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Chilli peppers
After harvesting most, and sampling a few of my conservatory grown chillies,
I am sure that they are much hotter than last year's crop. Could this be due to the very hot summer? Mr Fothergill's "Fiesta" has been really impressive with my two remaining plants still producing many fruits. I have often read on this newsgroup different methods of preserving and using chillies during the winter. I prefer allowing them to dry out naturally and storing the whole chillies in screw top jars. A friend who is mad on "Habaneros" boils them up, and when cold, blitzes them with added non-virgin olive oil before storing the resulting pulp in screw top jars. Any chilli recommendations for next year would be most welcome. TIA MikeCT |
Chilli peppers
On Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:48:13 GMT, "MikeCT" wrote:
After harvesting most, and sampling a few of my conservatory grown chillies, I am sure that they are much hotter than last year's crop. Could this be due to the very hot summer? Mr Fothergill's "Fiesta" has been really impressive with my two remaining plants still producing many fruits. I have often read on this newsgroup different methods of preserving and using chillies during the winter. I prefer allowing them to dry out naturally and storing the whole chillies in screw top jars. A friend who is mad on "Habaneros" boils them up, and when cold, blitzes them with added non-virgin olive oil before storing the resulting pulp in screw top jars. Any chilli recommendations for next year would be most welcome. TIA MikeCT I hang them up and let them dry. They last all winter just like that. The Habaneros I grew outside are much hotter than the ones I grew indoors. The early ones were hotter that the late ones. I saved a few of the seeds from a packet of Dorset Naga. It will be interesting to see if the hottest chilli in the world will grow in my window box. -- Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks. http://www.easynn.com |
Chilli peppers
"MikeCT" wrote:
Any chilli recommendations for next year would be most welcome. TIA I once made a Habenero hot sauce very simply: Something under a liter of cider vinegar in which a bunch of peeled garlic cloves had been soaked overnight* A big handful of dried Habeneros thrown in same. Whizzed in the blender to make a smooth liquid. That's it. Hot, flavorful, all that stuff. *So the garlic could be safely stored in olive oil; the acidity is needed to avoid unpleasant results, like death from botulism. Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G |
Chilli peppers
"MikeCT" wrote After harvesting most, and sampling a few of my conservatory grown chillies, I am sure that they are much hotter than last year's crop. Could this be due to the very hot summer? Mr Fothergill's "Fiesta" has been really impressive with my two remaining plants still producing many fruits. I have often read on this newsgroup different methods of preserving and using chillies during the winter. I prefer allowing them to dry out naturally and storing the whole chillies in screw top jars. A friend who is mad on "Habaneros" boils them up, and when cold, blitzes them with added non-virgin olive oil before storing the resulting pulp in screw top jars. Any chilli recommendations for next year would be most welcome. TIA Freeze them as they are, no blanching needed. Chillies get hotter if they are well watered during the two weeks before harvest. You can keep your Habaneros, little taste IME, I'll stick with Thai Dragon (same heat more taste, that's proved too hot for a couple of local Asian families I gave some too this year) and it grows well outside down here. -- Regards Bob H 17mls W. of London.UK |
Chilli peppers
Bob Hobden wrote: "MikeCT" wrote After harvesting most, and sampling a few of my conservatory grown chillies, I am sure that they are much hotter than last year's crop. Could this be due to the very hot summer? Mr Fothergill's "Fiesta" has been really impressive with my two remaining plants still producing many fruits. I have often read on this newsgroup different methods of preserving and using chillies during the winter. I prefer allowing them to dry out naturally and storing the whole chillies in screw top jars. A friend who is mad on "Habaneros" boils them up, and when cold, blitzes them with added non-virgin olive oil before storing the resulting pulp in screw top jars. Any chilli recommendations for next year would be most welcome. TIA Freeze them as they are, no blanching needed. Chillies get hotter if they are well watered during the two weeks before harvest. You can keep your Habaneros, little taste IME, I'll stick with Thai Dragon (same heat more taste, that's proved too hot for a couple of local Asian families I gave some too this year) and it grows well outside down here. My pepper sauce recipe, making about 15 fl oz. 4 sweet red peppers 16 chillies (infinitely variable, of course) 5 fl oz vinegar (cider vinegar is great, but any will do) 1 teasp salt. Chop roughly, cook till soft (microwave is best). Blitz totally in liquidiser. Cook again, stirring at intervals till it more or less coats the back of a spoon, bottle. If on settling there's a layer of free liquid at the bottom, either shake before using, or tip it out and boil off a bit more water. Beautiful colour, lovely taste: you may never put ketchup on a sausage again. -- Mike. |
