Got up yesterday morning early in Dunmore and took the stepladder around to a tree I had spotted at the side of the road. I must have got 50 of the most beautiful big red eating apples you’d ever see. Unreal.
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Inspired by @Fagan_ODowd’s recent exploits, I finally harvested the red chillies from my plant.
Some garlic, red onion, red pepper, and seeds (cumin, coriander and fennel) and I’ve two nice little jars of harissa. I’ll be spicing up everything from ketchup and hummus to burgers and pasta for the next few weeks.
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The looks savage. If I could give a gold star I would.
Cheers boss
Is that one of yesterdays leftover roast spuds in the curry?
7 spuds and a tiny roast fed himself, herself and two kids yesterday, and enough left over for a curry tonight
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Bravo sir that’s a step above
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Now we’re fucking talking. Throw up the exact recipe and method please, pal. How long would that keep for?
I harvested about 20-30 red chillies and that made two small jars, so gauge it from that.
Put frying pan on a medium to high heat and dry fry 4-5 teaspoons of cumin seeds, fennel seeds and coriander seeds. They don’t need long - just enough to extract and bring out the flavour. Grind them in a pice grinder or a pestle and mortar.
Add the chillies, including seeds, to a food processor and add 10 or more cloves of garlic - at least a full bulb. Throw in the ground spices and a good pinch of salt. Then chop a red onion and a deseeded red bell pepper (you could roast this in advance, but I wasn’t bothered), and add them too. Add some olive oil and blitz it. The amount of oil will depend on the consistency you’re after, but somewhere between 50-100 ml should be enough.
I’ve seen people make it before and they fried the chillies and spices for a few minutes to get a jam-type consistency. Again, wasn’t arsed with this.
When you jar them, make sure to pour some olive oil over the top to form an airtight seal. Should last about 4 weeks in the fridge, if it doesn’t get devoured before then.
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That looks unreal, pal.
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That looks savage. I might try that with cheap chillies from Lidl. It will be a while before my chilli plant gives up a harvest like that.
It’ll work with any chillies, but make sure to have a taste of each one first (including a taste of the seeds). I’ve been caught out with Lidl chillies - all store bought chillies, in fact - over the past year where they had fuck all SHUs. The last thing you want is to go to all that work and have low pungency in your harissa.
The chilli plant was a revelation. I kept it in the sun room and watered it daily, with a biweekly feed of coffee grounds. The heat off the fruit is insane. Hotter than its store counterparts, with a sweet note as well and the coffee definitely imparted some flavour.
I’m going to prune it back for the winter shortly, and have some dried seeds to plant as well. Honestly, if you’ve a bright room in your house this is the ultimate low maintenance plant (and it’s a perennial). I regularly went to it this summer for a green chilli for salsas, etc.
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Where am i getting a chili plant from, kid?
I got mine from a seed bro. Dried the seeds for a few weeks, then planted them. Or you could try a garden centre for a plant.
Yeah, but are they the seeds from the store bought chilies?
It’s a chicken and egg scenario
No mate. The ones I grew from were heirloom chilli seeds. They’ve been handed down from generation to generation in my family for thousands of years.
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Great, i’ll fire on my home address via pm.
