Thursday 26 April 2012

Piri Piri

Yet an other boring chilli, the Piri Piri?

Other then the often so often boring chillies you can get in the store here, you can get dried Piri Piri.
As it is something different, I am bound to try it, out of curiosity really.
It doesn't look nice, they are just little chillies all wrinkled up, and loosing colour every so often.
In short, not looking very attractive in my eyes.

On the positive side, it is a handy little chlli, that can be dropped in with a flick of the wrist.
Easy to use, as you can add one or two to a dish and let them simmer for some time.
For hot heads, you can use more for sure, only then they seem to have some good taste as well.

One time I was at a Chinese restaurant, and they had a dish that had one in every bite. . .
Flaming hot to say the least, but had good taste for sure.
That said, you have to use a load to not only spike the food, but to be able to taste the chillies flavour as well.
So, handy to make food hot, but not too much taste.

Out of curiosity again, I seeded one of the seeds out of one of them last year.
For a chilli plant it has little leaves, and looks more like a hedge really.
It has the tiniest flower buds in the axil of the leaves, that grow out to little flowers, and in some weeks the little chillies form that go red in about 2 months.
It is a beauty this plant, that you can sit and enjoy, just looking at it.

When it had a good few chillies, lovely red and shiny, I tasted one.
Good grief, that little chilli had me sweating in seconds, what a mistake to take a whole chilli even if it is that minute.
It had good taste though, really.
After my pellets calmed down a bit, taking a good 20 minutes, I sliced one open.
It is full off seeds, but I could cut a little piece between the seed lists.
That is the part in a chilli that has the least heat.
And it tasted great, really fruity and good herbs, a strong taste for sure.
Yeah, that made me open my eyes for the Piri Piri, I love it !!

I love it, but that said, the dried ones are about as interesting as cheap chilli powder.

Maybe this post will make you as curious as to

plant a seed from a rather boring dried chilli

Yours truly,

Bart J. Meijer


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