This year I intentionally grew yellow tomatoes. There were large yellow stuffer tomatoes, as well as smaller cherry tomatoes. There was a third plant with a citrus-y name, and the fruit were lemon shaped, but still tomatoes. I had also sown and grow orange habeneros, to join the tomatoes. Alas the habaneros didn’t come off. So we were stuck with the tomatoes, and one home grown chilli.
Compared to the red, white and green courgette and green tomato chutneys, this was a vibrant yellow chutney. The tomatoes held their form and flavour. It wasn’t quite as spiced as I would have liked, but quite sweet. I would definitely make this again, this was a highlight of the chutney and jam making experiments. I think I have the one jar left!
The chutney could definitely do with a bit more spice and flavour to it. I have found that with all of the chutney’s really. That whilst they are quite tart to begin with, on storage they do mellow. I need to figure out how to retain a burst of flavour. Plus, how to keep that flavour and not make it taste as though it was an indian dish and just curried veg.
Well, Chilli Jamm’d or jellied, depending on how you look at it.
Sweet peppers, scotch bonnets and ginger
blitzed
having a rest to set
Have been a bit absent with the festivities, so thought I’d pop back briefly. I haven’t made chilli jam/jelly in a while. I had wanted to make some for Christmas, and didn’t get around to it. I did manage to find a small amount that had been hidden in the pantry, for my Boxing day Brunch. A roast dinner toastie. It just had to be done. Plus there is a cheese board floating around that would benefit from the chilli jam.
For those of you not familiar with it, I use the nigella chilli jam recipe. I have however adapted it a little since. I was also slightly bereft of a working jam thermometer today. The one have, no longer hits beyond 100 for some reason. I try and use it today, though, it got to 100. I used 2 large yellow sweet peppers, three scotch bonnet peppers, yes, three. And a fair bit of ginger. As well as 650 Ml of Cider vineger and 1lb of jam sugar.As per the recipe, sugar and vinegar was placed into the maslin pan. On a a low heat, and not stirred. Once the sugar was dissovled, I added the blitzed mix of peppers and ginger. I wore rubber gloves through out! I know what happen when you don’t wear the gloves. It hurts.
This mixture was then brought to the boil, and the thermometer managed to hit 100, and wouldn’t any higher. I am told though, that the wobblyness doesn’t matter. That I should aim for gloop more than anything. Cooled slightly, I then ladled into jars. It then cools, to set and have a solid wobble gloopiness to it. It’s not yellow, as you would expect. I think that’s because I did put two large sweet peppers in.With one pepper, it does definitely have less colour.
Jam is sat cooling, so we shall see later how gloopy set it is.
Here we have it, Bruno has finally met his maker. Yesterday morning, I got up and and with Ma’s help sacrificed Bruno. Bruno the Ghostrider has been sat in the kitchen since mid summer. From green to turning orange, has just been biding his time. Time then arrived for me to actually do something with him.
This is by far the biggest pumpkin that I have grown. Topped the scale at over 6lb’s. I had planned to soup the whole thing. However, there was no way I was going to be able to roast all of that, unless I split the amounts and hogged the oven. The plan fell as thus. Some of it would be curried, the remainder would be souped.
The curried pumpkin:
Sautee some onion, ginger, cumin and carom seeds in oil til the onions are transparent. I added some fresh tomatoes as well. Add squash, add garam masala, turmeric, salt, powdered coriander, chopped chillies and cumin if you wish. Coat all the squash. The pumpkin is quite fibrous, so add some water. Cover, and cook through so that the pumpkin softens. Then, remove lid and cook away some of the water. Can leave some if you want to have a sauce.
Bruno was also souped. I used a handful of homegrown mussleberg leeks for the base, as well as a small onion, ginger and garlic. Bruno in chunks, was roasted in a tin, a gas mark 7 for 40 minutes. In the oil, i had put cumin, chilli flakes, carom seeds,dried homegrown rosemary and a couple of sweet peppers. Once roasted, this was all added into the pan with the base. I then added garam masala, turmeric, a little paprika, lots of salt. I used a lot of salt, as I have previously found that this soup doesn’t otherwise taste of anything. As well as three small red chillies. Only as I didn’t put lots of chilli flakes in the roasting tin. The whole thing was then simmered til the squash was softened and squishy. Once softened and squishy, this was blitzed with a blender. I did have to return to hob to season though. Additional garam masala was added, and salt. You will of course have to taste to test. The seeds incidently, will be saved, dried, and saved for growers next year.
