Chilli & Hop Festival 2013

The fact that I was meant to write this post on Sunday but did not budge from the couch the entire day except to make hash browns, I think indicates a rather good time was had.

The Chilli & Hop Festival 2013 was filled with a lot of spicy food, some fantastic beer, some pretty alright company and only a little rain.

If you haven't been to Hallertau Brewbar and Restaurant make it your next port of call. The food and beer on any given day is amazing which is why I knew I had to go to their Chilli & Hop Festival. In its second year, it was bigger and better than last year and hosted the final of the NZ Chilli Eating Champs.

Some of the chillies in preparation for the comp

A $20 ticket got you a free glass (I use that term very loosely, well not loosely, rather not at all, as it was made of plastic) and a beer. My first try of the beverages produced by Liberty Brewing Company that were on offer was the “Dragons Whaia” Strong Golden Chilli Infused Ale which was delicious, but it was the Bhuty Chocolate Stout that was irresistible. With beer not being my normal drink of choice, before we arrived I wasn't sure how long it would be until I turned to me ol' pal chardonnay, but I didn't even need to look at a wine list. I was hooked.

Dragons Whaia

The chilli was definitely present in both the beers I tried and the stout was super tasty and warming on what turned into a pretty chilly (yes, I see what I did there, it's almost as bad as talking about the "heats" of the Chilli Eating Champs) evening.

Bhuty Chocolate Stout

Just as enjoyable as the tasty (not to mention 9%) beer, was the super hot and delicious food. To kick the day off we headed to the Fire Dragon Chillies tent to taste their latest hot sauces and chilli chocolate, and to pick up a bottle of SH!THOT chipotle sauce (SH!THOT by name...)

We then headed next door to the Beer Belly Jellies tent (yes, that is correct), for some ale jelly type concoction on cheese and crackers. Yummo.

We also got to try Hakanoa Lime & Chilli Ginger Beer. This is the best ginger beer I have ever had. I was gutted when we went to buy some and they were sold out. I later went on to acquire a bottle from the lovely guy at Fire Dragon Chillies, however as the night progressed, it ended up in the wrong hands. I shall leave the saga at that. You know who you are.

Kelly then pointed us towards the Lucky Taco truck (she had spied them on the way in and couldn't wait to get over there) where she inhaled a chipotle prawn taco and Elliot and I had the spicy fish option.

Doused with a bit of chipotle sauce from one of the many hot condiments they had on offer, the taco was divine. Spicy and fresh and crunchy, with perfectly cooked fish and a squeeze of lime.

I am told (and read) that Kel's taco was equally as tasty and I too will be looking out for Otis and Sarah Frizzel’s Lucky Taco truck again.

One or two more beers later, the pizza purporting to be "NZ's hottest" had to be tried.

Now, I have not had every pizza on offer in this fair land, by I think it would be safe to say this puppy is the hottest. Fire Dragon Chillies sauce was used in the base sauce and then it was topped with huge chunks of jalapenos, salami, cheese, mushrooms and then topped with what I thought was a lovely chipotle mayo. Well, looks were deceiving and I think the mayo was a habanero one - and it was bloody spicy.

The whole thing, however, was insanely yummy - you could still taste the meat and cheese through the burning and sweat the chillies produced. A pizza very much not for the faint hearted.

Next on the list - once the taste buds returned - was the chilli dog. With some delicious looking sausages from what I'm told is an award winning butchery in Grey Lynn, the hotdog looked harmless enough.

Needless to say, that was not the case. One dog was shared between three and that was quite enough. The habanero mayo was tucked away inside as well as another freakishly hot sauce.

I talked to a woman outside who looked like she was about to faint and through gasps was trying to pawn the rest of it off to her husband while trying not to touch her baby with her hotdog-tainted hand.

In saying that, it was delicious.

Both of these were not conducive to the beer going down slowly. This was obviously their master plan.

To end the glory that was the food that evening, we endulged in some jalapeno poppers. Yes, béchamel sauce-filled, deep fried jalapenos with a side of chilli aioli. All I can say is heaven. And I really should not write about these when I am hungry.

I think Hallertau have them on their usual menu so I will definitely be back for more.

The beer continued to flow, and in doing so we missed three quarters of the chilli comp. However, the gist from the crowd reaction (cheers, sighs, screams of encouragement, admiration and mumblings about sheer stupidity) told me it was the same chilli chewing, tequila chilli drinking madness we had seen in the round we attended.

We got a sneak peak at the round sheet

I got through the sizeable crowd to the front when they were down to about six competitors - a young guy the crowd had affectionately called "Bieber" (they saw it as affectionate; he did not), the British guy on the end who looked pretty solid, the guy in sunglasses (which weren't fooling anyone), the reigning champ, and the two winners from Wellington - one of whom was the only female, Rachel.

Bieber and the Brit went out next after getting up fairly quickly with their litre of full fat milk in hand.

I think Sunglasses went next.

Then came the Carolina Reaper - the hottest chilli on Earth. And just for fun, why not have it both dried and fresh? This took out Rachel, as she ever so calmly and ladylike got up and headed for the bathrooms, milk also in hand (later on that evening the chatting and musing of random girls in the bathroom which tends to happen led to the consensus that we were thankful we only had one competitor using our bathroom, and would not like to be anywhere near the men's bathroom).

