Chile

A few months ago i got a slightly random phone call form my father asking if I wanted a tandoor oven. He was at a local auction and had spotted a lot that contained  4 fully functional, clay lined tandoors that had presumably been used by some now defunct catering business. The good news was that they appeared in the auction catalog with a bargain looking guide price of £30-50 each. 1 week later and he turned up at our house to drop it off and my journey into cooking with a tandoor oven began. Below I’ll try and share some of my experiences and tips I’ve picked up along the way as they certainly aren’t the easiest things to cook with when you first get one. How to Make a Tandoor Oven Luckily I didn’t have to build our tandoor – we managed to pick it up at the local auction for about £40! However if you’re interested in building a tandoor then there are plenty of good resources on the web. First off, here is a pretty good set of instructions for building a mini tandoor out of large terracotta pots. While the results look pretty good, it does look quite fiddly and you end up with a pretty small oven. We much prefer this site which details how to build a tandoor oven out of an oil drum with the end product looking pretty similar to what we have. Here is another great thread about making a tandoor from an oil drum. The tandoor we bought (pictured above) is very similar to the two examples above and is built from an old oil drum that has been lined with a thick layer of concrete and clay. There is a small hatch near the bottom (visible on the left hand side) that allows you to easily remove the ashes while also allowing you to adjust the airflow or draw by opening/closing the hatch door. Cooking With a Tandoor Oven – Some Tips Cooking with a tandoor oven is not like using your regular convection oven. It’s taken us a few attempts to get things right and iron out some of the initial challenges we were facing. Below I’ll share some of our experiences in the hope that they’ll help you avoid making the same mistakes! One of the biggest challenges we faced when we started using the tandoor was getting it hot enough. Much like a pizza oven the key to successful cooking in a tandoor is getting the oven really hot (up to about 450 degrees Celsius). Once a tandoor is up to temperature the food you cook receives direct heat from the embers in the bottom of the oven as well as a massive amount of heat that is radiated out of the insulated walls of the tandoor. The result should be very high temperatures that allow you to cook your food on skewers very quickly. There’s some tips below about how we get the oven hot enough. The first time we fired the tandoor up we just used standard bbq charcoal on its own. While this did get it pretty hot and we managed to cook a few naans it was quite clear that it was nowhere near hot enough. After about 5 minutes cooking most of the heat had been lost and the naans began taking much longer to cook (up to 15 minutes!). When we acquired the tandoor the inside was covered in charred black residue that once we started cooking naans stuck to the back of the bread and made them taste horrible. At first I didn’t know whether to try and scrape this residue off the inside of the oven or not. It turns out that this reside is in fact soot which deposits on the tandoor walls if the fire is not burning at a high enough temperature. Once I finally managed to get the oven up to temperature the residue burnt off and disappeared completely. Getting a Tandoor Up to Temperature After a few attempts at getting the tandoor up to temperature I’ve settled on using a combination of charcoal and oak kindling. I usually start the fire with some scrunched up newspaper and oak kindling and keep feeding the wood on while the oven heats up. When I’m nearing being ready to cook i add a good dose of charcoal  and wait for this to burn down to embers bef

