Coconut

Christmas White

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Happy solstice, everyone! I’m not doing anything special for the holiday – Or at least, not online – but I do have a rather special sauce to show you, all the same. One that matches the idealised colour of the season, even if I’ve only actually seen two white christmases in my whole life.

This is the White Fatality, from Pika Pika, and it very much lives up to its name, with a beautiful ivory colouration that’s completely unlike any other chilli product. But it’s not just that that makes it special – At least, not to me – because the second half of its name refers specifically to the rare chilli within. One which I first tasted right around the time when this blog began and I’ve been searching tirelessly for it ever since.

It is, of course, the white fatalii. An obscure and beautifully pale variant of the much more common yellow strain, with its own distinctive taste. Smooth, fresh and both slightly wheaty and slightly like clotted cream. Yet still very much its own unique thing. And just as very hot.

After years of searching, I’d all but given up hope of ever seeing it again. Yet here we are, witnessing my long lost love’s return in sauce form. Will they be all that I remember?

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A Late Start

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Happy new year everyone! I know that I’m a whole month late but, well, twenty-twenty wasn’t exactly the best of years and the post hasn’t exactly been the best. Though I certainly can’t blame everything on Royal Mail, either.

As it turns out, the company that I’d hoped to feature in january is very new and still getting used to the workings of their online store. To the point where my purchase went to the wrong email address and only got noticed when I asked them what had happened.

So, if you plan on buying from Ignis, I’d suggest sending a polite “hello” with your order, just to make sure that it’s been seen. But they’ve been very attentive ever since and clearly care about their products, so I’m not going to let that slip up colour my opinion of their sauce.

I am, however, going to use it as a bit of an excuse to turn this post into a comparison. To show their JGA7 off alongside a second, less clinically named green sauce that I found while I was waiting.

Two sauces which look quite different, yet still both put a thai twist on a classic green chilli.

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Not Really Kashmiri

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Hey folks, welcome to november! I know that national curry week was last month but I just so happened to come into a whole load of bananas and coconut, recently. Inspiring me to look into one of my mother’s favourite curries: The kashmiri.

A sweet, creamy, fruit-based curry from exactly the region that its name implies.

So it was a simple prospect: Research a real kashmiri, put my own little twist on it and, if all went smoothly, write up my results for all of you. Easy content, right? Well, not exactly

As it turns out, an authentic kashmiri curry is based around mangoes and lychees, not bananas. Still fruity, yet very different from what I had in mind.

So, while today’s dish does take a little inspiration from it, in its spices, it also draws upon the malayan and a whole host of more keralan meals, in order to form a truly delightful, caramelised fruit curry with neither an official name, nor any specific region to call its own.

A pan-indian fusion, if you will, which gets its mild heat from a blend of rich and raisin-like, mexican chillies, in order to best complement the banana without adding any extra sweetness. Because, if I’m going off-script already, I might as well go the whole hog.

There’s nothing traditional about today’s recipe but I’m eager to share it, all the same. It’s too good not to.

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Another Piña Pair

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Attention: This is an old post reviewing a pair of products, one of which has since received significant updates. It will remain on my site, for posterity, and is still relevant to anyone interested in the Cornish Chilli Company’s Barracuda. However it does not reflect the latest version of Dorset Chilli Shop’s Dorset Punch. For up to date information on that sauce, please refer to this new post, instead.

Hello again, everyone, it’s tuesday and, while we did recently look at a piña colada sauce, it wasn’t a new one. It was a re-review of an updated product.

So, today, I’d like to take a look at a couple of similar items that we haven’t seen before, from our old friends Dorset Chilli Shop and the Cornish Chilli Company:

PinaBottles

Both claiming caribbean influence – As one might expect of such pineapple, coconut and rum-based sauces – yet appearing quite different from one another.

Through the necks of their bottles, our view of the sauce is altered slightly by glass but we can still see that the Dorset punch is a rather paler, peachier shade than the earthy, golden-brown Barracuda. And its thinner, almost watery appearance shows a fair few pinkish-red chilli shreds that would be much harder to spot in the Cornish Chilli Co.’s creation.

I’m very curious to see how they’ll differ, outside of the bottle. Especially having seen their wildly different ingredients lists.

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The Second Spirit

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Hey folks, don’t stop me if you’ve heard this one ’cause, today, we’re looking at Chilli of the Valley’s Calypso.

NewCalypso

Now it’s been over a year since we first saw this sauce and a lot has changed in that time. It looks far more enticing in its swanky new, pirate-themed bottle but, more importantly, its makers have informed me that they’ve changed the vinegar to a far more fruit-friendly, white wine variety.

So, since the overpowering nature of spirit vinegar was my only issue with its previous incarnation and I do so like to preach the benefits of picking the right acid for your sauce, I think it’s only fair that I reward the company for taking my feedback on board by giving it a second shot.

Yes, folks, this is a thursday special to re-review Chilli of the Valley’s product. Partially to ensure that the info on my site is up to date and partially because it’s an interesting, real world example of just how much difference vinegar type can make.

