Vocal Voices

Some time ago I started to grow some chilli plants - Scotch Bonnets, Black Bird chillies and Trinidad Scorpions.

Today one fell off. It was an almost black red colour of indistinct shape and had blown off because it was next to the open window and in a fairly stiff breeze - what to do? So, in goes the thumb nail to dig a tiny bit out along with some juice, then a quick suck of the thumb for a taste test. Wrong move ... ever so ever the wrong move. It was a Trinidad Scorpion!

Trinidad Scorpions are the second hottest chilli in the whole Universe and to put it in the perspective of a chilli you might know it is almost 200 times hotter than a Jalapeno. This happened in the late afternoon and I was in real tears. Nothing but nothing would take the burn away, not iced water, not cold milk, not cold orange juice: nothing. The burn just kept going. I am still only on cold drinks, but a few shots of voddy and Irn-Bru appear to be numbing the pain a bit. I might have to have a few more just to make sure.

Oh dear!!

We grew some last year, but nothing like those varieties, only the mild green to medium hot red varieties. Even a year on, the medium hot ones which have been in the freezer over the winter, still pack quite a punch when we dig them out and use them in stews ...

Daft bugger

If you have heard of Encona or Windward hot pepper sauces you will know why I grow them - I turn them into sauce. A splash in a stew or casserole or c-con-c turns up the heat.

The Bonnets or Scorpions are no good to cook into things, esp the Scorpions, because if you get to bite a piece, even a little piece, and even when cooked, you end up with the problem I just had.

Jan, I'll send you some seeds, they will grow well in Portugal and I know that you are as daft as me.

I've got lashings of Encona sauce as yippee I can get it in Iceland. I love the stuff.

We grow our own chillies and they've got two names:

The flippin hot ones or the 'bad boy burners'

Ally, I have just put a recipe on the foody board. Try it with the 'bad boys' and then try a sprinkle on runny-stretchy cheese on toast.

Please don't send anything yet WM. Our post is being kept at the post office in Ourique, well, some of it.

So, if I send seeds you might end up with plants.