This is pretty much a Paul Hollywood recipe although I’ve tweeked it a bit and added some chilli jam, you can use any chilli jam you like but I went for Mr Vikkis as I love the spice combination and think it works brilliantly with pork. It was the first time I’d made pork pies and the first time I’d made hot water pastry, I wasn’t sure how the jam would affect the pastry so only put it in half of the pies, I think I put it too close to the top so in this recipe I’ve suggested putting it in the middle. You could also mix it in with the pork to distribute it a bit more. The recipe also says to leave overnight but I much preferred the pastry on the same day as It was much crisper so my tip would be to get up early, make them, cool them then chill them to set the jelly. Ingredients Possibly needed a bit more jelly. 265g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 55g strong white bread flour 55g unsalted butter, cubed 65g lard 1 tsp salt 135ml boiling water 1 tsp chilli powder 1 egg, lightly beaten, for glazing For the filling 1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped 380g pork loin, finely chopped 100g smoked back bacon, finely chopped Small bunch of parsley, leaves only, chopped Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 large or 2 small sheets of leaf gelatine chicken stock cube 300ml boiling water Jar of Mr Vikkis Chilli Jam Preparation method Heat your oven to 190ºC. Have ready a 12-hole muffin tin First make the pork filling. Put the onion, pork, bacon and parsley into a bowl with some salt and pepper and mix well. To check the seasoning of the mix, fry a tiny nugget of the mixture in a frying pan until cooked through. Leave to cool, then taste and adjust your mixture accordingly. Cover and set aside while you make the pastry For the hot water crust, put the flours and chilli powder into a bowl. Add the butter and rub in with your fingertips. Heat the lard in a pan until melted. Dissolve the salt in the boiling water, then add to the melted lard. Pour this liquid into the flour. Mix with a spoon then, as soon as it is cool enough, tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and work together into a ball. Be careful that the dough is not too hot when you start to work it. Once the dough ball is formed, leave it to cool slightly. If it’s still lumpy, work it a minute or two longer. Divide the dough in two, making one piece slightly bigger than the other Working as quickly as you can, roll out the larger piece of dough to about a 3mm thickness; it should be glossy and still warm to touch. Using an 11-12cm cutter, cut out 12 rounds to line the muffin moulds. Put them into the moulds, shaping to fit the sides. The pastry should come slightly above the rim of each mould. Roll out the other piece of dough and use a 6-7cm cutter to cut out 12 lids. Lift away the trimmings and re-roll the pastry if you need to cut more, but only once. As it cools, it stiffens and becomes more brittle Put 1/2 tablespoonful of the filling into each pastry case top with a teaspoon of chilli jam then add another half a tablespoon of the pork . Use a chopstick or something similar to make a good-sized hole, about 5mm in diameter, in the middle of each pie lid . Brush the pastry case rims with beaten egg and place the lids on top. Crimp the edges together well to seal . Brush the pastry lids with beaten egg . Bake the pies for 50 minutes until golden brown While the pies are in the oven, soften the gelatine in cold water to cover for 5 minutes or so. In a jug, dissolve the chicken stock cube in the boiling water. Drain the gelatine and squeeze to remove excess liquid, then add to the stock and stir until completely dissolved When the pies come out of the oven, enlarge the holes in the top if necessary, then carefully pour in a little of the gelatine mixture. Leave the pies to cool and settle overnight before serving. Or, once cold, chill for a couple of hours

One of the most popular spices used in South Indian cuisine is the curry leaf. This should definitely not be confused with the common ‘curry plant’ (which is not edible but smells of curry powder) often seen in garden centers here in the UK. The curry leaf plant or ‘Murraya koenigii’ to give it it’s full name adds an unmistakable fragrance to Indian dishes. It can be used fresh or dried and is usually fried off early in the cooking process along with your spices (such as mustard seeds or cumin seeds) and onions. I’ve yet to find a curry leaf plant for sale here in the UK – I’m guessing because they are not too keen on our cool climate. As a result, curry leaves are usually sold pre dried in supermarkets in tiny packets for extortionate prices. If you can seek out a local Indian or Asian supermarket you’ll sometimes manage to find fresh imported leaves for sale in large bunches. It is from such a bunch that I’m currently trying to propagate some cuttings. I tried to take some cuttings from some fresh curry leaves a couple of years ago with little success. Last time I tried it was the autumn time so the weather wasn’t really on my side. One of the cuttings appeared to have taken and survived for a few weeks before dying back. Hopefully by starting in Spring the warmer temperatures will help get the plants established. If i manage to succeed I’m guessing the plant will have to live in the conservatory during the summer and our warmer living room during the winter. I’m told by a friend that the plants can be quite vigorous once they get established and require regular pruning in order to ensure a constant supply of fresh young leaves. The potting mix I’ve used is a mixture of multi purpose compost, sand and horticultural grit. The key to taking any cuttings is to supply them with a free draining medium (hence the grit) that will supply the developing roots with lots of oxygen. As with all cuttings I’ve placed each one around the edge of the pot (4 in each). I used rooting gel on 4 cuttings and nothing on the other four. Cuttings of any sort need to be kept out of direct sunlight and in a humid atmosphere for the first few weeks if they are to succeed. As a result it’ll be keeping them on our north facing kitchen bay windowsill, inside an unheated propagator. I’ll mist the plants once a day to keep the humidity levels up. I also removed some of the leaves from all of the cuttings, reducing the amount of foliage on each stem. Doing this means the cutting has less foliage to support and keep alive meaning it can concentrate on producing and establishing healthy roots. As for the rest of the bunch of leaves, they have been happily drying away for a couple of days (pictured above) in the conservatory and will be added to the store cupboard and eaten over the winter by which time hopefully I’ll have a supply of fresh leaves with which to replace them. So, wish me luck. I’ll report back in a few weeks with my success or failure. Meanwhile if any of you have any experience in taking curry leaf cuttings please feel free to leave me some tips in the comments below.

