Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: Caretaker on July 30, 2006, 21:40
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I am growing 3 differant types of chilli's and would like to know what i can use them for, i think they would be ok in a stir fry but that is all i can think of.
Any suggestions, i am thinking they are HOT ones.
Reg.
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Indian cuisine, Tex-Mex, very small cubes add zing to a pizza. Anything you add pepper to, you can add a little chilli instead.
You can dry them as well and crush to make your own chilli powder.
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If they're relatively mild(I class jalapenos as fairly mild), I cut them in half, deseed them and fill them with a herby cream cheese filling and bake them. The more traditional method of this is carefully cutting around the stem, deseeding through that, stuff with herby cream cheese, dip in flour, beaten egg and bread crumbs and deepfry. Serve as an appetizer. My way is just lazy and slightly less unheathly. Obviously this works better with larger chilis.
There's recipes for various chili jams/jellies (US, not the cold wobbly dessert kind), you could make spicy chutneys with them. Sweet chili sauce is really easy to make as I've found out, as long as you can get rice vinegar (which is more mild than other vinegars).
Another really fiddly thing I do with my jalapenos is smoke-dry them like chipotle peppers. I get a very small pile of hot coals going in one half of my smoker BBQ, add apple wood (trimmings from our apple trees), place the chilis on a fine mesh rack on the other side of the BBQ away from the pile of coals and let it smoke for many hours. It's very fiddly but it's the only good way of preserving jalapenos because they're thick-walled fruit.
edit: Here's my rather long write up on jalapeno smoking and making chipotles in adobo sauce (which is excellent drizzled in anything. Beautiful smokey flavour and generally not too hot for daily use): http://community.livejournal.com/food_porn/1831950.html
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We stock Tracklements "Chilli Jam" in our shop - ingredients are listed as being:- raw cane sugar, red chillies 19%, red peppers 19%, wine vinegar, onions, garlic, lemon juice, salt. I have found that it goes really well with brie/camembert and pate. The jam is made using fresh chillis and peppers. Might be worth trying to make it yourself with your glut?
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I hope to have enough of the small finger chilli's I'm growing to be able to pickle some. Easy to do, you blanch them. Refresh in ice water. Dry them and the put them into sterile jars with pickling vinegar.
Another great alternative is to flavour olive oil with them. A bottle of this makes a great homemade Christmas present for someone who likes cooking.
Remember to wash your hands well after handling chilli's - ask John for more details of the consequences of not following this advice.
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Might be worth trying to make [Chilli Jam] yourself with your glut?
Have you got a recipe? She would love to have a go to add variety to the Christmas presents. Also find a use for all those jars people keep giving her .... Luckily we live near a bottle bank
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Unfortunately not Oliver - just the list of ingredients given and %s for the chillis and peppers, so some experimentation might be required if no one else can come up with a recipe. It tastes sweet with a nice chilli bite, but not uncomfortably so.
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Chilli Jam! Yummy!
Try a look at the BBC's web site/food.
You will be amazed at the recipes available for Chlli Jam.
regards
Rugbymad40
P.s. Had an audition for Masterchef a week or so ago. Used all my own produce and the judges ate the plate clean, but I have not heard I have got a place. Think they only invited me because they knew the food would be tasty! Made the mistake of telling them I grew my own veg!
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... which is my own slight modification on a Tamasin Day-Lewis one and which when taken to a bbq last weekend, actually got me orders for 8 jars!
500g very ripe tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
4 large red chillies or equivalent
2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
30ml thai fish sauce
300g golden caster sugar
100ml red wine vinegar
splosh of balsamic vinegar
juice of 1 lime
Put half the tomatoes, garlic, chillies, ginger and fish sauce into a food processer and whizz to a puree.
Pour into a heavy based saucepan with the sugar and vinegars and lime juice, bring to the boil, stirring slowly. Reduce to a simmer
Dice the other half of the tomatoes and add to the pan. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring every now and then so it doesn't stick (don't panic if it does stick, it won't impair the taste, but it may ruin the pan!).
After 30 - 40 minutes the mixture should have reduced by about a third and have become a rather wonderful sticky mixture.
Store in sterilised jars, seal whilst the mixture is still warm.
Please note that the longer you keep this *jam* the hotter it gets! It keeps for about 3 months in the fridge ... well it would if people didn't keeping eating the stuff.
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... audition for Masterchef a week or so ago ...
I don't think you can have time to be RUGBY mad! You are just Mad! I feel tired just reading this message. No, seriously - fantastic, I hope you get a chance to have a go :lol: :lol: Look forward to watching you in the winter months (when, .... you are supposed to be digging your plot!) :? :roll:
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... *jam* ... keeps for about 3 months in the fridge ... .
thanks for this - sounds like a good chrismas present recipe. As soon as the holiday play scheme is finished (she helps there!) and the annual village show (a week and a bit away) is over, must get her cracking making stuff. O
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... if you have some of the smaller chillies ... like purple tiger or bolivian rainbow ... you can dry them in the airing cupboard and grind them up into chilli powder. They're really too small to be fiddling about chopping and the like.
It's really firey and if you've used either of the two I've mentioned the chilli powder is a fabulous bright orange.