Insanity Chilli Sauce

This is my latest chilli sauce which has been called "Insanity Chilli Sauce" by people that were fortunate or unfortunate enough to taste it. I suspect the name is based on the Simpsons episode about the Guatemalan Insanity Pepper.

It is very hot, the way I like it. To paraphrase from that Simpsons episode, I am not the Pope of Chilitown, I just like hot sauces. I think the result is pretty good and does not have any hallucinating properties.

The recipe is fairly simple, as is the method.

Ingredients:

20G Cumin Seeds

20G Coriander Seeds

100G Extra Hot Chilli Powder

4 Tins Chopped Tomatoes

2 Tbs Salt

3 Tbl Suger

120 ml of Malt Vinegar

1 Bulb of Garlic

I use Extra Hot Chilli Powder because it is consistently hot. Fresh chilllies vary in strength, so don't really add much to the final product. 

In relation to the garlic, I like to use one of the big bulbs. When they are fresh, the cloves are nice and juicy and also hot.

Method:

Add the tomatoes to the pot and bring to the boil. 

Grind the coriander and cumin. Add to the pot.

Add the chilli powder.

This makes the liquid fairly thick. Turn down low and put a lid on the pot. Cook for about 30 minutes to let the powders loose their grainy texture.

Get your jars and lids sterilized with boiling water.

Add the vinegar.

When it is boiling again, turn it off. You don't want the Acetic Acid in the vinegar to evaporate. 

Wait for a couple of minutes and crush in the garlic. Again, you don't want the aromatic oils in the garlic to evaporate.

Decant to molten lava into the jars and seal immediately. 

I like to leave it for a day or two the let the ingredients get to know each other.

The end.......

The sauce is great with almost everything. My favorites are burgers or chickens and of course, the noble spud.  

It also makes a superb salad dressing. No fat, so virtually no calories.

Enjoy.

Here are a few little jars that I propose to give to some deserving people.

Home Made Chorizo

I have been messing about for the past few months with various sausage recipes. Some have been fairly successful while others turned out awful.

Last Saturday I decided to have another go. I went to the Spicy Sausage (not a person) and came across a recipe for Chorizo. http://thespicysausage.com/recipes/chorizo1.htm

I had a couple of gigot pork chops, purchased for this very purpose. What is a gigot chop anyway? I always thought it was lamb. That's what it said on the label anyway.

I cut them into bits and blitzed them in a food processor. Not too fine. Mixed in the spices, herbs, salt and the other ingredients including plenty of garlic.

Made a small patty and fried it. The result was fantastic. I was so surprised by the texture. It was exactly like a Chorizo.

I only had a fraction of the meat outlined in the recipe, so had to make adjustments to the quantities. I think I put too much salt in to though.

It was very nice indeed. I tried it with a few things. Eggs did not really work, even though you would thing they would.

I tried them with potatoes and I would have to say they are best friends.

I will definitely make it again. The next time, check it for seasoning as I go, rather then just plonking in the salt and cayenne.

I don't think I will go down the road of actually making sausages in the casings and all that. Well, not at present anyway.

Sourdough Bread

I made a batch of sourdough starter about 2 months ago. Everything went fine.

I took a while for me to get the hang of using the sourdough starter as a replacement for my normal rising agent which is dried yeast.

I found that it took about 20 to 22 hours for the dough to fully proove before baking. This is not a problem. All it means is that the baking requires more planning.

I made both white and brown loaves. The white was a fantastic product. It seemed like a cross between normal white bread (whatever that is) and Italian ciabatta. It was crusty and chewy with lots of big holes. Hmmmm....

The brown bread product was a different matter. I tried it with both strong brown flour and wholemeal flour. It was quite nice. It was light but not as light as the white. The extra density in the flour, produced a product that was much more crumbly but not crumbly in a good way. The texture of saw dust springs to mind, which I claim that I have never eaten.

The reception of these by the various patrons has been mixed. My brother and the Mater say it is Brillo Pads (Very Nice) where as the Lovely Noodles (My Wife), Pina Pina and Nead (My Daughters) would rather drink from a pox bottle (Not a good thing). I dont actually know what a pox bottle is but I feel that it would not be a very nice thing. My friend Whoolio also thinks it is Brillo and so do I.

I am not sure how long I will continue to go down the sourdough road. It is a bit of a hassle. The sourdough starter need to be looked after at least every 2 days.

I feel compelled (wrongly of course) to only bake sourdough bread. I can probably get therapy for that. I should probably mix the baking styles more, i.e. soda bread, normal yeast and sourdough. That should keep everyone happy, even me.

Feeding the starter makes the starter grow in volume quite a bit. I would say that I have about 2000 mils of the stuff. I am such a cheapskate I hate throwing good stuff out.

Anyway, it died and got washed down to the big sink.

Always good for the biomass of the drains.

Now back to soda bread and dried yeast (mostly) bread.