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.

you can see them by clicking the link below

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 x 400g cod loin fillet (skinned and boned)
• 1 pack of parma ham

for the pesto if you want to make your own:

• half a jar of sun dried tomatoes (drained but keep the oil)
• 2 tablespoons of parmesan
• Small bunch of basil
• 1 fresh or dried chilli
• 1 tsp tabasco
• pinch of oregano
• salt and pepper

Method

1. If making your own pesto put all of the ingredients in a blender and whizz up, slowly adding the oil you reserved from the tomatoes until you get a nice spreadable consistency.
2. Pre heat oven to 200 degrees
3. Form a “sheet” of ham by slightly overlapping each slice of ham.
4. Spread the pesto down the middle of the ham
5. Place the cod on to the pesto and wrap the ham around the cod.
6. Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven until the ham is crispy.
7. Plate up the cod, drizzle with the juices from the baking tray, you can also mix the juices with a little extra pesto if needed.
8. Serve with Veg and potatoes of your choice.

Sorry about the poor pic, I have a better one which I will upload later