Dorset Naga Chillies......

Hi Pete,

I grow very hot chillies and enjoy eating them raw :thumb:. I eat them with all my hot meals and just had some with my roast chicken tonight.

I can understand that there is no point in eating them if they make you uncomfortable - or worse :(. I grow Scotch bonnet, Naga, and other extremely hot ones but find that the reputedly hottest chillies are not always as hot as some of the others. As Honey Bee says, they can vary in strength even on the same plant.

From experience I find that on each plant, with the hot varieties, the juicier the chilli the hotter it is. For people that can take the heat they find that they can appreciate the individual flavour of the chilli. For instance, the Naga has a distinctive 'musty' flavour whereas the birds eye has a fresh flavour. Scotch bonnet is somewhere inbetween.

Apart from myself, I have a number of friends who love very hot chillies. I never have a problem with eating them although I am careful when I find that an individual chilli is super hot. I regularly get asked the question about whether I have problems when it reaches the other end :hehe:. The answer is no :gnthb:

To answer the last part of your question. If it is very hot I only eat a small amount. This is easy as I eat them fresh. That way there is no problem about having put too much into the cooking. When I have a curry I make it medium hot and then sprinkle chopped fresh chillies on it - to taste.

 

Hi Pete,
I have a very keen sense of taste and can usually work out what spices have been used in a curry at an Indian restaurant. Of course, sense of taste is also linked very closely to sense of smell. So if your sense of smell is impaired you may have problems with taste.

I think that to a certain degree chillies are an acquired taste and the effect of their heat can be tempered by familiarity. Sensitivity to many tastes and flavours varies considerably between people.

Digestion problems can be caused, and helped, by spices.

For people that can't take hot chillies their mouth, tongue and stomachs can be inflamed or burnt (sometimes seriously) but there are thought to be many benefits of eating chillies as well. The chemical in chillies that causes the heat is capsaicin. This is thought to help reduce blood sugar levels, the effect of rheumatiod arthritis and there are some indications that it may help reduce the effect of some cancers.

As with most things, an excess is not good.

Other spices are well known to have favourable effects on the body.

Hi Dirty :hehe:,
Most hot chillies are slow growers in our climate. The recommended way to deal with this is to plant them earlier and mollycoddle them .

Chilli plants are perennial evergreens and can be kept from year to year if you have a suitable place to keep them. I generally overwinter mine in the lounge near the french doors - warm and light :thumb:. Some of my plants have now successfully completed their fourth season.

I still raise new ones each year (and sell them for my charity) and I plant the seeds any time from October onwards. The ones I planted in October are 6" high and the ones I planted in November are at the six leaf stage and have just been potted on. Early planting promotes early fruiting but you are still unlikely to get a profuse crop until August. My overwintered older plants manage to start giving the occasional fruit from May and they slow down in November. I then prune them back and continue to prune them if they show early growth. Although they are evergreen they will drop most of their leaves in our climate and try to produce more throughout the winter.

The normally recommended time for planting chilli seeds is Feb but if you have a warm place, with light, to keep them then I would start earlier. If you already do this then I can send you a few chillies that I have been drying so that you can try planting some of those seeds. Take the seeds out and use what's left.

 

Thanks pete,

I'm bound to have it hot on two counts. I'm off to Indonesia soon so the temperature will be up to 30C with 75% - 95% humidity (it's the rainy season) and the food should be nice and spicy :gnthb:. From there I shall be going to Australia where it is their summer.

 

It's OK, pete. I used to really worry about everyone on GC suffering from the cold at this time of year whilst I was traipsing through jungles and deserts but I have managed to work my way through it.

I can now cope with the situation without too much stress and they say that practice makes perfect . So I have been practising very hard and have forced myself to go away on these perambulations even more. I think the theory is working :hehe: :rotfl:

have a great Christmas and New Year :flag: :yho: :yho: