The Hot Room - all things CHILLI!!

[mockney piers]

Getting me some of this baby!!

http://www.teapigs.co.uk/product/Tea/Black-tea/chilli+tea

[SeanMacGabhann]

predictably second inthis thread

but locally available

chocolate chilli

[mockney piers]

Chilli Hot Cocoa, liking the sound of that too!!

[david_carnell]

What is it with you boys and your chilli?

Tom Parker Bowles once wrote a very funny article in the Mail on Sunday (my parents copy before I'm lynched) about trying a chilli sauce of the end of the scoville scale.

I like spice and heat...but in tea?!

[mockney piers]

He also talked about nothing but chilli in a feature article in the Observer Food Monthly. Nice chap.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I've got TPB's book and it included that chapter DC

Maybe we should descent on SMB and sample one bottle of each of their "I can't believe it's not a bowling ball!!!" sauces - they have quite the range

Then again I don't think we are in it just for the heat - we like hot but not the scoville-addicts hot

[david_carnell]

What sort of level are you guys at?

Jalapeno?

Scotch Bonnet?

Red Savina?

Pepper spray?

[mockney piers]

depends on the mood, the occasion, the food etc.

For the most part I'm chipotle, which is usually jalape?o. I'm partial to a dash of habanero to spice things up, or birds eye for eastern dishes.

Love scotch bonnet sauce with a fry up though.

And when stomach is feeling robust, a bit of dragon's blood, and now have some dried naga bin jolokia from CPP!!

[Cassius]

Apparently Funky Pepper are very good.......

[Brendan]

I have for a long time now added a dash of cayenne pepper to my rooibos tea. As far as I know I?m the only person who does this. I came up with the idea one day when I had a cold and couldn?t taste anything. I thought it might help clear the pipes and since then I?ve been hooked. Much to the bemusement of my family.

As for chillis, if only the fucking sun would come out I may just get a crop this year.

[Cassius]

My mother puts lemon juice and black pepper on her strawberries - she says it brings the flavour out!

[DaveR]

Sambal belacan = food of the gods

Chillis, shrimp paste, salt, sugar, lime juice

Perfect with nasi lemak (coconut rice + curry + fried anchovies etc.) and prety damn good with any asian dish with rice

[missd]

I was very pleased to read in the Metro this morning that the padron (Russian roulette chilli) has just become available on the high street in the UK.

It's a Spanish pepper, of which a random one in ten is hot, while the others are nice and sweet. Really good. Brindisa does a tapas dish with them, jsut pan fried with salt -beautiful and kind of dangerous as you don't know which one will be firey. yum

[mockney piers]

Mmmmmmmm one of my favourites.

They must have been available here for a while as it's one of my brother's signature dishes. I'm often greeted with a plateful, exactly as described above, when we pop over to his.

I shall enquire as to his source, it cooould be Borough Market, not sure.

*edited as unsure why I deified my brother with capitalisation*

[missd]

yeah i thought so too, as have had them here before, but maybe now more readily available?? i think someone from tesco was quoted this morning

i have looked for them before but couldn't find them, which meant i was always going to brindisa to eat them (which is no bad thing!)

would be interested to know where your bro has been getting them from before this though, especially if its somewhere closer to home

[david_carnell]

Would Barcelona Tapas not sell them?

[missd]

no, sorry i meant in order to buy them fresh so that i can pan fry them at home.

[mockney piers]

Well, they do sell them, the question is, where do they buy them!

[missd]

mmm off there tonight methinks

[david_carnell]

They do have a sort of deli in there too where you can buy ham and achovies etc so they might sell you the peppers.

[Ted Max]

I used to know the people who grow these ones in the UK, in a former life.

[CamberwellOz]

The hottest thing I have ever tasted was a mouse shit chilli (named that because of what it looks like)in Thailand. The lady used half... and I was scared to lick my lips for about an hour.

How hot is hot?

The Scoville test has become the industry standard for determining just how hot, hot really is when talkin? chilli. The index goes like this:

0-5,000 Mild 5,000-20,000 Medium 20,000-70,000 Hot 70,000-300,000 Extreme

A Mexican jalapeno comes in at 3,500-4,500 units. Thailand?s long, slim phrik chii faa (sky pointing chilli) scores 35,000-45 000 units, rising to 60,000-80,000 for its scorching phrik khii nuu (mouse shit chilli). India?s bird?s eye chilli blasts further up the scale to 100,000-125,000, but is no match for Mexico?s Yucatan Peninsula, or scotch bonnet at a blistering 300,000 units. The heavyweight title for the hottest chilli on earth however, goes to the Red Savina Habanero with a volcanic 570,000 Scoville Heat Units.

[david_carnell]

No longer I'm afraid. The naga bin jolokia comes in at a whopping 1,041,427 SHU!

I do believe Mr Mockney even has some sauce containing this bad boy - rather him than me.

[mockney piers]

Someone's created a 'sauce' which is basically pure capsicum, or 16,000,000 scoville units.

Apparently it's not fit for human consumption which rather begs Why?.

Yed D_C, the Dorset Naga, a strain accidentally created from some indian nagas on our own fair isle.

[CamberwellOz]

I'd love to try it.... I do like the calm before it thwacks you in the head and your eyes begin to water.