Chilli! All Things Chillies.

[leiothrix]

Yes there is a good reason... iodophor and the like sanitise, not sterilise.

Not to be picky or anything, but boiling alone isn't enough to sterilize.

Wikipedia article
Boiling in water for 15 minutes will kill most vegetative bacteria and viruses, but boiling is ineffective against prions and many bacterial and fungal spores; therefore boiling is unsuitable for sterilization. However, since boiling does kill most vegetative microbes and viruses, it is useful for reducing viable levels if no better method is available.

Wanting to avoid the chemicals is fair enough though.

I did think of a reason to boil - if you have a large jar and want to fill it with a hot sauce (hot as in temperature), pouring that into a cold jar is not the cleverest thing to do.

 

[Tony]

if the boil dont kill them........ pure habanero paste will :super:

 

[drsmurto]

if the boil dont kill them........ pure habanero paste will :super:

Amen.

Couple of questions for the chilli brethren...

Pickling jalapenos. Can i just dump then in vinegar and if so, which one? I want to be able to add them to tacos etc as well as sangers. I read i need to leave them for several weeks to be ready? Also go nice on top of chilli con carne.

Chipotles - to make these do i simply add hickory to a weber and smoke them for several hours?

As for your 'trial' batch Tony, i reckon that will last you a while. If i was able to grow orange habs this year i would do the same, the colour is amazing!

 

[bradmcm]

Pickling jalapenos. Can i just dump then in vinegar and if so, which one? I want to be able to add them to tacos etc as well as sangers. I read i need to leave them for several weeks to be ready? Also go nice on top of chilli con carne.

For pickling, you need salt and vinegar. The vinegar can be white vinegar or cider vinegar if you want a different taste.
You need to use pickling salt (aka kosher salt), pickling salt doesn't have any anti-caking additives.
You can also add spices to the mix, bay leaves and peppercorns are the most common. You can also add sugar as well.



Chilli Down Under Link

Basic Pickled Chillies

This recipe is for approximately 900g of chillies. We soak the chillies overnight in the brine first as it keeps the chillies crisper when pickled.

Brine

3 cups water
1 cup pickling salt
Combine the salt and water. You don't want holes/slits in your chillies yet. Cover the chillies with the brine in a bowl and put a plate or something similar over them to keep the chillies submerged. Soak the overnight then drain, rinse well, and dry.

Pickling Solution


3 cups white vinegar
3 cups water
3 teaspns pickling salt
Poke two or three small holes in top of each chilli and pack them tightly in sterilized jars leaving 1cm at the top of the jar.

In a saucepan, combine the water, vinegar, and salt. Bring the solution to a boil and then pour over the chillies, leaving no space at the top. Remove trapped air bubbles.

Store for 4 to 6 weeks in a cool, dark place before serving.

 

[damoncouper]

nice one guys, i got 40 or so red chillis off a mate the other day so i cut them all up and boiled them in 700mls of white vinegar with a splash of fish sauce and some hot paprika. boiled it till it was completely reduced and mushy. very nice, quite mild.

has anyone tried death sauce? or their sister sauces after death, sudden death or mega death? easily the hottest thing i have ever tried. aussie supplier http://www.deathsauce.com.au/megadeath.html

Yep, I have tried the death sauce. We put about a tea spoon on a homemade pizza and it was as hot as a Tinderloo(Phaal). Tinderloo can best be described as being for people who find Vinderloo mild.

 

[johnno]

Don't know if anyone has posted about these mothers here http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/sagajolokia.asp

The HPLC analysis revealed that Orange Habanero had a mean (average) heat level of 357,729 SHU. That's quite a bit, but according to Dr. Bosland, this is in the range normally seen for this cultivar in Las Cruces, NM. (I once tasted Jalapeno peppers right from a field close to Las Cruces, and even those "ordinary" peppers were surprisingly hot.)

Now for Bhut Jolokia -- the analysis revealed that it possessed an extremely high heat level indeed, a whopping 1,001,304 SHU. That's a heat level you normally see only with ultra-hot sauces using pepper extract (capsicum oleoresin).

A different kind of surpise was the test result for Red Savina - it scored a rather low heat level of just 248,556 SHU. This means the SHU value for 'Bhut Jolokia' was four times higher than 'Red Savina' -- so much for "the world's current hottest chile pepper" ;-)

You can also purchase some seeds here http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/chile-...nstitute-c.html

May pick up a pack and burn my *** off. lol

cheers
johnno

 

[capretta]

hmmm, email my credit card details to mexico.. even though my http://www.chillibird.com/
jolokias have not germinated, its probably cheaper through an australian website than having some one steal my visa details!!

 

[johnno]

hmmm, email my credit card details to mexico.. even though my http://www.chillibird.com/
jolokias have not germinated, its probably cheaper through an australian website than having some one steal my visa details!!

Hi capretta,
New Mexico is a state of the US.

 

[Tony]

I got my Naga seeds from england, great service. Posted the website a few weeks ago. Will be back a page or 2

As for them not getminating...... aparently they need a constant temp of around 30 deg c to kick off.

I have Mt trididad Scorpion and 7 Pot going.... both are suposed to around the 900 000 SHU range. One Bhut Jolokia seedd in the ground to see if it goes but not hot ebough i dont think.

Will get then going next spring.

cheers

 

[capretta]

Hi capretta,
New Mexico is a state of the US.

ouch! brevity etc.. i should have read more thoroughly. apologies..

30 degrees tony? they mentioned 20 degrees but not 30. 80% of the other seeds (jalapeno, red hab, ancho, et al) have germinated but i will wait the stipulated 28 days.. (its been 20)

 

[NRB]

My Naga germinated in 5-6 days at around 24-26C ambient during the day, less than 20 overnight. Slow growth since, but getting a few more leaves on it now... will stick it in a poly greenhouse over the winter.