Hi!Already June, and I realize that there have been very few updates since the start of the year. Actually no updates at all. I ended up in a philosophical discussion with myself. I thought that it was the same patterns repeating themselves year after year. So the conclusion was that there was limited value to write about all the repottings and work. But of course, priorities change, and I have been busy with other things.Anyway, that doesn't mean that I have quit growing chiles :-) It has not been a very good start of the chile year. I have had problems with aphids (again), and plants have died and I have had to restart and do the best of the situation. I have some really nice plants, and that's good. But I also have some that I doubt that they will survive midsummer. But we will see. Maybe I will take some pictures of them and see how they develop.So, here are a few of the plants this year. In the back corner I have blackcurrant. It's been out all winter on the balcony. Wrapped in some fiber cloth, but I was surprised to see that it survived. It's nice. It has good history. 15-20 years ago, I had the "mother" plant on my balcony, but it grew too big, so I gave it to a friend who planted it in their back yard. And this one is the cutting from that one. Nice. It has some berries already, so that's fun!In the left corner, there is a spruce (?). Also out there all year around. It's growing nicely :-) New for this year, is that I took bokashi, and put it in a big box. We're goring salad and radishes and nettle there. The bokashi seems to be fantastic for the plants. It's not very practical to do compost when living in a flat, so we have stopped that experiment now. Here are my two fellow field workers getting ready to pick some salad :-)And here is the first radish for the season! It was delicious!Well, not so much about chiles, but hopefully there will be a good chile pepper year without any aphids and pest. So I hope to be back with some more chile pepper pictures :-)Until we hear again - keep it hot! Mats

Tandoori chicken is without a doubt one of my favourite indian dishes. When I find myself in an Indian restaurant for the first time I always find it hard not to order the tandoori chicken as a starter. Tender moist chicken, slightly charred in places and far from dry delicately spiced with a blend of masala and a zing of chilli really does take some beating. The absolute key to making great tandoori chicken is to marinade the meat in two phases. The first marinade should last about 20-30 minutes maximum and will tenderise the chicken, making it moist and not as susceptible to drying out during cooking. The second marinade is yogurt based and contains the bulk of the spices which will flavour the meat. This second marinade should ideally last somewhere between 2 and 6 hours – any less and the flavours can’t penetrate the meat and any more and the proteins in the chicken tend to stiffen resulting in toughness. Ingredients 6 skinless chicken breasts (or small legs) 1st Marinade (Garlic Ginger Paste) Ingredients 1 bulb of garlic 5 thumb size pieces of fresh ginger 3 tablespoon of lemon juice 4 tablespoons of water 1 teaspoon of salt 2nd Marinade (Tandoori Mix) Ingredients 500g natural yogurt 3 teaspoons of hot red (Kashmiri) chilli powder 2 teaspoons of ground cumin 1 teaspoon of ground coriander seeds 1 teaspoon of besan (chickpea flour) Making the marinade is relatively simple. Simply add the 1st marinade ingredients to a food processor and blend well to form a loose paste. Dice the chicken into small cubes and mix with the garlic/ginger paste in a bowl before leaving in the fridge for 20 minutes. Meanwhile mix the ingredients for the 2nd marinade in a bowl (to increase the flavour of the spices you can slightly toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a hot dry pan before grinding in a pestle and mortar). After 20-30 minutes add the marinaded chicken and again leave to rest in the fridge for 4-6 hours.

