Tag: chilli

Apple and chilli salad

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Tart, fiery and super-fresh. An unusual and delicious flavour combination which works as a brilliant foil for rich, savoury stews or curries.

  • 2 granny smith apples
  • 1 red birdseye chilli
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 2 tsp fish sauce
  • Pinch sugar
  1. Halve, core and then thinly slice the apple (just a mm or 2 thick)
  2. Slice the chilli, leaving the seeds in
  3. Whisk together the lime juice, sugar and fish sauce
  4. Mix everything in a bowl and serve at room temperature

Thai sweetcorn cakes

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Delicious, spicy little splotches of sunshine to make your mouth sing.

  • 6 spring onions, trimmed and roughly chopped
  • 1 red birdseye chilli, roughly chopped
  • 2 stalks lemongrass, trimmed and roughly chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
  • Bunch of coriander stalks
  • 3 tbsp coconut cream
  • Juice of ½ lime
  • 3 heaped tbsp plain flour
  • 1 heaped tbsp cornflour
  • 2 heaped tbsp rice flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 large tin sweetcorn (325g), drained (keep liquid)
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Veg oil
  1. In the bowl of a mini food processor, whizz up the chilli, lemongrass, garlic, coriander, spring onions to a coarse paste
  2. In a big bowl, mix together the 3 flours, baking powder, egg and salt, creating a thick batter by using some of the liquid drained from the sweetcorn
  3. Add the spice paste and sweetcorn and mix thoroughly
  4. In a large pan on a medium heat, heat up the veg oil and fry tablespoons of batter until golden brown on both sides and just cooked through

Eat immediately, ideally with friends, ideally standing in the kitchen with a beer, snaffling them straight out of the pan. Dunk them in this dipping sauce on the way to your mouth. It’ll knock your socks off!

  • Mix together 4 tbsp lime juice (roughly 2 limes-worth) with 2 tbsp caster sugar, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp finely chopped coriander, 2 finely minced garlic cloves, 1 finely chopped birdseye chilli. Ideally make about 20 mins before you eat

Szechuan chilli oil

~ Sophie ~ 7 Comments

Spicy, flavourful oil. Drizzle it over stir fry, dip wontons in it, drip a little pool into the bottom of a ramen bowl before you add the noodles and stock. It’s so good!

  • 3 tbsp chilli flakes
  • 2 tsp ground Szechuan pepper
  • 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 3 slices of fresh ginger
  • 2 star anise
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 red bird eye chillis, pricked with a fork but left whole
  • 250ml veg oil
  1. In a small bowl, mix together the chilli flakes, Sichuan pepper, five spice and sesame seeds
  2. Put the bay, cumin, ginger, chillis and star anise in a small pan on the stove
  3. Pour over the oil and heat over the lowest flame until hot and bubbly but before the cumin burns
  4. Strain the hot oil directly onto the spice powder mixture, discarding the ginger, star anise, bay leaves and cumin seeds
  5. Leave the oil in the bowl to cool, then stir up and pour into a jar to store in the fridge. Ideally make this the day before you want to use it so the flavours have time to develop

Caramelised chilli nuts

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

Sweet, savoury, spicy, crunchy and nutty – possibly my favourite ever snack. You will probably burn your tongue in your eagerness to put them in your mouth. I don’t recommend this, but I do understand it.

  • 200g mixed whole nuts (I usually use blanched almonds and cashews – also works well with peanuts. Outstanding with macadamias. Not walnuts)
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp chilli flakes
  1. Toast the nuts in a dry pan (ideally a non-stick one as you’ll be melting sugar in it in a minute). This is an exercise in patience, as you’ll want to do it quickly but the best results are achieved by taking it slow over a low-ish heat. You want them golden all over and not even a tiny bit burnt
  2. Turn the heat up to medium, add the butter and stir to coat the nuts as it melts
  3. Sprinkle over the sugar, salt and chilli flakes
  4. Now you’ve got to pay attention. This is where it could all go deliciously right or disastrously wrong. Stir the buttery nuts constantly, moving them around the pan to coat them in the sugar as it melts and caramelises. This will only take a couple of minutes. If you leave to go and answer the door/check your phone they will burn.
  5. When they’re all coated and glistening (and oh SO hot), tip them out onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper and leave to cool completely. The caramel will harden into a crisp coating around the spicy, salted, toasted nuts.

