SPICE UP YOUR LIFE

People don’t derive pleasure from eating boiling hot food – which stimulates the same pain sensors as chillies – but they willingly and often joyfully eat searingly hot, spicy dishes.

Research shows some people have fewer receptors to the pain caused by capsaicin, making them more tolerant of very spicy foods.

However, there’s also a nurture aspect. If you want to improve your tolerance to hot food such as chillies, the trick is to eat it more often. By continually exposing pain receptors to capsaicin, you physically change your nerve endings. This eventually desensitises them, allowing you to eat more spicy food without such an intense pain sensation.

Over time, nerve endings degrade, a phenomenon that scientists still don’t fully understand.

Source: Is spice tolerance genetic?, psomagen.com

MAKES: 3 cups TIME: 30 minutes

Peri peri sauce is of Portuguese-African origin. The chilli variety you use is essential for the heat, but equally so is the amount of salt, the acid (vinegar and/or lemon juice), and the aromatics (carrots, onions, garlic, apple, etc). Some people are very particular about the variety of chilli they use; I prefer the deep rich flavour of habeneros, but you can choose your own heat level.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup chopped chillies of your choice

2 red onions

1 bulb of garlic

2 red capsicums

3 ripe tomatoes (use a sauce variety)

3 lemons

4 tbsp olive oil

⅓ cup red wine vinegar

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp cracked black pepper 2 bay leaves

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp smoked paprika

METHOD

1 Peel and roughly chop the onions, garlic, and capsicums. Remove the stems from the chillies. Juice and zest the lemons.

2 Tip all the ingredients into a food processor and mix until at your preferred consistency (ie, smooth, chunky) – it will mix to a thick paste, so if you want it runnier, add a little water or olive oil.

3 Simmer in a saucepan on a medium heat for 20 minutes. Stir regularly to prevent burning.

4 Taste and adjust the seasoning if required. Will keep (in a sterilised jar) in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.