Cheeky Chili

I guess it was only a matter of time, but yet again – the ‘sizzle level’ has been raised up a notch and the World Record looks as if it could be soon under new ownership.

Officially (according to the Guinness World Record), the Naga Viper is the world’s hottest at a crazy 1.38 million Scoville Units. But the team at the Chili Factory in New South Wales Australia look to have outdone it! According to the Sydney Morning Herald on 12 April 2011, the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T. as it is has known has been tested and measured 1.46 million scoville units.

Of course, this yet needs verification by Guinness, but it looks as if the record could be heading ‘Down Under’.

The experience has been likened to ‘applying a soldering iron to tongue and throat!’ The grower, Marcel De Wit offered little in suggestion when asked how to use them in cooking, simply explaining ‘sparingly’………

Even we may give that one a miss

Four Indian scientists have discovered that a type of chili pepper grown in the country’s northeast has one of the highest Scoville units of pure capsaicin — a measure of hotness.

This chilli pepper is called the Tezpur chili pepper, after the area where it is grown; scientists say the pepper has beaten Mexico’s Red Savina Habanero, widely acclaimed as the hottest chili pepper in the world.

The Tezpur chilli was rated having 855,000 Scoville units whereas the Mexican chilli contains 557,000 Scoville units of pure capsaicin. This chilli pepper is however not the hottest as that to date is still the Dorset Naga with a Scoville reading of 923,000.

Tezpur lies on the banks of the river Brahmaputra about 112 miles from Guwahati, the main city of Assam, which is better known for its flavoursome tea than its chili peppers.

India is one of the world’s top producers of chili peppers, exporting an estimated 35 tonnes a year.

In the City of Havelock they have just celebrated their 29^th annual festival.

More than 20,000 people consumed gallons and gallons of chili at the North Carolina State Chili Festival in Havelock.

On Saturday, attendees could buy small cups of chili for $1 from each of 15 different stations, offering everyone a variety from mild to the extremely hot.

Whether it’s green chili or red; spicy or mild, they’ve got you covered.

The event gets bigger every year, last year they ran out of chili, they don’t want that to happen again.

The competition is friendly but for most a secret ingredient is just that.

A red hot event keeping folks in the east coming back for more.

A farmer air-dries the harvested chili pepper in Neihuang County, central China’s Henan Province, Oct. 16, 2010. As the harvest season comes to an end this year, farmers were busy reaping the harvest of their hard work on the World Food Day on Saturday.

A whole load of chili's

Hi guys and gals

Just wanted to share this fabulous Thai Red Curry recipe with you which we tried this weekend and will definately be on my list to try again.  Don’t be afraid to change any of the veg if there is something you don’t like and you can always change the butternut squash to new potatoes if you prefer.  Enjoy!!!

Thai Red Curry

1 tbsp vegtable or sunflower oil

3-4 tbsp red curry paste

400ml coconut milk

1 can of bamboo shoots, rinsed and drained

300g butternut squash , cubed

1 red pepper sliced

150g green beans

12 button mushrooms , halved

250g cherry tomatoes

4 boneless and skinless chicken thighs cut into cubes or 4 chicken breasts

2 tbsp fish sauce

To Garnish

handful coriander

1 red chili sliced

Method

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or large saucepan and fry 3-4 tbsp curry paste (depending on how hot you want the curry to be) for a minute until fragrant. Add the coconut milk and fish sauce, stir well and bring to a simmer.

Add the butternut squash and cook for about 10 minutes until it is almost tender, add the rest of the veg and thin the sauce with a little water if you need to. Simmer for 5 minutes.

For the veggies, transfer half the curry to another pan. For the non-veggies, add the chicken to the remaining half. Simmer for 3-5 minutes until the chicken.

Serve both curries with the coriander and chili sprinkled over and steamed jasmine rice.

“The aroma of good chili should generate rapture akin to a lover’s kiss.” – Motto of the Chili Appreciation Society International

I’ve come across this great little recipe for Piri Piri chicken. I adapted it a little, gave it a little tweak then put to the test. The results were incredible. So good in fact that I decided to share to share it with you?

Try it for yourselves. You can use with any type of red chili, although i wouldn’t suggest Scotch Bonnet or  a member of the Bhut family!! Unless of course you are clearly insane….

Piri-piri chicken

Preparation time: 1-2 hours        Cooking time: 30 mins to 1 hour                                Serves: 2-4

Ingredients

2-4 chicken quarters

salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the piri-piri sauce

6-12 fresh red chillies, depending on how hot you want it

1 tbsp garlic chopped

1 tsp salt

½ tsp oregano

½ tbsp paprika

100ml/3½fl oz olive oil

50ml/1¾fl oz red wine vinegar

To serve

Chips (I did mine in the oven with salt and olive oil) and Salad

Preparation method

To make the piri-piri sauce, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Place the chillies on a roasting tray and roast them for 10 minutes.