I’m sure these would be delicious chopped roughly and sprinkled over a salad, but they never, ever get that far in my house. It’s a struggle to make them last more than an hour.

Quick pickled chillis

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

Spiky, spicy, piquant. The perfect topping for a cheese sandwich, pizza, jacket potato. Anything.

  • 120ml white vinegar (or cider vinegar)
  • 120ml water
  • 1 clove garlic, left whole but squashed
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 5-6 large (120g) chillis, thinly sliced
  1. Put the vinegar, water, garlic, brown sugar and salt in a small saucepan and bring to the boil
  2. Add the chillis, stir in and remove from the heat. Allow to sit for 10 mins
  3. Pour the chillis and pickling liquid into a clean, sterilised jar, leave to cool and then store in the fridge

This will keep in the fridge for a couple of months, getting more pickled as time goes on

Chilli cheese cornbread

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

Moist, crumbly, a delicous mix of savoury and sweet, with a good poke of chilli. Excellent with tomato soup. Or toasted for brunch with some crushed avocado and a fried egg. Eat it up quickly as it won’t keep for long.

  • 40g butter
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 120g coarse cornmeal or polenta
  • 75g plain flour (or GF plain flour if you like)
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 75ml plain yogurt
  • 75ml milk
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 red chilli, finely chopped
  • 75g strong cheddar, grated
  • 1 small tin sweetcorn, drained

You can adapt this recipe easily to suit your tastes or what you have in stock. Take out the chilli, cheese or onion (just melt the butter and add it alone). Add chilli flakes, chopped ham, diced chorizo, pinch of smoked paprika, fresh herbs (chives or coriander work really well).

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180C fan (200C). Line a baking tin or loaf tin
  2. Melt butter and cook onions on a low heat until completely soft
  3. Tip all dry ingredients into large bowl, mix and make a well in the middle
  4. In a jug or another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, milk and eggs
  5. Pour this into the dip in the dry ingredients and stir together until smooth
  6. Add the chilli, cheese, cooked onions, butter and sweetcorn. Season with salt and stir together
  7. Spoon into the tin and bake for 35 mins until golden on top and cooked through
  8. When you take it out of the oven, leave in the tin for a couple of mins and then turn out
  9. Cut into slices or triangles to serve

Spicy braised pork and carrots

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

I love pork belly – it’s cheap, succulent and incredibly delicious if you cook it low and slow. This is a Chinese-style (nowhere near authentic!) dish of warming spice and sweet, soft meat. Spicy, but not enough to make you sweat. This will comfortably feed 4.

  • 400g pork belly without skin, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 tbsp veg oil
  • 3cm ginger, minced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 5 spring onions, sliced
  • 3 tbsp shaoxing wine (could substitute dry sherry)
  • 2 tbsp gochujang chilli paste (could substitute sriracha)
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • 4 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari if you want to make it gluten free)
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 5 carrots, cut into chunky pieces
  1. Boil a large pan of water
  2. Drop pork into the boiling water and cook for 5 mins, then drain and leave to dry
  3. Heat oil in a deep frying pan or casserole dish with a lid
  4. Over a medium heat, fry pork pieces until golden and then remove and put to one side
  5. Turn heat down and add garlic, ginger and spring onions
  6. Fry until aromatic and then add shaoxing, gochujang, chicken stock, pepper, star anise, cinnamon, soy sauce and sugar
  7. Bring to the boil and mix well
  8. Add pork back in, stir and put the lid on. Simmer on a low heat for an hour
  9. Add carrots and continue to cook uncovered for a further 30 mins, stirring occasionally

Serve with jasmine or basmati rice and stir-fried greens