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I find it hard to believe that a UK-grown chilli is really the hottest in the world, probably just the hottest one that has been measured. The "Dorset" Naga is, it is generally perceived, derived from some seeds taken from some Naga Morich chillis and grown in Bournemouth, ie a selection of Naga Morich rather than a separate variety. The Naga Morich is from Bangladesh, and is frequently on sale in Bangla groceries, though they often don't realise what they have. These groceries may be a cheaper source of seed/fruit than the Bournemouth people. Banglas use the Naga Morich in their cooking by introducing it very briefly to the food. Frankly I have no interest in growing something as dangerously inedible as that. In general, varieties of chilli bred for their decorative effect, (Twilight, Marbles, Pretty in Purple, etc), are less tasty than those bred for culinary advantage. Most chilli varieties, including sweet peppers, are Capsicum annuum, and there is a range of flavours, eg the mirasols I grew this year have a distinct strawberry-like taste. Habaneros, birds-eye chillis and scotch bonnets are C. chinense, though like all chillis they are from the Americas not China. There are all sorts of other interesting chillis of culinary interest, such as rocotos/locotos (C. pubescens, easier to over-winter than other chillis, though possibly not so easy to germinate), ají-type chillis (C. baccatum, commonly used in Chile, Peru), etc, etc. |
Chilli peppers
MikeCT wrote:
After harvesting most, and sampling a few of my conservatory grown chillies, I am sure that they are much hotter than last year's crop. Could this be due to the very hot summer? Mr Fothergill's "Fiesta" has been really impressive with my two remaining plants still producing many fruits. I have often read on this newsgroup different methods of preserving and using chillies during the winter. I prefer allowing them to dry out naturally and storing the whole chillies in screw top jars. A friend who is mad on "Habaneros" boils them up, and when cold, blitzes them with added non-virgin olive oil before storing the resulting pulp in screw top jars. Any chilli recommendations for next year would be most welcome. TIA MikeCT I grew some from seeds sent to me by a poster in this group, they have an excellent flavour and did really well in a plastic greenhouse planted directly into the soil, I harvested them last week, some pix he http://i15.tinypic.com/2cy65vm.jpg and http://i9.tinypic.com/2a9ekxu.jpg These are from 5 plants in semi shade and largely ignored since early August I dried a dozen out, for seeds and also for cooking or grinding into powder, the rest I sliced into one inch pieces and froze in a bag, seeds and all, I believe they taste almost fresh once defrosted, pickling takes away all the heat and drying takes away most of the flavour but not the heat, if you have a lot, use a few methods and see which is best for you / your chillis. |
Chilli peppers
"echinosum" wrote after... Bob Hobden replied Chillies get hotter if they are well watered during the two weeks before harvest. Usual advice is that chillies get hotter if stressed, ie, regularly allowed to get to looking sad and drooping before watering. (Snip) That's true too, but after you have stressed them then give them plenty of water for the last two weeks. I might add that growing them outside in the UK in the open ground and leaving them to their own devices most of the time once flowering, as we do with our Thai Dragon, is stressful enough for them to get rather hot. -- Regards Bob H 17mls W. of London.UK |
Chilli peppers
"Phil L" wrote in a message: snip I grew some from seeds sent to me by a poster in this group, they have an excellent flavour and did really well in a plastic greenhouse planted directly into the soil, I harvested them last week, some pix he I dried a dozen out, for seeds and also for cooking or grinding into powder, the rest I sliced into one inch pieces and froze in a bag, seeds and all, I believe they taste almost fresh once defrosted, pickling takes away all the heat and drying takes away most of the flavour but not the heat, if you have a lot, use a few methods and see which is best for you / your chillis. --------- Thanks for your reply. Have you tried growing chillies from 'Supermarket' seeds? Two years ago I collected and germinated seeds from a bottle of Sainsbury's dried chillies. The five plants grew very well indeed, producing many fruits, however, not one of them ever turned completely red. I finished up with chillies of varying colours, red, dark purple and green. This I found interesting, especially as the chillies in the picture on the bottle were all a bright red. My chillies also lacked any heat, whereas those in the bottle were very fiery. Thanks also to Mike Lyle for the Pepper Sauce recipe, I'll make some this weekend. MikeCT |
Chilli peppers
