a go!

Chilli Chocolate Cake

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July 29, 2011 at 12:37 pmCategory:recipes

Chilli and chocolate were meant for each other. The Aztecs would mix cocoa beans and chilli peppers to make a spiced cocoa drink and we all know how prosperous the Aztecs are today so no reason not to carry on the tradition! Umm, yes.

Chocolate Chilli Cake

This is a classic chocolate cake spiced up with fresh and dried chilli peppers. This isn’t a cake with the tiniest hint of chilli, this is a chilli chocolate cake. It’s not hot, it doesn’t burn but it has a distinct chilli flavour and mild heat mixed with the richness of dark chocolate.

Ingredients

The Sponge:
175g wholemeal self raising flour
175g soft light brown sugar
175g soft unsalted butter
3 large eggs, beaten
1 heaped tablespoon of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 red chilli pepper, very finely chopped (sweet, mild chillis will work better than fiery ones)
1/2 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes

The Filling & Frosting:
250g dark chocolate (use chilli chocolate if you can find it, e.g. Montezuma’s Chilli Chocolate or Lindt Chilli Chocolate)
250ml double cream
1 small knob of butter (roughly the size of a large heaped tablespoon)
1 red chilli pepper, very finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon of hot chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes

To decorate I used a handful of crushed pistachio nuts and half a finely chopped red chilli

The baking tins I used were two 7 inch round sandwich tins, lined with greaseproof paper.

Chilli Pepper and Chocolate

Method
The cake itself is a basic sponge recipe, with chilli.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a mixing bowl.
Add the sugar, butter, eggs, fresh chilli and dried chilli. Beat this together until you end up with a soft mixture that falls off a spoon when you hit it against the bowl. Add a drop or two of water if you think your mixture is too stiff.

Divide the mixture into two baking tins (I recommend 7 inch diameter) and bake at 170 degrees C (325F) for 30 minutes, or until springy in the centre and a knife inserted into the sponge comes out clear. Don’t worry if the mixture looks like it isn’t enough. Remember that this is made with self-raising flour and baking powder. It will rise and expand to fill the tins.

When the cakes are done take them out of the baking tins and allow to cool before decorating.

To make your filling for the middle and frosting for the top melt the chocolate over a medium heat. My method of doing this is to boil a pan of water and put a heat proof bowl on top of the pan, drop the chocolate in the bowl and stir until melted.

Once melted take the chocolate off the heat. Stir in the chillis, butter and cream. Cover with cling film and allow it to cool. When cooled, put the mixture in to the fridge for around an hour or until thickened enough to easily spread (but not set hard).

When thickened, spread the chocolate mixture as a filling and topping for your cake. Decorate with crushed pistachios and finely chopped fresh red chillis. Enjoy!

How Spicy Will This Be?
The recipe above is what I would call a mild to medium chilli spice. It’s doesn’t burn and isn’t as strong as chilli can be in savoury dishes. If you don’t like spicy food you probably won’t like this, but at the same time it won’t blow your head off.
Also remember that depending on how much of a chilli fiend you are, you can alter the amount of chilli you add to the cake. For the less fiendish among you, just using melted chilli chocolate for the filling & topping might be enough or if you’re a hardcore chilli fan you might want to experiment with more chilli powder in the sponge.

What Kind of Chillis Should I Use?
I recommend using sweet chilli peppers with a medium heat. The real heat will come from the chilli flakes and powder and the fresh chillis will add both texture and sweetness to the sponge and frosting.

I actually tried an experiment by putting popping candy in the middle of the sponge with the chocolate filling, but it failed to have any effect whatsoever so I’ve left this out of the recipe and have eaten the remaining popping candy. It was great.

Carrot and Coriander Soup

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July 25, 2011 at 2:39 pmCategory:recipes

This spicy carrot and coriander soup packs a small punch with the addition of a chilli and adding a little more black pepper than you normally would. Add more or hotter chilli peppers to get a spicier flavour, or alternatively tone it down a bit if you’re not too keen on the heat.

