Last week I went to Berlin and found a nice little shop called the Pfefferhaus (9 euro’s). Seeing as the whole shop was all about chili’s, I couldn’t wait to buy some. I bought some smoked peppers, got myself a free smoked habanero chili and bought a bottle of One Fuckin Drop at a Time as it was recommended by the owner.

Scoville rating has it between 350.000 and 800.000 units depending on how many
drops you use.

No way I could try it out in just any dish so I decided to have it in a nice chili as it needs heat.

It comes in a nice bottle with quite the warning text on the bottle. Being in the name, it comes with a dropper. Not really something you want to re-use for eyedrops when you finish the bottle…

Of course, me being a total idiot, I decided to try it “raw”, as in: one drop on the tongue.

It’s been a while since I’ve had that much intense heat on my tongue. Later I looked at my tongue in the mirror and was amazed to see that
no blisters or burn marks had formed. Definitely do-able but not for the faint of heart.

I made my chili (just a simple variation on Andy’s), added a drop, stirred and tried a little bit. Then another drop or 2. And few more
followed till I felt the heat rise high enough. In retrospect I *might* have overdone it a little bit and could have added 5 drops instead of 8, but it didn’t ruin the meal.

Rating with food: 7/10

Not a bad aftermath. The heat when combined with food, for me at least, was a nice and slow burn. Not an instant mulekick to the head
like having it raw. When combined with food it got hotter after a few seconds and left a nice aftertaste. After finishing the meal I
noticed how sweaty my head was, been a while since I had sweat on the back of my head

Would I try this again? Oh hell yes. I have a nice idea for spicy ribs churning away in my brain…

The label on the bottle warns It’s extreme and it’s not joking, it even smells dangerous. I put a tiny bit onto some mature cheddar on a jacobs cracker and took a bite, the heat didn’t hit me straight away, the sauce was tasty, quite sweet and predominantly tasted of chilli (what else??) it’s slightly sweet, slightly tart and there’s a little bit of pepper in there too, then all of a sudden the chilli kicks in and batters your senses, the burn starts and things get really hot.

As promised it’s a seriously hot sauce and one you don’t want to use too much of in one go, although it’s stupidly addictive and I keep dipping back into the bottle for a heat fix. So far i’ve not tried it on anything other than cheese on toast and cheese on crackers, I think I will have to get a bit more adventurous soon.

If you like your chilli sauces crazy hot then this one is definitely up there for flavour and heat.

Check out their website, or follow them on twitter here.

This recipe was inspired by something I saw on River cottage a few weeks ago, I’ve had a play around with it now and it’s really tasty, once you have the base noodle/veg combo down you can easily switch the flavours by using chilli powder, curry powder and all manner of herbs and spices along wtih any meat or other veg you want, just make sure you slice them thin enough so they cook when the hot water is poured on them.

You could also use those dried veg you get in tubs for use in pasta and soups or even dried mushrooms, although make sure they have been rinced first so you don’t get the grit in your pot.

Speaking of pots, you could go out and buy a specific pot to make your noodles in but i’ve found that the plasic ones you get supermarket “fresh” soup in work brilliantly. For the sauce pot I used a little jar i had left over from those tester sized jams you can buy in the supermarket.

For an extra firey kick you can also use a sprinkling of chilli flakes.

Ingredients

• 1 nest of fine egg noodles
• 1/2 tsp crushed fennel seeds
• 30g of good quality chorizo picante
• 3 spring onions
• 2 tbsp peas.
• 1 tsp fresh corriander, finely chopped.
• 1 tbs tomato ketchup
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp hot chilli sauce (not sweet chilli)
• 1 pinch of pepper
• Boiling water – enough to cover the noodles (300-500ml)

Method

1. Put the noodles in your pot.
2. Thinly chop your chorizo and add to your noodle pot.
3. Finely slice your spring onions, add to the noodle pot.
4. Add the peas to the noodle pot along with the fennel seeds
5. Mix the tomato ketchup, puree and chilli sauce together in your little sauce pot and season with pepper if necessary, you can adjust the quantities of sauce to ketchup as much as you want.
6. When ready to serve tip the sauce into your noodle pot, cover with boiling water and leave for about 5-6mins until the noodles have softened, mix well then enjoy!

I found it on Leigh’s blog the other week, made it and thought it was awesome, made it again with a few tweaks, so I have decided put it on here too.

For those of you who haven’t seen Leigh’s blog you should check it out – it has some really awesome recipes on there (he likes his beer too)

Serves 2.

