We have chillis

[sparkindarkness]

Among the many (surprising) successes from Beloved’s garden (which he has developed into a long term obsession. I am surprised and pleased. Less so that I now have to look after his fish. Damn ornaments that need feeding) is his little chilli plant.

And today he presented me with 8 little red chillis to go with our delusion salad vinaigrette (chillis, taragon vinegar, oil, little garlic, sugar, lime juice to try to and convince our taste boods that salad has a taste. And yes, we’re having dellusion salad. Why? Because his cucumbers have also been a success. Unfortunately. Really what exactly is anyone to do with 8 cucumbers as long as your forearm?)

So i cut one up, deseeded it and added it to the goop. He protested – only 1? He thought I was going to put chillis in the salad! He likes chillis in salad, so do I!

Which is true… except nice big salad chillis are much much much bigger than this. Methinks he planted the wrong variety. These little chillis are not salad chillis methinks.

He scoffs at my ignorance, clearly I just don’t realise that home grown isn’t the same as what you buy in the shops!They’re sweet and tasty and *chomp*

There follows a rather eventful few minutes. Beloved announced repeatedly and at great volume that he was dying (quite melodramatic. He clearly wasn’t. I mean, do dying people really have the strength to run around the house yelling?) and that his mouth was on fire (the smoke alarm didn’t go off, so clearly it wasn’t) and that the world was ending (really, I didn’t see one sign of the apocalypse. Not one sign!) before drinking 2 pints of milk (sigh, now we have to buy more).

He condeded that perhaps, just maybe, they weren’t the right variety for salads because they wouldn’t suit everyone’s taste.

I agreed and made awesome onion, ham and cheese bread rolls. And all was good again.

Also, enquiring minds want to know what variety of chilli I have - since I WANT a semi-spicy one for cooking curries and mexican and/or a large, mild sweet one for sandwiches, salads and to use as a vegetable. What I have are bright red chillis that are shorter and thinner than my little finger. And are, apparently, quite hot (one de-seeded added a surprising amount of heat to my vinaigrette)

Comments

[katarik]

If they looked like this, you got Thai bird's-eye chilies, and they are *very* hot indeed. If they look like this, you got cayenne peppers.

If you want mild, sweet chilies, you want what in America are called bell peppers; alternately, Anaheim peppers range from mild and sweet to moderate hot.

If you want chilies for Mexican food that don't have a lot of heat, I'd go for a guajillo chili -- they're kind of fruity-tasting, and they're not hugely spicy, so if you want a sweet undertone to your food they'd work, as would mulato peppers. If not, go for a pasilla -- fresh, they're called chilaca peppers.

If you want Indian curries, *under no circumstances* pick up Guntur chilies or Bhut Jolokia, they will *sear your face off* -- Serrano peppers will work.

... yes, I like food.

[via_ostiense]

Based on the description, it sounds like you have Thai chilies, also known as bird's eyes. They're great either fresh or dried (I just dried a batch a couple days ago, coincidentally enough) and I use them as my all purpose hot chilies for cooking. They're great for curries and Mexican and I use them in Italian as well, although that usually requires cutting a chili in half to keep the heat level in line.