Chilli Up North Blog

Last week I received an email from Domino’s asking if I would like a voucher to sample their new Meltdown: The Revenge pizza, I gratefully accepted and waited for it to arrive in the post. More or less as soon as it came through the door I popped down to our local Domino’s to use it, the fun began here, the staff in the shop didn’t know what do do with the voucher and at first weren’t going to accept it because it hadn’t been signed by someone at Domino’s, after a little gentle persuasion they decided to accept then voucher and 15 minutes later we had the pizza in our hands.

The info on the press release and on the menu said

“Caution Very HOT -´New´ Chilli Cheese Slices, Mozzarella Cheese, Meatballs, Ground Beef, Jalapenos, Sweet Chilli Peppers, ´New´ Birdseye Chillies and a drizzle of American Style Mustard.”

Dominos Meltdown: The Revenge

So it certainly sounded like it was going to have a bit of  kick to it, before we even opened the box I could tell it was going to be spicy, you could really smell the chilli and the mustard.

Flavour wise the pizza was really tasty, there was plenty of spice from the bird’s eye and the fruitiness of the jalapeno really came through, they combined really well with the chilli cheese to leave your lips tingling, this built up the more of the pizza you ate…just how a great spicy pizza should be.

The sweet chillis also added a lovely bit of sweetness that combined well with the rich meatballs and beef.

Unfortunately I didn’t get on with the mustard – it had so much vinegar in it almost over powered the rest of the pizza…even the chilli, this completely ruined it for me, so I would definitely recommend that you ask them to leave the mustard off.

Meltdown the revenge comes in at £13.99 for a Large, which is at the top end of the pizza price scale, but Dominos do run regular offers which bring the price down a bit, if you can get one of these and you like a fair bit of heat on your pizza then Meltdown the revenge is definitely worth trying. I will be ordering another at some point but most certainly without mustard.

Chilli Up North Verdict:  Certainly the hottest pizza I’ve had in a while (too hot for Emily) had to the potential to be great but was spoiled by the rather terrible mustard. Rating with mustard 4/10 -  without it 7/10  (heat 8/10)

This is based on the Hairy Bikers chicken curry from their latest (and excellent) book “Mums Know Best”, they used chicken and it didn’t have the veg in, i also added a few more chillis to spice it up a little bit.

It takes about 10-15mins to prepare then I put it in the slow cooker while I was at work, although if you don’t have a slow cooker you can always leave it on the hob until the sauce thickens.

Ingredients

lamb curry

• 500g diced lamb
• 1 tsp ground black peppercorns
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1tsp paprika
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp red chilli flakes
• 2 fresh tomatoes, sliced
• Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
• 3 bay leaves
• 450ml water
• 1 red pepper
• 1 packet green beans

For the tarka masala sauce:

• 3tbsp olive oil
• 2tsp cumin seeds
• 2 onions, peeled and chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped
• Small tin of chopped tomatoes
• 5cm piece of root ginger, peeled and chopped
• 4 whole chillies

Method

1. For the tarka masala sauce: Heat the oil in a large pan until fairly hot, add the cumin seeds and fry for 10 secs. Add the onions and pepper and fry until golden brown, then add the garlic and fry until slightly golden. Add the tinned tomatoes to the pan. Next add the ginger, chillies and cook for a few minutes, remove from the pan.
2. Heat a little more oil in the pan add the lamb, salt, spices and chilli flakes into the pan and cook over a fairly high heat. Keep turning the lamb until browned
3. Add the sauce you made in step 1 and 450ml of water and the green beans, bring to the boil and simmer over a medium heat for about 10 mins
4. Tip into your slow cooker and cook for 6 hours on a medium heat. (if not using slow cooker simmer until the sauce thickens and the lamb is tender)
5. Just before serving add the chopped fresh tomato, corriander and bay leaves and leave for an hour or so to infuse then server with naan and rice.

This recipe is an adaption Mums Know Best: The Hairy Bikers’ Family Cookbook, . You can buy it on Amazon.co.uk.