MikeCT wrote: [...] Thanks for your reply. Have you tried growing chillies from 'Supermarket' seeds? Two years ago I collected and germinated seeds from a bottle of Sainsbury's dried chillies. The five plants grew very well indeed, producing many fruits, however, not one of them ever turned completely red. I finished up with chillies of varying colours, red, dark purple and green. This I found interesting, especially as the chillies in the picture on the bottle were all a bright red. My chillies also lacked any heat, whereas those in the bottle were very fiery. Thanks also to Mike Lyle for the Pepper Sauce recipe, I'll make some this weekend. Glad the recipe attracted you: I hope you like the result as much as we do. It has a freshness of smell and flavour that commercial producers can't hope to provide. Chilli seeds seem to be difficult to kill. But the British climate is rarely suitable for the ones you cull from supermarket produce, which have usually been grown a few thousand carbon-belching food miles away, so you can expect very variable results. This year I've kept only two plants, from a Tesco bird's-eye I'd frozen and then found after dropping it on the floor and stepping on it. I think they came from Thailand. The plants and their yield were so different that it's hard to believe they're from the same parent, but both were much slower to ripen than the seedsmen's varieties, which should be adapted to our conditions. Historical note. The 1861 Mrs Beeton already notes the British attachment to chillies, and mentions "English chillies", which shows they were grown commonly enough in this country for people to be able to buy them fresh. Beeton was writing for a privileged class, of course. How lucky we are! -- Mike. |
Chilli peppers
Mike Lyle wrote: MikeCT wrote: [...] Thanks for your reply. Have you tried growing chillies from 'Supermarket' seeds? Two years ago I collected and germinated seeds from a bottle of Sainsbury's dried chillies. The five plants grew very well indeed, producing many fruits, however, not one of them ever turned completely red. I finished up with chillies of varying colours, red, dark purple and green. This I found interesting, especially as the chillies in the picture on the bottle were all a bright red. My chillies also lacked any heat, whereas those in the bottle were very fiery. Thanks also to Mike Lyle for the Pepper Sauce recipe, I'll make some this weekend. Glad the recipe attracted you: I hope you like the result as much as we do. It has a freshness of smell and flavour that commercial producers can't hope to provide. Chilli seeds seem to be difficult to kill. But the British climate is rarely suitable for the ones you cull from supermarket produce, which have usually been grown a few thousand carbon-belching food miles away, so you can expect very variable results. This year I've kept only two plants, from a Tesco bird's-eye I'd frozen and then found after dropping it on the floor and stepping on it. I think they came from Thailand. The plants and their yield were so different that it's hard to believe they're from the same parent, but both were much slower to ripen than the seedsmen's varieties, which should be adapted to our conditions. Historical note. The 1861 Mrs Beeton already notes the British attachment to chillies, and mentions "English chillies", which shows they were grown commonly enough in this country for people to be able to buy them fresh. Beeton was writing for a privileged class, of course. How lucky we are! -- Mike. Hi Anyone have a tried and tested pickling recipe for chillies?? I'd love to pickle whats left of this years crop..any help appreciated.. Thanks Barbara www.all-about-tomatoes.com |
Chilli peppers
On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 Red Tomato wrote:
Anyone have a tried and tested pickling recipe for chillies?? I'd love to pickle whats left of this years crop..any help appreciated.. I simply put them in vinegar, without or without other spices. David -- David Rance http://www.mesnil.demon.co.uk Fido Address: 2:252/110 writing from Caversham, Reading, UK |
Chilli peppers
David Rance wrote: On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 Red Tomato wrote: Anyone have a tried and tested pickling recipe for chillies?? I'd love to pickle whats left of this years crop..any help appreciated.. I simply put them in vinegar, without or without other spices. I said at one point that I was going to try salting some like runner beans; but I haven't actually got a round tuit. -- Mike. |
Chilli peppers
Red Tomato wrote:
Hi Anyone have a tried and tested pickling recipe for chillies?? I'd love to pickle whats left of this years crop..any help appreciated.. Thanks Barbara Put as many as you can fit into a jar, add vinegar and spices of your choice, garlic maybe, or peppercorns, cloves, cardamons pods, basically anything you like...beware though that the vinegar will take all or very nearly all of the heat out the chillis within a month or two, they become like pickled capsicums....I've simply sliced and frozen all mine, seeds and all, they are easily removed afterwards, or left in for extra heat. |
Chilli peppers
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