Spicy Chilli Relish & Hot Chilli Sauce

I have lots of chillies still to use up and so today I made these..

Spicy Chilli Relish

Ingredients:

12 Chillies (I used 2 Lemon Drop, 3 Hot-scotch, 6 Ohnivec and 1 Sante Fe)

1 Large Onion (chopped roughly)

1 Carrot (sliced)

3 tbsp Golden Caster sugar

1.5 Cups of Water

½ tsp of Cumin

½ Cup Cider Vinegar

½ Cup Red Wine Vinegar

1 Large Tomato (I used Brown Sugar, but any decent sized tomato with some flavour will do)

Add the chopped onion and carrot to the water and vinegar mix in the saucepan.

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved on a low heat. Gradually increase heat and when approaching soft consistency, add the roughly chopped tomato, chopped chillies and cumin powder.

Simmer until all have a nice soft consistency keeping a lid on the saucepan.

Add to the blender and whizz up! Taste and add to sterilised jars.

Taste Test> This is nice and tangy with a nice after kick to it!! Slightly thicker than the one below, this would fall into a chilli preserve/relish category whereas the one below is more of a chilli sauce..

Spicy Chilli Sauce

Ingredients:

12 Chillies

1 medium Onion (chopped roughly)

1 Lime juiced

2 and ½ tbsp Golden Caster sugar

1 Cup of Water

1 tbsp of Fish Sauce

1 tbsp of sliced Ginger

250ml White Vinegar

250ml Cider Vinegar

Add the sugar to the water and vinegar mix in the saucepan and stir until dissolved on low heat. Add the chopped onion, lime juice, ginger and fish sauce and increase heat.

When approaching soft consistency, add the roughly chopped chillies. Simmer until all have a nice soft consistency keeping a lid on the saucepan.

Add to the blender and whizz up! Then add to sterilised bottles.

Taste Test> A nice sweet to sharp taste..This is a chilli sauce and so more suited to bottles. 

Handy Tip..Saving Tomato Seeds

1. Rinse tomatoes in water to remove dirt before harvesting seeds. Cut off open or damaged parts of fruit. We collect tomatoes in five gallon buckets then fill them with water. Cleaning any dirt off becomes a natural sweeping motion with your hands as you grab tomatoes from the water.
2. Cut open ripe tomatoes one variety at a time and squeeze the pulp, juice and seeds into a container. If you have strong hands, you may crush the tomato in a five gallon bucket. Try to develop skill holding the tomato right side up and opening the tomato from the bottom blossom, and, with your fingers, then milking the germplasm gel which contains the seeds off the central column. This is the fastest method.
3. Pour into a container with a lid. Do not add water as a substitute for tomato juice since dilution slows fermentation.
4. Label and set aside the containers for three days at a temperature not more than 70°F (21°C).
5. Stir the fermenting juices to submerge the pulpy material, once or twice daily. This prevents the build up of mold which is not harmful to the seeds but may discolor them.
6. After three days decant. Pour into a larger container that allows you to add three or more times the volume of water and pour off the pulpy water but not the seeds at the bottom. Viable tomato seeds will sink. Repeat two or three times until seeds are clean. Note: not all viable seed varieties sink in water.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

A selection of harvested tomatoes

If you have (almost) more tomatoes than you know what to do with, this sauce is not only delicious and enormously versatile, but in its freshly sieved state – that is, before you add the sugar and vinegar – it freezes brilliantly for up to six months. Makes 1.4 litres.

3kg ripe tomatoes, halved
5-6 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
4-6 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-2 bay leaves
A little light muscovado sugar
A little cider or white-wine vinegar
Ground mace or nutmeg

Heat the oven to 180c. Lay the tomato halves cut-side up in a single layer in a couple of large roasting tins. Scatter over the garlic and thyme. Trickle over the oil and season generously.

Roast for an hour, or until the tomatoes are soft and starting to brown around the edges. Place a sieve over a bowl and, working in batches, tip the tomatoes into the sieve and rub them through with a wooden spoon. Discard the skin and pips. At this point, you have the option to freeze the sauce to keep you going through the winter – use it as a base for soups, stews and pasta sauces, or swirl it on top of pizza.