Ingredients

450g carrots
1 large potato
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 red chilli pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 pints (1.2 litres) of vegetable stock
a handful of fresh coriander leaf (chopped)
a large pinch of ground black pepper
a pinch of salt
vegetable oil

Makes 4 servings

Method

1. Peel and chop the carrots and potato into small chunks. Finely chop and onion, garlic and chilli (keeping the seeds).

2. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion, and stir until lightly browned. Then add the garlic and chilli – stir for around 1 minute.

3. Add the ground coriander, the potato and the carrots. Stir for 1 or 2 minutes on a medium heat until they soften but do not brown the vegetables off. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

4. Pour in the vegetable stock. Bring this to the boil and then reduce the heat to allow the soup to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.

5. Stir in your fresh coriander leaf, add a little more black pepper to taste. Then blend the soup in a food processor until you have a soupy consistency. Return the soup to the pan to warm through again, then serve.

If you like your soup thicker, you could add another potato at the start of cooking. Or if you like it runnier, add more vegetable stock.

Why are my chilli plants growing slowly?

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July 8, 2011 at 10:54 amCategory:chilli plants | tips

One of the biggest questions that refers people here is ‘Why are my chilli plants growing slowly?’ So I thought I’d try to give a few reasons for slow growing chillis.

Variety – some types of plant can be slow, others quicker. Try researching the specific breed of chilli pepper seeds you’ve planted.

Temperature – chilli plants grow better in warm conditions. Where possible, keep plants in a warm place and ideally use a heated propagator to germinate and grow seedlings. For most varieties, they need to be kept at a temperature above 15 degrees C otherwise the growth will definitely be disrupted.

Light – chilli pepper plants need as much light as possible, ideally natural sunlight. If you’re struggling to provide plants with enough light and are serious about growing chillis you could invest in an artificial light set up. Otherwise, a window sill with a good few hours of sunlight each day will be fine.

Nutrients – poor quality soil or a lack of nutrients will make it difficult for the plant to grow up fast and strong. You can usually tell if your plant is thirsty for nutrients by the colour of leaves.

Potting On – this is when you move your seedlings into a larger pot to allow for more growth. Some people say that if you put small plants into very large pots, they will concentrate more on growing their roots to fit the pot, than growing the plant itself. Although I don’t know if this is true, it’s probably best to make sure you gradually increase pot size over time.

Does your chilli pepper plant have other problems? Here are some common chilli plant growing problems.

Looking for help growing chilli plants? Here’s a basic guide

Spicy Mashed Potato

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June 8, 2011 at 4:07 pmCategory:recipes

Here’s my attempt at spicing up some boring old mashed potatoes. This recipe is very, very vaguely based on Aloo Bonda, a spicy deep fried Indian potato snack. By that I mean that I just added some lovely spices to give the mash a nice aroma as well as a spicy kick.

Ingredients

Mashed potato! I used about 5 large Maris Piper potatoes
2 teaspoons of dried red chilli flakes (or less, or more, depending on your taste)
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon of fenugreek powder
A big pinch of ground black pepper
A small pinch of salt

Method

Mash your potato as you usually would. Add all of the above spices and carry on mashing to give it all a mix. Hey presto, spicy mash!

Best served with spicy Welsh dragon sausages and gravy.

You could play about with different spices and ingredients and see what you get. Next time I think I’ll add some finely chopped red onion.

Chilli Children Trust

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May 26, 2011 at 12:57 pmCategory:news

Thanks to the networking joys of Twitter I’ve recently found out about the Chilli Children Trust.

It’s a fantastic charity working with disabled children in various areas throughout Uganda. As well as raising money to help with education, health and transport, the project teaches local communities about growing chillis for income. The money that the communities earn is then spent on providing better schooling, medical care and life skills for their children.

The charity recently put out a call across Uganda for children with cleft lips and palates and burn victims so they could offer them help and point them in the right direction for surgery. Because of Chilli Children, a group of young children will be operated on in August at the CoRSU hospital.

