For the last year, whenever I bought a chilli or a regular pepper in a shop (anything from sweet peppers to Scotch bonnets and habaneros), I’d take a few of the seeds and throw them in a little bowl. In April, I planted the seeds, eventually ending up with about 6 plants about 3ft tall each (not bad in a climate as lousy as Ireland’s). I lost some of my harvest to blight (just like in olden times), but I still ended up with a pretty substantial amount of chillis. Having a touch of an aul cold, I thought a nice ‘chinese risotto’ type dish with chilli and Sichuan pepper might clear the head a bit.
Unfortunately, due to the variety of seeds planted, the chillis vary wildly in spiciness. The one (one!) I used pretty much took my head clean off, taking most of my nose and tongue with it, and leaving me gasping for air in a lake of my own sweat. Luckily, I had an emergency Yop in the fridge, which took my temperature from the searing fires of hell to something more like the feeling of being buried in the world’s comfiest duvet.
(Confessions of an Irish chilli eater)