Measure the sieved puree volume, then put it in a wide saucepan with the bay leaf (or leaves). For every 500ml of puree, add a heaped teaspoon of sugar, a tablespoon of vinegar and a pinch of mace. Bring to a simmer and cook gently, stirring often, until reduced by half to form a thick, glossy sauce. Adjust the sugar/vinegar balance, if necessary, and season to taste.

Hot Chilli Chutney

Hot Chilli Chutney

• 450g chillies (I used mixed chillies)
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons turmeric
• 25g root ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2/ thirds of a cup of olive oil
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 and a quarter cups white vinegar

1. Finely chop chillies, including seeds.
2. Mix together the chillies, chopped onion, garlic, cumin, turmeric, ginger, salt and oil.
3. Transfer to a heavy based pan and allow fry relatively slowly for 15 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking.
4. Add sugar and vinegar allowing sugar to dissolve and then bring to the boil. Cover pan and boil for 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Turn heat down and allow to cook for a small while longer.
5. Pack into sterilised jars, then seal. If you have button topped lids, make sure the button pops down when the jar has cooled to ensure a proper seal.

This should keep for a long time, but make sure that once opened, that you keep it in the fridge just to be sure. I reduced the amount of oil from the original recipe because it seemed far too runny. 

The above made 2 and a half jars of a nice tangy chutney. You should probably give it a quick stir each time before use given the oil content. Very yummy tho!!!

Added note>>> Probably worth adding grated lime zest to this as a taste experiment..

If you find it is too hot (as in spicy), add some lemon or lime juice to cool it down a bit...

Good Onion Harvest

I usually have a good crop of large sized onions and this year is no exception thankfully...Harvested a couple of weeks ago and now drying...

Above is a selection of my onion harvest that is on racks for drying (if it would stop raining!)

Kohl Rabbi & Caterpillars

My kohl rabbi plants were getting on fine until the cabbage white butterfly paid a visit...Didn't have them covered unfortunately...Lesson learned although they have not been affected in previous years...

Pumpkin

Look what I found when doing some rummaging around in one of the beds that has 2 courgette plants, a pumpkin and another winter squash whose name I forget...
Pretty big pumpkin which I am sure the kids will love...

Jamie Oliver's Cheeky Chilli Chutney

Jamie Oliver's Cheeky Chilli Pepper Chutney



Haven't made this one before, so am tempted to try it this year. Have loads of chillies this year to experiment with..

Belizean Hot Chilli Sauce

Definitely a taste of carrots followed by a kick!!

I made 4 jars of this last Saturday (Sept 3rd) and on tasting it you initially get the tang of carrots but straight after comes the chilli kick. Might be more suited to a bottles than jars, but they are staying as is now!

Belizean Chilli Sauce

Belizean Chilli SauceBelizean Chilli Sauce Recipe

Pickled Whole Chillies

Recipe of the Week – Pickled Chilli Peppers

Shows off the full splendour of the chillies

I love my chillies and am always looking for ways to preserve them; here is another!Chilli peppers will freeze and dry quite well, but pickling is an approach that retains their colour and flavour excellently. The vinegar in the pickle is also believed to reduce the heat in them.
This excellent recipe is from Mark Diacono’s A Year at Otter Farm and takes just afew minutes to make. This recipe made three jam-jars of pickle, with the chilliesstanding upright in the jars.

Ingredients:

• 250g chilli peppers

• 500ml white wine vinegar

• a pinch of salt

• 100g caster sugar

• 3 bay leaves

• 12 peppercorns

Directions

Dissolve the sugar and salt in the vinegar in a pan over a medium heat. Add the bay leaf and the peppercorns and simmer for 10 minutes. Be careful that it doesn’t boil off.

Remove from the heat.

Pierce each chilli 5 or 6 times.

Put the chilli-peppers into sterilised jars and pour the hot vinegar over them to cover – then seal. Check liquid levels in jars after about a week.

Store in a cool, dark cupboard for up to a year. Keep in the fridge once opened.