One question that gets asked time and time again here on the Chilli King is why are my chilli plants turning yellow? There are a number of possible reasons listed below that can cause yellow leaves. As is often the case with diagnosing problems it is usually impossible to say definitively what the Nutrient Deficiency One of the most common causes of yellow leaves on chilli/pepper plants is a lack of nutrients, particularly nitrogen. Yellowing of leaves is more common when growing peppers in pots as there is only a finite supply of nutrients in the soil or compost you used when potting the plants. In order to maintain strong growth throughout the season and maximize flower and fruit production you’ll need to regularly feed you plants. As a general rule you should feed your chilli plants once a week as soon as they start producing flowers. While you can buy feed specifically formulated for chilli plants such as Chilli Focus which is great I tend to use regular liquid tomato feed. I water it down to half the recommended strength and feed my chilli plants once per week. Chlorine in Water Water from a domestic tap will almost always contain small amounts of chlorine which can cause yellowing of leaves. If you can, try to use rain water to water your chilli plants as this will be chlorine free. If you’re unable to hook up a water butt to your guttering then the easiest way is to let the water you use from the tap stand for 24 hours before being used on your plants. Letting the water stand will allow the chlorine to burn off and evaporate making it much more palatable to your plants. Over Watering Yet another cause of yellowing leaves may be over watering. Over watering can wash the nutrients out of the soil around the roots. I think a lot of people over water their chillies. As well as encouraging pests, fungus and diseases over watering can also reduce the heat levels in plants. Even if the top of the pot looks dry if you stick your finger in the soil you’ll be surprised how moist the compost can be just a few centimeters below the surface. The best method I use to see if my plants need watering is to lift the pot and gauge the weight of the plant/pot. Do it every day and you’ll soon get a feel of when the plants are very dry and in need of a water. Chilli plants are resilient plants and thrive in warm climates with minimal rainfall. I am a firm believer that it is better to under water chilli plants as opposed to over water them. Cool Temperatures I’ve also noticed that plants which I leave outside at night tend to be more susceptible to yellowing leaves. Chilli plants love warm temperatures so don’t take too well to drops in nighttime temperatures which can be all to common here in the UK, even in the middle of Summer. It may be a bit of a pain but I now tend to move all of my plants inside each evening and then put them out again each morning!

So it seems after a couple of false starts spring is well and truly with us. While the nights are still quite chilly  the days are getting noticeably longer and we’ve had a nice sunny bank holiday weekend. Combined with the warmer temperatures this glorious sunshine is really kicking the plants on. Now is the perfect time to be hardening off any pepper plants that are destined to live outside. Every morning before work I’m moving most of the plants out of the greenhouse and standing them in a nice sunny spot. I make sure they’re all back inside overnight to avoid any frost damage. Once the nights start warming up a bit more I’ll gradually start leaving some outdoors 24/7 – mainly the pubescens? such as the overwintered Rocoto below as they tend to tolerate the cool temperatures better. Last week I planted up a few plants into my homemade self watering (details of how to make them here). I saw last year how much of a difference self watering pots can make after being given a Quadgrow setup. The constant supply of moisture and nutrients (I’ll be using regular tomato feed watered down slightly) make a huge difference so I’m pretty confident these plants will do very well. In fact you can see in the photo above how much larger the plants are that have been in the self watering pots already, even after only about 10 days. Meanwhile back indoors I’ve got another batch of plants under the grow lights in my grow cupboard. As you can see temps are holding a steady 20 degrees in there so I’m expecting some good growth over the next couple of weeks. These are mainly Annum varieties such as Super Chili F1, Apache, Demon Red and Cayennes. They will soon catch up the other plants as they all grow fairly quickly. So all in all progress is pretty good this season. I’ve yet to face a disasters such as pests or disease and all the plants are looking really healthy. Hopefully now the weather will continue to improve and a nice summer awaits.