The final two 

The last round was the pizza and it was a speed test. The reigning champ was very composed and confident but 30 seconds later victory went to the other Wellington champ - who I read is Simon "Hellfire" Smith (pictured right above). A well deserved victory - although not sure how soon he will be using his prize - a basket full of hot sauces!

All in all, a great night, made ever more bearable with the fantastic pizza oven which turned into our outdoor heater when the night got on.

I left the event with five new plastic glasses, some ridiculously hot chipotle sauce, some excellent food memories, a lime and chilli ginger beer (yes, I did leave with it...) and what was to be one hell of a hangover.

Herbs n pavs n chillies n things

Our holidays are fast coming to an end but the week at home has been super productive. The aquaponics is up and running, no fish have died, gardening has been done, pavlova has been baked and consumed (yes, it was consumable) and there has been much drinking, dart playing, barbecuing and The Bachelor watching (ok, not so productive, but sometimes it's just too hot to do anything else).

My wheelbarrow herb garden has been replanted as the chives had died, thyme had gone to flower, coriander had all been used and the rosemary was the last herb standing. 

I saw the idea for a wheelbarrow herb garden in a gardening magazine at work one day and was lucky to find a wheelbarrow on Trademe on the North Shore for $2. I set this up a few months ago and it has worked well - all it needed was a few holes drilled in the bottom. The coriander has been a bit disappointing but I think it needed a deeper pot as they have long roots so have now planted these in pots. In the wheelbarrow I replanted the rosemary, added some oregano, some new thyme and some dill.

New chives went in a separate pot and all components have gone out the back door. I think the key to a successful herb garden, and vege garden actually, is using what you grow. It is easy to plant loads of different veges but you have to use them. And I think the key to using herbs is having them easily accessible to the kitchen. It is dead easy for me to pop out the back door and snip exactly what I need (especially true in winter when it is just that bit harder going out into the cold and dark when you're cooking dinner).

We also cut back the tomato plants quite a bit as the suckers and dead leaves had got a tad out of control. One plant was fully pulled and the others are looking a lot barer but much healthier. There was also a ton of ripe toms I will look to do something with tomorrow. The strawberries have also gone as weren't producing fruit any more and some new lettuces and basil has been planted.

The chilli plants look amazing! There are tons of Jalapenos, Thai chillies,  Habaneros, Fataliis and Bhut Jolokias and I am thinking of many ways of how I will use them.

Jalapeno

Bhut Jolokia

Fatalii

There was a tiny Habanero ripe today so Elliot and I decided to try some.

It did not go well. I had a quarter of this tiny devil and it was painful. 500 ml of chocolate milk later (milk or yoghurt is meant to help and seeing as plain milk is disgusting, chocolate milk it has to be) and I was still in pain. I had tried some Jalapeno earlier and it wasn't too bad but this Habanero was mental. It is so tiny in comparison to what else is growing and not a patch on the heat of the Bhut Jolokia, so there are going to be some crazy hot times ahead...

The Jalapeno and miniature but evil Habanero

In other food-related news, Elliot and I had lunch at Mexico in Takapuna on Thursday (we had been to the zoo and surprisingly decided to forego the sad looking $5 pies and chicken nuggets they had on offer). Mexico is a newish chain of Mexican restaurants in Auckland and this is the first one I have been to. It is not traditional Mexican fare but is cheap, has an awesome, funky atmosphere and decor and more importantly is yummy!

Elliot had the Achitoe chicken, citrus cured red onion, mint with salsa borracha quesadilla and I had the braised beef brisket in coconut and ancho with green onion, chilli and papaya soft taco and we shared crispy potaotes in celery lime salt with spicy tomatillo dressing. It was all so good. The quesadilla was cheesy and chickeny and the accompanying salsa was spicy and delicious; the beef was tender, the chilli perfectly balanced with the cocnut and papaya and the potatoes were a crispy and limey-salty delight. The food came in about five minutes, the beer was cold and at $42 for us both including two beers, it was a bargain. I will definitely be back to try the other menu items. They also had a good range of hot sauces on the table to try.

The beer was goooooood - especially when it's 27° outside 

Chicken quesadilla and beef taco

Good range of hot sauces 

Other foodie bits this week included using more of my chipotle sauce mixed with mayo in a potato salad that we had with barbecued chicken, zucchinis and mushroooms done on the barbie. The potatoes were out of our garden and I mixed them with red capsicum, red onion and chives (all from our garden as well) with the chipotle mayo (to the mayo mix I also added a little bit of cream to make it a bit runnier to go through the potatoes a bit better and some lemon juice). Yummo - and rather tasty with a cold glass of rosé.

Chipotle potato salad with capsicum, red onion and chives

And now, the pavlova... after a few helpful hints from my friend Jennie, I did everything I was told. The egg whites were at room temperature and the sugar was added painfully slowly, the mixture looked good - fluffy, shiny and I was stoked when it went in the oven. 45 minutes later and it had sunk a bit in the middle and cracked a tiny bit but I was pretty pleased with it for my first attempt (and the sinking and cracks was nothing some whipped cream and berries couldn't hide).

The first cut into it was the real teller and I was pleasantly surprised. Marshmallowie and soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside. It tasted good and all who ate it enjoyed it... especially my favourite little monkey...