The instructions for my Naga said ambient needed to be over 25C for germination.

 

[drsmurto]

For pickling, you need salt and vinegar. The vinegar can be white vinegar or cider vinegar if you want a different taste.
You need to use pickling salt (aka kosher salt), pickling salt doesn't have any anti-caking additives.
You can also add spices to the mix, bay leaves and peppercorns are the most common. You can also add sugar as well.

Chilli Down Under Link

Cheers for that Brad, i now have a combo or red and green jalapenos so will pickle a heap this weekend.

Yep, I have tried the death sauce. We put about a tea spoon on a homemade pizza and it was as hot as a Tinderloo(Phaal). Tinderloo can best be described as being for people who find Vinderloo mild.

Tindaloo is just a hotter version of vindaloo as you pointed out. Phal (not a real indian dish but found in UK indian restaurants to cater for pissed poms) is hotter still. Its basically a few pieces of meat swimming in an insanely hot sauce. I love vindaloos and was asking how hot they were to mates the first time i ate in an indian restaurant in the UK. They suggested i asked the waiter if they had anything hotter not on the menu. I was told they has a dish called Phal. Having had a few pints at that stage i was up for it. To say it was fiery is an understatement. But.... the chef came out and asked me how it was. I was about to answer it was bloody hot when a cheeky geordie at the other end of the table shouted out "he thinks its not that hot". Chef grabbed my plate and walked into the kitchen. He came back with my plate with a sauce on one side and the phal on the other. He points to the sauce and says "this is what we water down to make the phal" and then walks off. As someone who has the entire collection of death sauces i reckon this was probably on par with the Megadeath. Liquid fire. Dunked a piece of naan in it and nearly fainted.

The morning after phals is not fun <_<

Ok, so noone has tried making their own chipotles then? Maybe i need to find someone who has a fish smoker and borrow that....??

 

[Tony]

Cant help you with the chipotles mate...... i bought some for $10 a kilo and they were great. If i had a smoker i may give them a go but i dont.

cheers

 

[Steve]

Being an ex pom I cant believe Ive never heard of a tindaloo? Even with all the Indian recipes sites I use for cooking (my favourite is Indianfoodforever.com) its never being mentioned....my Indian cooking teacher in class has never heard of it. Do you have any recipes?

Tony when you were in Tamworth and you had habs in pots did they die over winter with the frost. If I stuck mine in the garage or my little sheltered potting shed will it survive the freezing nights?

Cheers
Steve

 

[NRB]

I tried my first Habanero today, took about a quarter of one and chewed it up. The white pith had small yellow droplets along it...

All I can say is these suckers are most definitely hot. I've never had a chilli make my eyes water, but the little bugger did. I'm now really scared to chew on some Naga!

 

[Tony]

Steve...... Chilli plants hate the cold. Mine used to loose all their leaves and some would die. I spend a bit of time on Chilli growing forums as well and I have seen some pictures of habanero plants cut back to almost nothing, like a rose bush, for winter. It was put somewhere sheltered from the cold to keep the roots alive and when it warmed up, it took off and grew like a bought one from the shop!

Im thinking of trying the same with mine this season. Cut them back to 8 inch stumps and take them out and re pot them in fresh soil once it warms up again to get them off to a good start.

NRB..... They are good bush tucker hey

cheers

 

[SDJ]

I had one jalepeno chilli plant last year and saved the seeds from 2 chillis to plant this year, Ive now got 25 jalepeno chilli plants with a healthy looking crop.
funny thing is that even though the seeds all came from the one plant some of them have mutated.
Heres the garden


Normal sized chillis


Big ******* sized chillis


Odd bulb shaped chillis


all the chillis on the bulb shaped plant are bulb shaped and the big ******* chillis are big, is it normal to have such a wide range of shapes and sizes from the one plant? anyone else noticed this??

Cheers Steve.

Ps, the plant I got the seeds from died back to a stick then regrew the following season.

 

[Tony]

Its called cross polination


Think of what you would get if you crosses a great dane with a fox terrier. They are both dogs and it would work, but it would be a cross between the 2

Chillis are the same and when bees, flies, ants ect land on your chillis ,and everyone elses in the neighbourhood, they cross polinate. The chillis on the origional plant will always be the same but the seeds from a cross polinated chilli will grow something different.

I have seeds from a Jalepino that i grew next to a red thai chilli in tamworth. The thai chilli was pointy, almost heart shaped without the little curve at the top, the jalepinos were normal.

The plant that grew from seeds saved from a Jalepino chilli were as hot as the thai (5 times hotter than the Jalapino) and pointy shaped like the thai, but green and fleshy like the jalepino.

Thats why i dont save seeds...... i buy now ones.

Im going to net my plants this year round to save some seeds for all my AHB chilli diehards. MAinly the rare 7 POT and Trinidad Scorpion.

cheers

 

[Tony]

Just chassing any interest out there.

I have a massive glut of hot chilli and cant really afford to buy the 2 new firmenters i desperatly need.

If i made habanero concentrate in small jars, say 50ml ,would people be prepared to fork out a few bucks to buy some. I will have to buy the jars so there is cost and time involved on my end but this concentrate is fantastic. I was dipping bits of chicken in it and its got the most amazing flavour, better than biting into a raw one but just as ring burning hot !!!

Let me know before i go buying lots of jars, I have about 200 habaneros in the freezer and hundreds more on the way on plants, i dont know what else to do with them.

cheers

 

[NRB]

I don't really need Habanero paste as I've got a bush myself, but if you're struggling to pay for the new fermenters, I'm happy to send a fiver your way as part of the "Get Tony A New Fermenter" fundraiser! Shoot me a PM with your address mate.