Piri piri olives

Yet another impulse buy at Morrisons, i should never go in there when i’m hungry as i always end up buying snacks…usually olives or nuts and usually containing some sort of chilli. [singlepic id=372 w=320 h=240 float=right]

Morrisons usually have a great selection of olives and i hadn’t seen these before, these looked lovely and the bright red chunks of chilli caught my eye.

I couldn’t even wait until i got home to start munching on them, so i cracked open the pot, that’s when i noticed whole garlic cloves and whole red chillis, so i immediately expected them to pack a punch. I wasn’t disappointed either, the olives were huge, they were sweet and juicy and didn’t have too much oil on like so many do. They were stuffed with chopped peppers and garlic which gave them the most amazing yet simple flavour, The chilli was enough to make my lips tingle even before eating the whole chillis.

I have kept the garlic to use in pasta as it should give it a bit of extra flavour and im not one for eating garlic whole.

I would certainly recommend these to anyone who loves olives.

Chilli Up North Verdict: Not cheap but very tasty, well balanced and juicy – 9/10 (heat 8/10 if you eat the chillis)

Cruga Chilli Beef Biltong

[singlepic id=370 w=320 h=240 float=right]As i mentioned in my review of Pretz chilli prezels i love to take chilli products with me when i go out walking and they dont come much better than Chilli Biltong or Chilli Jerky.

Biltong or Jerky is meat that has been flavoured and then dried to produce strips or chunks of delicious healthy snack goodness. It comes in various flavours and a wide variety of meats ranging from beef to ostrich.

Some people might be put off by the way it looks, Emily says it reminds her of dog chews and it didn’t help when she saw that Morrisons had mistaken it for dog treats and hung it in the pet food isle. On the other hand i love the stuff.

Its not cheap at between £1 and £2 for a 40g bag, it also depends on the brand or make. This 40g bag of cruga was just over a pound in Tesco, but on the plus side you are getting nothing but dried meat.

The Cruga Chilli Beef is quite soft and a little chewy so it won’t break your teeth, it also has a hefty chilli kick to it, the low fat, high protein make it a great choice for hikers, it also doesn’t need keeping cool and doesn’t get squashed so its great for keeping in your rucksack, not to mention it goes great with beer.

I will review some other makes of jerky and bilton when i get my hands on it but in the meantime check out http://www.cruga.com/

Chilli Up North Verdict: Cruga is one of many decent chilli biltong products, its easy to get hold of if a little pricey but has great flavour and texture – 8/10 (Heat 4/10)

Love Pretz Jalepeno Pretzels

As regular readers of the Chilli Up North Blog will know, one thing i love as much as chilli is hiking, what i love even more is being able to [singlepic id=373 w=320 h=240 float=right]combine the two.

So when i saw these pretzels hanging on the shelf in Tesco just before we set off for a walk i had to get some (along with some cruga chilli biltong)

They say they are Moody and Unpredictable Jalepeno Chilli and also baked not fried so are slightly healthier…so they are off to a good start.

They cost 45p for 35g i think it was, you seemed to get a lot of little pretzels for your money, they certainly hit the spot and were quite filling. As you would expect with pretzels they were quite salty but they did have a lovely chilli sweetness to them which combined with the salt very well.

They weren’t very spicy but you could definitely taste the chilli, i wasn’t really expecting to like them all that much but they were really tasty and i shal be seeking out some more for my lunch box very soon.

Chilli Up North Verdict:  Great alternative to crisps, 125 calories and 3.5g of fat makes them quite healthy too – 7/10 (Heat 2/10)


Garden and Site Update 25th July 09

It’s been a bit of a strange month this month, we have had some scorching weather followed by floods and torrential rain so one minute the plants in the greenhouse are cooked and crispy the next they are under water.  Last week i spent an hour removing water from the greenhouse in buckets after a really heavy downpour, still it could have been worse…just look at the pics of next doors garden below.

The wind and rain have messed up some parts of the garden, especially the spuds, they are looking worse for wear, slugs also seem to have gotten a taste for the tops of my onions so that’s not great, on the plus side everything seems to have shot up and started ripening and we have had bucket loads of peas, spuds, lettuce,raspberries and beans.

Ive also had a few problems with white fly but some organic spray seems to have done the job and my too rather poorly looking dorset naga plants have recovered well since i moved them so I’m still hoping for some fruit on them.

The biggest revelation so far is the hawaiian currant tomatoes, the seeds were given to me by a friend, they are about the size of…well you have guessed it a currant, The plants are nice and compact and you get lovely little bunches of tiny fruit. The fruit themselves are lovely, very sweet and have a great texture, they are perfect for scattering on salads or eating like grapes!

Fingers crossed the weather will sort it’s self out soon and i can start harvesting my chillis and other tomatoes along with my main crop spuds and the rest of my new spuds.

As far as Chilli Up North and the website goes, i am getting close to finishing the proper website so it shouldn’t be long now. I have lots of reviews to post of chilli products that i have been testing lately, if anyone has any chilli products they would like to see reviewed or has any products they want to send me to review then please let me know.

anyway here are a few pics:

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