HOT stuff!
ELLA WALKER gives her verdict on a recipe book dedicated to dishes with heat and spice
WHETHER your chilli dish of choice is curry or jerk chicken, we’ve all been caught out by a rogue, hotter-than-anticipated pepper, that’s had us reeling. They might be small, but a chilli pepper can have a serious punch.
If you want to learn more about their fiery ways, this cookbook is for you...
The book: The Red Hot Cookbook by Dan May. Who will love it? Anyone with a taste for food that’s hot, hot, hot.
What is it trying to get us cooking? Its aim is to broaden our culinary minds when it comes to using spice and heat. It’s not just curries and Mexican food that benefit from chilli – in fact, we’re all being too tame with our hot pepper intake. How about chilli jam ice cream? Habanero marmalade? Or chilli-marinated salmon gravadlax?
Of course, there are some classics in there too, like chilli oils, jerk marinade and Texas chilli. How easy is it to use? While the ingredients lists aren’t short, and some recipes do require a little planning, once you get to the actual cooking, the recipes are straightforward to follow. Just don’t get chilli in your eyes, and everything will be fine. The best recipe is... The chilli hot chocolate. We’d drink buckets of the stuff.
The recipe we’re most likely to post pictures of on Instagram is... The Italian fish stew – prawns in their shells and open clam shells are just so photogenic. Overall rating: 7/10 – a lot of the dishes featured are quite hearty and heavy; a few brighter, lighter, more summery dishes would be much appreciated.