Cool and roughly chop the chillies. Place the chillies, garlic, salt, oregano, paprika, olive oil and vinegar in a saucepan, and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Allow the mixture to cool, then blend it to a purée in a jug blender or food processor. Store in a lidded container at room temperature; it will keep for about a month. Shake before using.

Place the chicken in a sealable plastic bag or a bowl covered with clingfilm. Add half the piri-piri sauce, spreading it evenly over the chicken, for extra flavour lift the skin making a pocket and spoon some of the sauce in. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 200C/390F/Gas 6, and preheat a large griddle pan on the hob. Alternatively, light your barbecue.

Season the marinated chicken, and cook it on the griddle pan for 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden brown.

Transfer the griddled chicken to a roasting tray and roast in the oven for 30 minutes, until cooked through. Alternatively, place the chicken on a medium heat barbecue, covered, for 10-15 minutes on both sides or until cooked through, basting regularly with the remaining piri-piri sauce.

Serve with chips and salad.

“The chile, it seems to me, is one of the few foods that has its own goddess.” – Diana Kennedy, cookbook author

To many, a chili pepper simply describes a small member of the Capsicum family that is ‘hot’ to the taste.

To the more adventurous lovers of the fiery pod, there are many different varients known by common names such as Jalapeno, Habanero and Scotch Bonnet with varying degrees of heat as determined by the Scoville Scale.

What is less well known however (with the exception of real chili devotees) is that each chili type comes from one of five main species of Capsicum (taken from the Greek word Kapto – ‘to bite’).

These five species are as follows:

Capsicum annum
Annums can be divided into two types, hot and sweet (or mild) and are the most cultivated throughout the world because they cross pollinate so easily. Many of the most commonly used chili types in North America and Europe are annums such as Ancho, Cayenne, Hungarian, Jalepeno and Thai Hot.

Capsicum baccatum
This species is now found throughout South America and believed to have originated in either Bolivia or Peru. It is particularly popular in Brazil, Argentina and Chile, but is rarely found in the United States, Asia or Europe. Typically, the fruits are long and thin with cream coloured seed. Perhaps the best known type is the Aji.

Capiscum chinense
The translation of the name is ‘from China’ however this is not the case. The species in fact originated from the Amazon and moved into the Caribbean followed by Central and South America. The confusion in name is down to a Dutch Botanist called Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin who believed China to be its origin when he named it in 1776. Common varients of the chinense are Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Naga Jolokia and Aji dulce.

Capiscum frutescens
The name derives from the Latin meaning ‘shrub or bush’ and is native to the tropics. The origin is not totally clear, although claims are made that the Amazon basin is most likely. This species includes the famous Tabasco, named after the Mexican City of the same name. Other variants include Birdseye (common in Asia and Europe and often found in Thai cooking), Piri Piri and Malaguenta.

Capsicum pubescens
A medium sized pepper common in South America and originating in Bolivia. Pods are fleshy and usually very hot. The name drives from the Latin meaning “hairy”. They have a long growing season with the most common types being Rocoto and Manzanoi

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Chili not only tastes incredible in all manner of recipes, but it has a wide range of other benefits too – both psychological and medical.

For those with a stressful lifestyle or in need of relaxing, eating food containing chili can have a massive effect on the way you feel. Ingesting chili causes the body to release endorphines, which are basically brain chemicals which transmit electrical signals to the nervous system.These endorphins react with opiate receptors in the brain to reduce our perception of pain.

In addition to decreased feelings of pain, secretion of endorphins leads to feelings of euphoria, modulation of appetite, release of sex hormones, and enhancement of the immune response. With high endorphin levels, we feel less pain and fewer negative effects of stress. Endorphins have been suggested as modulators of the so-called “runner’s high” that athletes achieve with prolonged exercise.

As fresh chili also contains very high levels of vitamins A & C, it is also very good for us. In fact, a sweet red chili pepper actually contains more vitamin C than an orange.

In both fresh and powdered form, there is even evidence that points to the active ingredients in chili being responsible for a healthy immune system. A study in Manchester, England found that over a prolonged period, those who regularly consumed some form of chili at least twice a week were less likely to suffer from colds and flu than those that did not.

So, next time you are laid low, feeling stressed or simply in need of revitalization; forget the medicine cabinet – get some chili in your diet instead.

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