Using chillis to help those in need – fantastic idea!

Find out more about the Chilli Children of Rukungiri Trust.

In the garden

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May 19, 2011 at 7:01 pmCategory:chilli plants | photography

Seeing as the sun decided to show itself this afternoon, I took advantage by grabbing the camera and having a look around the garden.

Below are some of my chilli plants. They’re growing quite slowly (but I was late at planting them in early April) so we probably won’t get much use out of them for a long while, but fingers crossed they’ll grow up nice and healthy. I can’t for the life of me remember which type of chillis I planted. I really must remember to label things up next year!

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Below are my potato plants. They are unbelievably easy to grow and after doing so well last year, I thought I’d have another crack at it. So far so good – fingers crossed for a good harvest later in the year. Again – can’t remember what type of potato this is, but I’m sure it’ll be tasty (it better!). As we don’t have much space in our garden, I’m growing the potatoes in bags.

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And here’s one of my hanging baskets with tomato plants, again a space-saving idea (also helps keep the slugs and snails at bay). I’ve got seven plants in various baskets at the moment. The trick is to make sure they’re well watered and to make sure they get a nice sunny spot in the garden.

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And here’s a happy French Marigold. My marigolds also live in hanging baskets, close to the tomatoes. Apparently it distracts aphids from the tomato plants, but they’re also hardy, easy to care for and kind of pretty!

Insanity Lasagna

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May 5, 2011 at 1:10 pmCategory:recipes

A classic lasagna spiced up with Dave’s Insanity Sauce – delicious but go sparingly if you’re not a truly hardened chilli fiend! Or just leave out the chilli sauce and make a normal lasagna (boooring).

Ingredients

500g beef mince
1 onion, finely chopped
1 green pepper, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
tomato passata (as much as you feel your recipe needs)
a handful of oregano and basil leaves (fresh if you have them, dried if not)
a splash of red wine (optional)
a pinch of black pepper and salt
Dave’s Insanity Sauce (as much or little as you can handle)

fresh lasagna pasta sheets (if using dried, soak them in warm water while you cook the mince)

For the white sauce:
25g butter
25g plain flour
500ml milk
salt and pepper

Makes around 4 portions.

Method

Fry the chopped onions in olive oil until lightly browned, add the garlic and the chopped green pepper. Once softened, add the mince and stir until browned. Depending on how lean the meat is, I usually remove a large portion of the fat that comes out of the beef.

Add the chopped tomatoes and stir. Add a small amount of passata depending on how saucy you like your lasagna to be! Stir in the oregano and basil then add the salt and pepper to taste. Stir in a few drops of the chilli sauce, taste and hope you don’t burn your taste buds off!

To make the white sauce:
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 or 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn it.
Take the pan off the heat and slowly stir in the milk to get a smooth sauce. Turn the heat on and slowly bring the sauce to the boil.
Simmer gently for around 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper.

Layer the meat, pasta and white sauce into a lasagna dish. Warm in the oven for around 25 minutes at 180 degrees C or until the top goes golden.

Record Breaking Aussie Chilli

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April 12, 2011 at 9:47 amCategory:chilli plants | news

Just a few months after the Infinity Chilli from good old Blighty is declared the “World’s Hottest Chilli”, the Aussies go and smash that record in the face!

Marcel de Wit, owner of the The Chilli Factory in Morisett, Australia, has cultivated and produced the Trinidad Scorpion Butch Taylor with a Scoville heat rating of 1,463,700 – ouch. No wonder their grower says they are “severe, absolutely severe”.

Trinidad Scorpion chilli

The Trinidad Scorpion Chilli

The seeds originated from Trinidad and were given to Marcel de Wit by Neil Smith from the Hippy Seed Company. Mr de Wit had a helping hand from Mark Peacock who assisted with the growing process by advising about disease and fertilizers. A three man job, one super scorpion chilli.

The chillis will be used in making a super hot chilli sauce to test even the hardiest chilli fiend.

I have to say that is one scary looking, fat boy chilli. Good work, Australia!