When it comes to kebabs these lamb koftas really do take some beating. They’re simple to make and can be cooked equally well in a tandoor, on a bbq or on a griddle plan in the kitchen. Lamb Kofta Kebab Ingredients Lean minced lamb (1kg) 1 small finely chopped onion 3 tsp paprika 3 teaspoon of hot chilli powder 3 tsp ground coriander seeds 3 tsp ground cumin 1 finely chopped clove of garlic 1 fresh green birds eye chilli 1 large handfull of freshly chopped coriander salt & pepper to taste Simply combine all of the above ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. I prefer to then leave the mixture to ‘marinate’ for a few hours for the flavours to combine. For the best results it’s best to shape the kebabs either into patties or onto skewers then refrigerate for at least 1 hour – this will help them to keep their shape and not fall apart during the cooking process. If you’re using wooden skewers it’s a good idea to soak them in hot water for 30 minutes before shaping the meat onto them. This will both help stop the skewers splintering and help prevent the skewers burning if you’re cooking them on a bbq.

After much experimentation below is our favorite tandoori marinade mix. This is ideal for using as a marinade for tandoori chicken, vegetables or paneer. The secret to this marinade is the atta or gram flour. It is this that helps bind the mix to the ingredients and stick to the food during the cooking process. As with all marinades the longer this is sat in a bowl with the ingredients the better. I aim for at least overnight in the fridge in order to make sure as much of the flavors penetrate the food as possible,. Tandoori marinade Ingredients 450g of natrural yogurt 2 tablespoons of Gram Flour (atta) 2 teaspoons of red chilli powder 1 ground birds eye chilli 2 teaspoons of  turmeric 2 teaspoons of ground cumin 2 teaspoons of ground coriander seeds salt to taste As you’d expect this is a fairly forgiving recipe so don’t worry too much if you don’t have all of the ingredients, feel free to adapt it to your tastes and preferences.

This is straight from the Hairy Dieters book apart from I substituted the Harissa for some Jack Daniels Hot Chilli sauce. I love Harissa and I’ve made the recipe loads with it but it works just as well with the Jack Daniels sauce, it’s got a decent enough kick to it the best bit however is the whisky flavour that comes through adding a nice little twist to normal BBQ style sauces and a little sweetness to work against the chilli. It would be great done on the BBQ especially as you can make the salad in advance or while the chicken is cooking. Serves 4 Bulgur wheat salad 100g bulgur wheat 150g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if large 1/4 cucumber, diced 4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed small bunch of flat-leaf parsley (about 10g), plus extra to garnish small bunch of fresh mint (about 10g) finely grated zest of 1/2 unwaxed lemon freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon freshly ground black pepper Chicken: 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 1/2 tsp sunflower oil 3 tbsp Jack Daniels Hot Chilli Sauce lemon wedges, to serve Method To make the salad, rinse the bulgur wheat in a fine sieve and tip it into a medium saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil, then cook for about 10 minutes until just tender, or follow the packet instructions. Rinse the bulgur in a sieve under running water until cold and leave to drain. Tip the cooked bulgur wheat into a large serving bowl and add the tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, garlic, parsley, mint, lemon zest and juice. You’ll need about 3 heaped tablespoons of each herb once chopped. Season with lots of freshly ground black pepper, toss everything together well and leave to stand while you cook the chicken. Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of cling film and beat with a rolling pin until about 1.5cm thick. You need to make the chicken breasts about the same thickness so they cook evenly. Brush a griddle pan or non-stick frying pan with a little oil and place over a medium-high heat until hot. Griddle or pan-fry the chicken breasts for 2 minutes, then turn them over with tongs and cook on the other side for another 2 minutes. Brush the chicken breasts with half of the hot sauce on 1 side only and turn over. Cook for a minute while brushing the reverse side with the remaining hot sauce. Flip over and cook for a further minute or until cooked through. Check that there is no pinkness remaining. Transfer the chicken to a board and leave to rest for 3–4 minutes before serving. Garnish with extra parsley and the lemon wedges and serve hot with the bulgur salad. Check out the Jack Daniels sauce website here