FAQ for uk.food+drink.indian Newsgroup

Hottest Chillis

1. Habaneros and Scotch Bonnets are quite similar in appearance but the latter do tend to be even hotter. 'Tend' because all chillis vary tremendously in their heat, even to the extent of two taken from the same plant at the same time being at opposite ends of the capsaicin spectrum.
2. from 'The Great Chili Book':
   p.68 Scotch Bonnet
   Closely related to the habanero and the Jamaican hot. Pale yellow-green, orange or red in color, smaller than the habanero though similar in shape, measuring about 1 to 1½" long and 1 to1½" in diameter. Very hot, fruity and smoky flavor. The Scotch Bonnet is an essential ingredient in the Jamaican speciality called jerk sauce and in Carbbean cuirries. It is also used as a condiment sauce p42 Habanero The habanero is used extensively in the Yucátan and is the hottest of any chile grown in Central America or the Caribbean, and indeed, the rest of the world. Users beware! It has been estimated that the habanero is 30 to 50 hotter than the jalapeno.

1. It's not usual to find them really fresh - when you do, you can tell when you walk into the shop. The best I ever had were marked as being imported from Germany, and the place smelled absolutely divine!!.
   If they are left open to the air, they dry out quickly and lose flavour. In a closed poly bag they will stay moist and lose flavour more slowly.
   If they are really fresh and therefore moist, there is a severe risk that they will go mouldy - and quickly at that!
   I have had reasonable success by freezing them directly from the shop. However, they do tend to dehydrate and crumble over a relatively short time.
2. FWIW, I have a tupperware box of curry leaves in my freezer. They are some years old now but have retained every ounce of their flavour.
3. Storing curry leaves :: The problem seems to be the moisture that builds up around the leaves, causing mildew etc.
   What I do is what I was advised by the lady who runs Madhav store at Riverside in Cardiff, opposite the Despenser Park.
   I wrap the leaves in a generous amount of kitchen roll. This I place in an airtight plastic container with another piece of kitchen roll between the leaves and the lid. I keep the whole caboodle in the fridge. Every few days I change the kitchen-roll wrapping, which by now are dampish.
   What I find useful is to remove any leaves, usually on the edges of the "wrap", not in the middle of the bundle of leaves, that are showing signs of deterioration.
   Depending how careful I am, I have been able to keep the leaves quite fresh, green and aromatic for several weeks at a time. Enough to cover the periods of scarcity of this lovely herb/leaf/etc at Madhav's.
   The worst thing, I think, is to store it in a plastic bag.

1. Lots of Indonesian and Malay curries use it, I've seen quite a few Indian recipes with it in too. Madhur Jaffrey uses it quite a lot in her recipes. If the stickiness offends you you can get dried blocks of tamarind or even tamarind stock cubes (tried one a couple of weeks ago, not bad) It adds a sort of sweet/sour tang to a dish
2. I don't know about the jellies or the cubes or the paste, there should be instructions on the packaging as to how to use it. But the real tamarind (The dried blocks) one always soaks them in hot water and just use the dissolved stuff in the water and not the hard residue. Never put in neat dry tamarind
3. We use a pinch or two for flavouring. Fish, egg curries. A bit more for Rasam (peppery soup). More tamarind for tamarind rice dish.
   Monti described it's use well. Just the liquid, discard the material or whatever it's called.
4. Essential for sambar and for tarka dhal!

1. You are right. There are a load of substitutes to Tamarind, like the lemon juice which is more convenient. But Tamarind has a subtle taste, to add the bitterness to a certain curries like Sambar, where a substitute is just not good enough.
2. if I've not got any tamarind I use a 50:50 mixture of lemon juice and redcurrant jelly.
3. Also if you don't like the stickness you can use Amchur powder instead (Green Mango Powder). The taste is almost the same.