Chillis are the flavour of the month in the new asda magazine, you can get a few recipes from their website including some rather tasty looking choc chilli brownies

you can see them by clicking the link below

http://www.asdamagazine.co.uk/2010/01/chillies/

already mentioned how much I love Reggae Reggae Sauce, but I’ve never actually posted any of the ways that I use it so here is the first, and possibly one of my favourite ways of serving Reggae Reggae Sauce.

You can easily substitute the chicken for pork fillet, it works an absolute treat, just adjust the cooking time slightly as you don’t want raw pork.

It also works best if you have a nice hot griddle pan, but if you don’t a nice heavy frying pan works quite well too, or if we get a summer it’s amazing on the BBQ.

Marinading time: 30mins – an hour

Cooking time 30mins

Ingredients:

Reggae Reggae Chicken

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 bottle of Reggae Reggae Sauce
• Garden Peas
• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 Tsp of freshly grated ginger
• 1 Tsp chilli flakes
• 1 Tsp dried mint
• Salt and pepper
• Knob of butter

Method

1. Lightly score your chicken breasts and marinade in a couple of tablespoons of Reggae Reggae Sauce for as long as you can.
2. Peel and slice your sweet potato, place in a pan of cold water and boil until cooked.
3. Heat the griddle pan up so it’s really hot and place the chicken on it. Turn and baste the chicken ever few minutes for around 15 mins, or until the chicken is cooked.
4. Turn the pan off but leave the chicken on it to rest.
5. Melt a knob of butter in a pan and the chilli and mint, followed by the peas, fry until cooked through.
6. Mash your sweet potato with another knob of butter, mix in the ginger and season with black pepper.
7. Serve the chicken on top of the mash and with the peas….enjoy.

This was another one of my experimental meals, I made it for 1 as I had made salmon for Emily and I can’t stand the stuff so treated my self to a nice piece of cod loin.

As with all my recipes you can change the amount of chilli you use depending on how fiery you like it.

Chilli and lemon cod loin

It takes about 5 mins to prepare and 20-30 mins to cook depending on how well done you like your cod.

Ingredients

• 1 piece of cod loin
• 1 lemon
• 1 small glass of white wine
• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 1 pinch smoked paprika
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• salt
• pepper
• 1 fresh chilli

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Slice the lemon and lay on a large sheet of foil
3. Season the cod with salt and pepper, sprinkle the cayenne pepper, chilli flakes and paprika on making sure you get some on all sides of the cod. Slice the chilli in half length ways and place on the top of the cod.
4. Place the cod on top of the lemon, make a parcel around the cod but leave one end open.
5. Tip the wine into the parcel and seal up.
6. Bake in the centre of your oven for 20-30 mins depending on how thick your cod is and how well done you like it.
7. Remove the cod from the foil, making sure you are careful as the steam inside is very hot.
8. Serve with veg and potatoes.

This mint and chilli tea was kindly sent to me buy the guys over at Mr Scruff I was quite excited to try it after drinking a rather large amount of the teapigs chilli tea and chilli chai.

The first thing that strikes you about this tea is the packaging, it’s lovely and clean with a great little character and loads of great bits of info.
According to the info on the box tea is:

Organic mint and chilli, a winning combinationfor a proper cheeky brew. Really refreshing and very popular!

A blend of peppermint & spearmint, was combined with a pinch of chilli to give it a cheeky twist, without going over the top. The peppermint & spearmint are refreshing, especially with or after a meal. The chilli gives it an extra mini tickle factor. You will be pleased to know that this tea is a lot tastier than a red curry with toothpaste in it, and is also caffeine free. Can’t be bad! The chilli takes a little longer to infuse than the mint, so the longer you leave the bag in, the more chilli you will taste.

I’ve not drank most of the box of it and I can tell you it’s blooming delicious, it took a couple of goes for me to get the brew time right, if you don’t leave it in long enough (as the info above says) you don’t get much chilli.