Brunch (how very posh)

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April 4, 2011 at 5:00 pmCategory:random

This isn’t spicy, hot or full of chilli…but it is simple, delicious and delightful!

A lovely Monday treat, to get the week going off on the right foot.

Yesterday I was visiting my sister on the farm and having a go at getting some decent photos. Take a look over on my Flickr page.

(Baaa)

Infinity Chilli – “World’s Hottest Chilli”

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February 20, 2011 at 10:23 amCategory:chilli plants | news

Chilli lover Nick Woods, an RAF security guard from Lincolnshire, has bred what is now dubbed the world’s hottest chilli.

The Infinity Chilli is rated at 1,067,286 on the Scoville heat chart, according to the University of Warwick.

Keeping in mind that your average Jalapeno is between 4000 and 8000 units, this really is one to knock your socks off.

Nick Woods runs Fire Foods, a website selling spicy sauces and chilli plants.

Why anyone would even try to eat one I can’t begin to comprehend, but kudos to Mr Woods for breaking a Guinness World Record and for being an undeniably crazy chilli fiend!

Monkey Cupcakes

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February 9, 2011 at 8:26 pmCategory:recipes

Mr Chilli Fiend recently finished a documentary for the BBC featuring the Chimps of the Kyambura Gorge. As a celebration for the film being transmitted, I made some happy monkey cupcakes.

Ingredients
For the cake mix:
250g unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
250g self raising flour
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (optional)
a drop or two of milk (if needed)

For the frosting:
90g butter
80ml water
110g caster sugar
240g icing sugar
35g cocoa powder

Decorations:
Large chocolate buttons
Mini marshmallows
Black writing icing
Asda’s “Build a Burger” sweets (the buns made perfect monkey mouths) or anything else monkey-mouth-shaped you can find!

12 large cupcake or muffin paper cases

Method
The cupcakes
Preheat your oven to around 190C (gas mark 5).

Mix together the butter and sugar until you have a creamy, pale mixture. Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl or cup and add the vanilla to them. Once whisked, add the eggs to the butter and mix.

Sift in about half of the flour and mix everything together. Add the remaining flour and add some drops of milk if your mixture looks a little too thick (or if the flour isn’t mixing in very well).

Splodge the mixture into cupcake or muffin cases (this mixture made 12 large muffin sized cakes for me). Don’t worry if the mixture looks messy and uneven in the cases, it will settle and rise nicely in the oven.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. When done, they will have a golden top.

The icing:
Heat the butter and water in a pan on the hob until warm (not hot) and add the caster sugar and stir until dissolved.
Sift the icing sugar and the cocoa powder into a mixing bowl, add the melted butter-water-sugar mixture and mix together. This will be pretty runny at this point.
Allow to cool until thicker. Stir well before icing.

Decorate your cupcakes as required and enjoy! Yum yum!

PS. Save the chimps.

Butternut Squash Curry

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November 11, 2010 at 3:21 pmCategory:curry | recipes

Trying to decide on something to eat the other night, my options were limited. The cupboards were going bare – just the odd tin and bag of dried pasta, the bag of frozen spinach in the freezer looked lonely, the fridge looked somewhat neglected – half empty with a couple of half used veggies in the bottom tray.

A plate of pasta? No. Takeaway pizza? No, the diet fairies will haunt me for weeks. Leftover veg mushed together into something spicy and delicious? Why the hell not?

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients
1/2 a butternut squash, cubed and par boiled for 5 mins
2 medium sized maris piper potatoes, cubed and par boiled for 10 mins
a handful of spinach leaves (fresh or frozen, it works either way)
1 red pepper, sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
2 hot green chillis, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 or 5 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 a tin of chickpeas
1 tin of coconut milk
a cup of water
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon of ground fenugreek
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon of garam masala
a good pinch of ground black pepper

fresh coriander leaf
basmati rice (boiled in a pan with 2 cardamom pods and a bay leaf – optional)

Method

Fry the onion, chilli and garlic in oil (I used groundnut oil) until translucent. Add the ground spices and mix in, allowing them to fry for about 30 seconds. Try not to burn the spices – you’ll know if they’re burnt because not only will your pan have black marks but the smell will be bitter, pungent in the bad way and won’t have that yummy-curry-esque aroma.

