Chomping on chillies

It's been a pretty spicy week. The chillies are slowly ripening and we are tasting and testing along the way.
This week we have tried a Bhut Jolokia, a Jamaican Red Hot, a Scotch Bonnet and a Fatalii.

I try these all by eating the slightest slithers of them - and that is quite enough. They were all fairly hot but each have their own flavour and their own way of being hot and how they affect your mouth and throat.

This morning Elliot and I ate what is labelled a Fatalii but Elliot thinks it is crossed with something else as does not look like a Fatalii. It is knobbly and not that long and wasn't quite ripe but thought we would give it a go.

Because it is an immature pod there were no seeds and it looked a bit dodgy on the inside but nonetheless a slice of the flesh was cut and the smell test was done. You can usually gauge a bit from this as to how hot it will be. It smelt much like a Habanero - sweet but most certainly hot. So down it went. It was hot straight away and the heat stayed right at the tip of my tongue and inside the front of my lips. However the heat went away fairly quickly (about a minute and as far as chilli heat goes, that is good). It was sweet and tasty, fairly hot but no way near as hot as the Habanero  we have had - and a Fatalii would usually be about on par with a Habanero, so still  not quite sure what we ate.

During the week we also tried a bit of a Jamaican Red Hot. Same as the photos below but was ripe and red.

Unripe Jamaican Red Hots

These are awesome looking chillies and this one was ripe for the picking. It certainly was red hot. The taste was good. You can just imagine this being used in Jamaican cooking - the sweetness was there and the hotness most definitely was there. The heat hit almost straight away and I felt it in the back of the throat but it was manageable and lingered for a good few minutes. A tasty but not for the faint hearted chilli.

We have just now tried a yellow Scotch Bonnet.

They come either red or yellow and don't grow too large so the one we picked was perfect. I really enjoyed this one. It was fruity and yummy. The first bit I tried wasn't hot at all but I had picked a bit with none of the placenta (the pith looking bit which houses the capsaicin - the active component of chillies which make them hot). I did harden up though and tried another bit with the placenta in it and it was pretty hot. Not unbearable and quite yummy actually. The heat definitely hit the throat but definitely a chilli I am looking forward to cooking with and will use to try in some Jamaican cooking (Scotch Bonnets are the primary chillies used in Jerk recipes).

Scotch bonnet with the placenta which hosts the capsaicin glands

The idiotic moment of the week was definitely the decision to eat a bit of a Bhut Jolokia. I knew this was going to be bad.

These scare me

Once the Guinness Book of Record's hottest chilli, there was no way this was going to be painless. The little red devil was shockingly hot. I don't even remember the taste. The heat hit the front, the sides, the back, the tongue, the lips. The heat not only lingers but builds. Yes, the worst part of these chillies is at the first bite they don't seem that bad and then the heat builds and before long you are pacing back and forth, not sure where to go, what to do, nothing helps. Elliot's hiccuping and spitting (noting he ate about twice as much as I did) and I'm just trying to figure out what possessed me to do this, no, in fact, I'm not even thinking straight. Reflecting on this, I do think it is the competitive streak in me that makes me do it and thinking that anything he can do, I can also do. I think eating this got me over that. Especially when I know one day Elliot will be eating an entire one of these and also the huge golf ball like Habaneros we have. My part of that process will be filming it for later comic relief.

HUGE habanero

The craziest thing about eating these "super hots" is the rush you get afterwards. I had never experienced anything like it. It's almost drug like and is a super crazy and adrenalin-ish feeling that was a tad awesome. Not really worth the pain to get it though!

The Bhut Jolokia is the hottest chilli we are growing this year so I tell myself it can't get much worse and I am determined to try each and every variety we are growing (this will change next season as Elliot has ordered Carolina Reaper seeds - apparently the world's current hottest chilli and these babies are mental. If you have a thing for seeing grown men cry and vomit watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsm0nE0ROMA)

On the more tame side, we have some very ripe Thai red chillies ready for picking which will become a red curry paste this weekend and a ton of green jalapenos which Elliot is pickling today. The rest of the jalapenos we will leave to go red and they will be dried, smoked and made into chipotles.

Thai Chillies

I am also on the hunt for recipes and ideas for what to do with the ridiculous amount of chillies I will soon have. Elliot loves growing and eating a few but I will be left to make them into something edible (hopefully for friends and family and not just crazies like us). If you are a crazy like us though and love something spicy and tasty without having to grow it yourself, check out my next post.