It would be unfair of me to let it take the normal tuesday spot away from something newer but I do feel like it deserves this metaphorical air-time, nonetheless.

Here goes!

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South Indian Chutney

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Hello again, everybody. We’re finally nearing the end of my Reading Chilli Fest review backlog but, rest assured, some of the best are still to come. As well as one of the weirdest:

Manjira

Today’s product is a pachardi – Something that I’d never even heard of, before the event. Looking into it, though, it appears to be akin to a chutney or pickle and is traditionally either served as a side or used as the base of a curry. Much as an achari would use a regular chutney or one might use Mr Naga, if they’re looking for serious heat.

Where the pachadi sets itself apart, though, is in its high coconut content and the use of oil, rather than acid, for preservation. And, when made fresh, it’s often blended with yoghurt to form the keralan equivalent of a raita.

So, that’s what Manjira’s set out to popularise, here in the west – Quite literally a different side of indian cooking. But how does her “Hot Garlic” version of the “South Indian Chutney” hold up?

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Curry in a Bottle

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Welcome to june, everyone. To kick this month off in a rather special way, I’m looking at a pair of imported hot sauces that harken back to the dreams of my youth.

Coconut.jpg

Byron Bay’s Fiery Coconut Chilli Sauce, imported from australia by my good friend Matt Tangent, of Aussie Hot Sauces. And Hell’s Kitchen’s Rockin’ Rasta from the US, first imported by Russel of Grim Reaper Foods but, more recently, picked up by the UK’s largest importers, Hot-Headz.

And, if you’re one of my UK readers, you might recognise the coconut sauce on the left. It may be made in australia now but, until about a year ago, Byron Bay had a partner company producing it over here, as well. Matt actually brought this one over at my request, since I really wanted to talk about it. Thanks dude!

Yet, as excited as I am for the return of the Byron Bay range, theirs isn’t the only sauce on display today. Or even the only coconut one.

Neither of today’s items are quite the korma in a bottle that young me wished for but both are delicious, creamy, rich and sweet, coconut-based, curry sauces, all the same. Ones that my ten-year-old self would have been overjoyed to own.

So the question is: Do they still hold up to the more refined tastes of my mid-twenties?

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Hot & Cool

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As one bottle reaches its end, another two come to light. For today, dear readers, we’re taking another look at Daddy Cool’s. At his Ghost Pepper Extreme and Jeepers Reapers Revenge.

Coolbottles

Two of his hottest sauces, both in rather more current packaging than my past reviews, yet absolutely nothing to do with 📽️ the other Jeepers Reapers 📽️ that I tried. And still equally unrelated to Star wars.

But, while these sauces may be made for heat, they have a lot more going on than just that.

The Ghost Pepper Extreme is made with butternut squash, coconut water and an assortment of smoked ingredients to enhance the bhut’s flavour, while Jeepers Reapers Revenge contains scotch bonnet, roasted tomato and papaya to compliment its reaper chilli. I can’t say that I fully understand what that means for either but, having had Steve Cooley’s products before, I’m expecting the best.

Especially as this is only the second reaper sauce that I’ve seen boast a great taste award.

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Spirit of the Caribbean

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Happy tuesday again people, it’s time for us to return to wales and experience a second sauce from Chilli of the Valley. One with the same pineapple and coconut flavours that ruined Saucey Lady’s Fireman’s Watch for me but one that gives them the centre stage, instead of pairing them badly with other, more savoury fruit.

This one is their Calypso – A sauce designed to mimic the classic piña colada cocktail’s flavours, with pineapple, coconut and rum.

Calypso

And this time, I see no reason why they won’t work.

To be truly sure, though, I’m going to have to put this sauce to the test.

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Dragon’s Breath Chocolate

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Hey there chilli lovers, it’s the weekend again and, this week, I feel like paying a little tribute to one of my fellow bloggers.

Not a pure food blogger this time, like I’ve Got Cake’s Dana (who inspired my superhot brownie recipe), but one who I’m a big fan of all the same. One who’s stunning pictures of the australian landscape feed my love of bright colours through winter just as much as their recipes make me hungry throughout the rest of the year.

Today, we’re looking at Eat Live Escape and the simple tweaks that turn their recent Dark Cherry Chocolate Bark into an insanely hot, chilli lover’s treat.

Do be warned before I begin, though: This isn’t for the faint of heart or tongue. Today’s recipe uses one of the world’s hottest chillies and winds up reaching a crazy

7.5/10

Heat

that comes close to double the strength of my own hottest past recipes, let alone what restaurants will typically serve. And it’s not like you’ll just be putting a little bit on your meal like with a sauce, either.

If you’re sure you know what you’re getting into, feel free to click on through to the recipe but don’t say I didn’t warn you. For even most chilli fans, ELE’s original recipe will likely be more suitable. My chocolate bark really is just for the select few who eat things unreasonably hot.

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