Ingredients

• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes with herbs
• 1 large red onion
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 1 or 2 tablespoons  of Tabasco
• 1 tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
• 2 Garlic cloves
• Some Good Olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
• Teaspoon of honey
• Black pepper
• 2 teaspoons of Oregano
• 1 teaspoon of thyme
• Packet of fresh/raw king prawns (the grey ones)
• 1 block of feta cheese, cubed into roughly 8 or so cubes.
• Handful of green beans

Method

1. Make the sauce by frying the onions, beans and peppers in the Olive Oil and tomato puree until soft, Add the tomatoes, stir, add Balsamic Vinegar,Red wine vinegar, Tabasco, Garlic, honey, herbs and pepper and another couple of good glugs of Olive oil. Add bay leaves and simmer gently for anywhere from 15 mins to 30 mins.
2. When sauce is to your liking, pour into large casserole or any other kind of baking dish. Place Prawns on top, with cubes of feta arranged throughout.
3. Bake at about 180 degrees for about 15 to 20 mins. The feta will crumble slightly and brown, and the prawns will be cooked though.

Serve with Bread and rice for mopping up, and a couple of beers

After much waiting in the que – mainly because people couldn’t make their mind up or didn’t know what they were doing (it’s not that hard is it??) i got down to the nitty gritty of ordering my sub – Foot long on cheese and herb bread, toasted with peppered cheese all the salad and more Reggae Reggae sauce.

I got back to the office expecting big things, un wrapped my warm package and tucked in, and to be honest i was a bit dissapointed, the reggae reggae sauce seemed to be lacking any sort of punch and didn’t really taste of much compared to the stuff you get at home, now that could have been my choice of lots of salad, but iceberg lettuce isn’t exactly the most overpowering ingredient, there also seemed to be way too much bread and very little chicken, although the chicken that was there at least tasted of chicken and had a good texture.

There was certainly very little spice coming from the usually zingy sauce, even the added Jalepeno chillis did little to spice things up, defintaly not worth £4.99…….next time ill make my own at home then toast it at work, much cheaper and a i bet it will be a fair bit tastier.

Chilli Up North Verdict:  Huge sarnie, way too much bread, not enough zing – 3/10 (Heat 2/10)

As usual the measurements are a bit iffy as i made it up as i went along!

They can be made in advance, up to the breadcrumb stage then kept in the fridge.

Ingredients

Chilli and tomato jam

(this makes 1 small pot)

• 3 red chillis (just standard supermarket ones are fine although it works with just about every chilli)
• handful of cherry tomatoes (about 12 or so)
• 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
• 150g sugar
• 2 cloves of garlic

Fishcakes

(this makes 12 small fishcakes)

• 420g fish – i used haddock fillets
• 1 packet (250g)  raw king prawns
• 400g of maris piper or king edward potatoes
• butter
• breadcrumbs (i made my own fresh by blitzing some white bread and then drying the crumbs in the oven with a little salt and pepper)
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 4 spring onions
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• salt + pepper
• small bunch of parsley
• zest of a lemon.

Method

To make the chilli and tomato jam:

1. De seed and finely chop the chillis (or you can leave them in for some extra heat)
2. chop the tomatoes up into little chunks (you can remove the seeds if you like)
3. Crush the garlic.
4. Heat a small saucepan, add off of the sauce ingredients, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until it has reduced to a nice sticky consistency.
5. transfer to a pot or jar and leave to cool.

To make the fish cakes

1. Peel the potatoes, boil them until soft, drain, mash well with a big knob of butter, leave to cool.
2. Poach the fish in some water until it flakes off the skin with ease, remove all the skin and bones, set aside.
3. Remove a few prawns and set aside (these will be used for garnish and cooked at the last minute)
4. Roughly chop the rest of the prawns and fry in a little oil until cooked, allow to cool.
5. Chop the spring onions, then add them along with the lemon zest, chilli powder and parsley to the mash, mix well then season with salt and pepper, add the prawns and fish and gently mix in.
6. Shape the mixture into little patties, wrap in clingfilm then leave until ready to cook.
7. When ready to cook, dip each fishcake into the beaten egg followed by the breadcrumbs, heat some oil in a frying pan, then fry the fish cakes for a few minutes on each side, until golden on the outside and hot in the middle. (you can then put them in the oven to keep warm if you wish)
8. Quickly fry the remaining prawns and place on some kitchen paper
9. Serve the fishcakes on some salad with a dollop of chilli jam on top and garnish with the cooked whole prawns.

Enjoy…and let me know what you think!