Add all of the vegetables and the coconut milk, stir well and leave to simmer for about 10 or 15 minutes. Add the water (or stock) if you think your curry needs a bit more liquid to it.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with spices – add more if you think it needs it, add different ones if you have them. You can always do a little cheat and add a small spoon of curry paste if experimenting isn’t your thing.

Stir in some of the coriander leaf 5 minutes before serving. Keep some of the leaves for decoration on the plate.

Serve with rice, naan or chapatis. Enjoy!

“Rub-A-Dub” Venison Steak

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September 25, 2010 at 7:31 pmCategory:recipes

Venison is lean, tender and full of flavour. It’s not that popular these days – although I have no idea why.

I have recently discovered venison steaks and sausages for sale in Asda and Tesco for a very reasonable price. If you’re lucky and get there at the right time, you can get great deals in the ‘reduced meat’ section as for some reason lots of people don’t buy it and the shops are desperate to get rid of it before the sell by date.

Levi Roots‘ “Rub-a-Dub Venison” inspired this recipe.

Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon of allspice
1/2 a teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/2 a teaspoon of chilli powder
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme
a dollop of groundnut or sunflower oil

Method
Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and mix. Rub the mix into venison steaks and allow to marinate for as long as possible – overnight is best but try to leave it for at least 2 or 3 hours before cooking.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C (gas mark 6). Sear the venison lightly in a griddle or frying pan on the hob. Put into the oven for around 5 – 8 minutes (depending on how well you like it cooked).

Always allow red meat to stand for about 5 minutes on a warm plate to help it stay juicy and delicious!

I served this with spicy sweet potato wedges and a fiery pepper sauce.

If you’ve never tried it, give it a go and ignore any “awww Bambi” thoughts!

Homemade Pizza

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August 25, 2009 at 11:47 amCategory:recipes

Most people like pizza. There’s so many options for toppings and flavours. Almost everyone can find something they like. Some crazy fools even substitute the traditional tomato sauce for barbeque sauce! Weirdos!

I suppose that’s a great reason for making your own pizza: you have complete control over everything – how crispy the base is and what kind of toppings to use.

If the thought of making your own dough puts you off there are easy ways to cheat. You can buy pre-made pizza bases in the supermarket, although in my experience they don’t taste great, or buy a packet of pizza dough. This stuff is great because you just need to add water and kneed it into shape.

My favourite pizza toppings are all the classics: finely chopped onions, peppers, tomatoes, olives and chillis, of course. A nice bit of cheddar, parmesan and fresh mozzarella add the cheese-factor.

Ingredients

For the sauce
passata (sieved tomatoes)
a handful of chopped basil leaves
a handful of chopped oregano leaves
a sprinkle of salt & pepper

For the dough
a packet of pizza dough
warm water

For the toppings
anything you fancy! I used:
1 red onion
1 green pepper
2 red chillis
a few black olives
a few cherry tomatoes
sliced mozzarella
grated cheddar
grated parmesan

Method

Follow the instructions on your packet of pizza dough. Remember to leave it to rise for about 20 minutes. If you feel brave then have a go at tossing your pizza. If not, get your other half to do it for you (so if he drops if you can blame him!)

Pour the passata into a saucepan and warm it up (don’t boil it). Add the basil, oregano and salt & pepper. Stir the sauce while gently warming it. If you think it needs thickening up add a small amount of tomato paste.

You may want to pre-cook your pizza base a small amount before adding any sauce or toppings. I put mine in the oven for about 5 minutes on 220 degrees. This helps it to crisp up a bit so that the sauce doesn’t make it too soggy.

Spread the sauce over the pizza base. Sprinkle your chosen toppings on to the pizza. Place in the oven for around 20 minutes at 220 degrees.

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