And I’d like to have a go at making a simple chutney that doesn’t require me buying ingredients that I won’t use again.

Does the STW hive mind have any suggestions?

I’ve some balsamic vinegar kicking about and some tinned tomatoes, could this be a staying point?

Your criteria is ‘ingredients that you won’t use again’. I can give you a recipe for some very good homemade chilli jam that will leave you with nothing to put back in the cupboards at the end…

3 large red peppers de – seeded, weigh these once de – seeded.
Match the weight of the de – seeded peppers with chilli, simply chop the tops off the chillies before weighing, don’t bother deseeding.
2 cloves of garlic.

Blend this lot up into a pulp then chuck this lot into a large pot. Heat through until bubbling.

1 bottle of red wine vinegar – I’ve experimented with cider vinegar and various other vinegars, they don’t make much a difference to the taste but the red wine vinegar makes a noticeable difference to finished product colour.

Add this and bring to the boil.

1kg of jam sugar.

Add this and bring to the boil ensuring it’s all dissolved.

Boil for like 10- 15 minutes at a frolicking boil (mental bubbles everywhere boil). Can always do the plate from the freezer test too (stick a plate in the freezer before you start chopping anything up, at the boil for 15 minute stage remove plate and use a teaspoon to put some on the plate – if it looks like a consistency your happy with, go for it).

Hang them up and dry them. Last for years.

Sell/donate some to Kryton57. Apparently he only has one chilli in his curry this eve, the poor lamb.

http://www.simpsonsseeds.co.uk/acatalog/Storing_Capsicums.html

Nobeerinthefridge – Member
Hang them up and dry them. Last for years.

Agreed.

Might try that jam and dry the rest.

Do you just air dry them or in the oven?

How do you use the chilli jam? Cheese and crackers? I’m guessing not on toast for breakfast!

Offer jam sandwiches round on your next ride. Should sort the men from the boys…

Gotta be careful with jam sandwiches round these parts – Jam eater.

It depends on what variety of chilli you have. You seriously can have it on toast in the morning if your chillies aren’t too hot because it will be quite sweet and spicy unless you have a nuts variety of chilli. Cheese and crackers generally, cheese sandwiches, with roast pork it’s good too.

Do you just air dry them or in the oven?

I string mine up with a needle and thread, through the base of the stem where I’ve cut them off the plant, and then dry them out over the Aga for a few days.

Also, once dried, very good for making chilli oil, and then also good for removing the seeds, storing them in an envelope in the airing cupboard for growing next year’s crop.

I know a few are hot wax, the rest have been given to me.

A lad at work ate one of the unknown chilli’s and just about started crying..

Chilli jam goes nice as a dip with scrambled egg on toast. 🙂

second chilli jam. although wouldnt bother with peppers. Chilli, vinegar and jam sugar usually does the trick. i use this as a guide link

Nigellas chilli jam is amazing made some last year goes awesome with meats/cheese rather sweet with a fiery kick

Whilst I do like a good chilli jam / chutney with my crop, I prefer to pickle mine using the cockney chef’s recipe, sliced with a gum curlingly strong cheddar is one of life’s pleasures!

Recipe

I prefer to use cider vinegar rather than white wine btw.

Bradley, how big is the bottle of vinegar?

I like the sound of pickled chilli’s.

How would they turn out if they weren’t deseeded?

Do the jam every year. Always with double the amount of chillis. Awesome

Non-de seeded pickled chillis = hotter. You’d still need to slit them though so the solution soaks fully. I’ve done then removing about half the seeds and they do knock your head off a bit, it depends on your spice tolerance really.

A lot of chilli’s what? Whatever it is, just give it back to him.

[/url]Chilli’s 2014 by z1ppy2, on Flickr[/img]

My earlier thread with suggestions, as you can see they are colouring up nicely now (must make good on my promises to share some). As mentioned above, I’m air drying the smaller apaches, & will probably grind them up for easy of storage. Reckon Jamie’s Jerk ham has to be made, so will use up some of the scotch bonnets. Looking to pickle the Hungarian hots, as they are a nice temperature. As for chilli jam, my first attempt obviously didn’t reach the set point properly (even using the cold saucer test) but we have some rather nice “hot” sweet chilli sauce (still using it on sarnies). Not completely convinced making jam is really going to make a big dent on my collection (1KG of sugar in that recipe above!), without ending up with about 10 years supply of chilli jam.

nice

got a couple of bushes of chocolate habaneros, but mine are still green. going to have to do something with them, but not decided yet. brown when ripe so might not be the best colour hab jelly / hot sauce without something additional.

got an array of seeds for next year, which I’ll start a bit earlier.

Shermer – most vinegars come in around about 350ml – 400ml bottles. About that much 😀

My wife makes a chilli paste and freezes it in thin layers in sandwich bags. That way it keeps for yonks, you just open the bag, slide the chilli out, cut a bit off using scissors or a knife (you can break some off with your fingers but have to remember to wash your hands well after…) and chuck it in whatever you’re cooking. It really retains the flavour as well as the heat of the chillies.

From memory, you put a big handful of chillies in the blender with a couple of peeled garlic cloves and a spoonful of cider vinegar.

Then, and this is really important, take the blender outside, and plug it in using an extension cord.

Whizz it up until there are no big bits left, pour into sandwich bags, seal them with as little air in as possible, and lay flat in the freezer. The layer of chilli paste should be around 3-4 mm thick.

If you try to blend it in the house, your house will fill with capsaicin vapour and you will have to leave quickly, and in pain. You will not be able to re-enter the house for quite some time – or you can, but you need to have your eyes closed and be holding your breath while you fumble your way round opening windows… if you left the blender running when you ran screaming from the house, then you’re stuffed.

^ 😆

Must an update to say due to time restraints I’ve gone with picking this year. One jar deseeded and one jar with seeds. I think they may be too hot-expected a kryton style thread in a few months!

Next year I want to try the chilli jam, thanks for all the suggestions.

+1 chilli Jam

awesome on cheese butties

Even more awesome on ice cream.

I’ve made a few batches of chilli pickle with mine, like indian lime pickle but rocket fuelled.

Try this:
http://www.padhuskitchen.com/2013/06/puli-milagai-recipe-green-chilli-pickle.html

Leaving it indirect sunlight for a couple of days makes it really rich and sticky.

Chilli jam is also awesome in a sausage sarnie.

chilli jam is indeed awesome, I’m starting to think a 10 year supply might not be a bad idea. I’ve used Hughes recipe from here and it’s lovely and more than sweet enough.

Starting to look into growing chilli’s a bit more scientifically (properly) and it seems I’m restricting mine with the small pots, 10Ltr ones next years… a heated propagator, peat pellets to start, dipping the seed in a 20-30°C old teabag solution to start em.. hmmmmm

Hang them up here also, many, many uses and lasts for years, replace next year and start again.