Given how this year has been a fairly dismal year for chillies, I thought I should reflect on what went well in the past and see if there are lessons to be learned.
I’ve have not always had the polytunnel, and did rely heavily on the small wendy house. Before that, I had sown and planted chillies in pots in dad’s garden. These had little or no protection, except when they were cloaked with a transparent gardening bag.
The first success came in 2009, and it was more or less sheer fluke in my first year of growing. The variety that I grew was cayenne, I didn’t at that point give too much thought as to what variety. I even had a baby jalapeno plant from the local garden cafe. In that case, I had cheated, I really wanted a jalapeno plant. Seeds were planted very late, but we did have a very good summer that year. I bit into one, and legged it, pops had the rest and wondered why I was flapping.
The plants were pampered, watered regularly. Kept in pots, as I had no where at that time to plant them. They soon got leafy, very leafy. Most plants were about a metre high and about that wide. Plus, they were cramped. Four plants to a pot. Watered and fed from the top, I didn’t faff with the drainage. They were watered and fed with normal every day tomato feed. A fairly bountiful crop, and I didn’t even tickle the flowers. More or less left them to it. It was only as Septemeber turned to October, that they were brought inside.
The came the allotment, and the small wendy house. Now I was putting more thought into it, and I even had different varieties. Sown on time, and these were really pampered from the cradle. When it came to potting, there were bigger pots, before they had a final destination of morrisons flower buckets (get them, 99 pence of a batch of 6. You’ll never buy huge pots again, and they are good for tomatoes too) . Dad had kindly drilled holes in the bottom for drainage. So once in their final pots, they were left to their own devices. Again, I only tickled when I remembered. I did at this point get the poly tunnel, and the plants were in there just as winter arrived. It is when you get to September October, you start to think. These plants are either going to die of their own accord, or you might have to put them out of their misery. It is nearly half way through November, I still have the plants in the poly for now. They are under a fleece, but who knows what might happen to them.
I have even tried to sow seeds on the day after boxing day. Both in a heated propogator, and on the window sil. To this day, I am convinced I have more success with germination on the window sill. Seedlings don’t grow thin and wiry, only to keel over with a lack of light. Seeds are sown into damp compost in a yogurt pot. This yogurt pot is in then put into a foodbag, knotted the top and into a gravel tray. I did try and line the tray with foil, and then put a lid on the whole thing. Checking from time to time, to see if a baby chilli had germinated. I have since delayed, and staggered the timings. Starting to sow in late January, onto late feb. But when you want to sow chillies, you want to sow chillies. That or tomatoes.
Sadly, I have never been able to replicate the success of 2009. I had hoped that the poly tunnel would have increased the the chances of having a successful crop. There are lots of different chilli seeds in the seed stasher that I would like to try, and I might just put them in pots next year, rather than in the ground of the poly. Scale back the experiment a little, rather than risking it into the poly.
I got a little bored of chopping tomatoes, so only half of that trough actually made it into chutney. Lots of green tomatoes, with a onion, garlic and ginger base.
Were added to cider vinegar, purée tomatoes, mustard, cumin, chillies, cayenne, paprika, turmeric, peppercorns , fennel and white mustard seeds. Cooked slowly until a large amount of the liquid has disappeared.
I did put a fair bit of tomato purée so that it didn’t look like a green mess. So far it tastes as though it has a kick.
A couple more cauliflowers were harvested today. The third was actually on the turn, with the florets looking a bit with worse for wear. One is larger than the other. The baby one was used to feed us at lunch time in a a stuffed chappati.
Three cabbages were collected having been cultivated under the heavy duty debris netting. The hearts are tiny, but that is of no consequence to Ma’s
Saag making. The outer leaves are a little filligreed. There was even some kale leaves were plucked.
It’s here! This seasons must have accessory. Courtesy of @loldeantimber; a personalised trug for trips to the plot. As you can see it has already been put to good use. Very very happy!
horticultural 'obbit 