The mint is well balanced, not to sweet and sickly and pretty refreshing, the chilli adds an extra dimension by giving the brew a little background heat and a hint of heat.

It makes  a great pick me up, despite the lack of caffeine and it’s also really refreshing. I can also see it working as an iced tea so once things warm up again I will be giving that a go.

It’s not quite as spicy as the Tea pigs tea’s, nor are the bags quite so fancy but they don’t detract from an excellent product.

Chilli Up North Verdict: If you like your fruit/herbal tea’s then this is definitely worth a go, once you get the brew time right to find your preferred balance then you are on to a winner. 7/10 (heat 2/10)

Mint and chilli tea

This is a lovely light and flavoursome dish with added chilli zing. I can’t find my picture of it so if anyone makes it please could they take a picture and send it this way..

Ingredients

• 1 fresh mango (peeled and diced)
• Hand full of fresh pineapple (skinned and diced)
• Fresh mint
• Fresh coriander
• 3 spring onions (finely sliced)
• Juice and zest of 1 lime
• Squirt of honey
• 1 chilli or some chilli flakes
• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 sweet potatoes
• fresh ginger (grated)
• salt + pepper
• 1 tablespoon of creme fraiche
• knob of butter.
• olive oil.
• white rum or tequila (optional)

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 200 degrees
2. Mix the mango, pineapple, chilli, spring onions, lime. mint, coriander and honey together in a bowl and add a splash of white rum.  Set aside
3. Microwave the sweet spuds for a few mins so they are part cooked then place in the oven until really soft on the inside.
4. Flatten the chicken breasts, season with salt and pepper and rub with a little olive oil, cook on a hot griddle pan. place on a baking tray and place in oven to keep warm.
5. Warm the salsa in a hot pan until the alcohol has cooked off and the salsa is nice and soft.
6. Place the ginger in a bowl with the creme fraiche, butter and some salt and pepper, add the insides of the sweet spuds and mix well ,either eat or discard the skins.
7. Remove the chicken from the oven and plate up, top with the salsa and serve with the sweet potato mash and veg.

It’s that time of year when I need to start thinking about what I am going to grow, start cleaning the greenhouse, washing all my plant pots, ordering extra seeds etc etc.

I really should be planting my chilli seeds now but it’s still a bit cold with all of this snow we have been having so I have decided to leave it a few more weeks, maybe until the middle of Feb, I will just see how the weather plays out.

Everything has been a bit neglected of late because i’ve been so busy, things are calming down a bit now so you can expect to see more very soon.

In the meantime if you are wondering how to get your chilli growing off the ground then take a look at these posts from last year:

Growing Chills – Intro

Growing Chillis – Part 1 : Getting Started

Growing Chillis – Part 2 Germination

Growing Chillis – Part 3: Potting on

Growing Chillis – Part 4: Watering and Feeding

If you have any questions please get in touch

Compared to the jam that i made with the fish cakes this is a lot less sweet and more of a proper chunky chutney, as with all my recipes you may want to use more or less chillis.

Tomato and chilli chutney

I used a mixture of yellow, red, chocolate and black tomatoes to give the chutney a nice deep colour.

Also if you would like to make it more thicker or a little bit sweeter, the 500g of tomatoes should be able to take up to 300g of sugar.

Ingredients

• 6 red chillies
• 500g  Tomatoes
• 1 green pepper
• 2 cloves Garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger (grated)
• 150g caster sugar
• 90ml red wine vinegar

Method

1. Finely chop the chillis, tomatoes and the pepper, place in a heavy bottomed pan along with the rest of the ingredients.
2. Bring to the boil
3. Simmer for 30-40mins
4. Place into sterilised jars and allow to cool.

Serve with cheese, meats, pate’s or what ever takes your fancy.

The Daily mail today had this story and a rather funny video about chillis so I thought I would share it with you.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1236701/Revenge-chilli-Why-pepper-seeds-designed-burn-mouth.html