This post is not so much about how to grow your own chillies, but what to do with your bountiful harvest of chillies!

If you have more chillies from your plants than you know what to do with, there are essentially three ways of processing them for use later in the UK where leaving them to dry in the sun all day is not really an option! These are drying, pickling or freezing them.

Drying chillies

The first method of drying peppers is in the oven. If your oven is electric, preheat to the lowest setting. The pilot light on a gas oven is sometimes enough, use an oven thermometer to check the temperature; it should be around 150 – 200 degrees.

Slice your peppers in half and remove the seeds, or if you prefer you can cut them into thin rings. Spread the chilli peppers evenly over baking trays.

Allow the chilli peppers to dry all day or overnight in the warm oven. You may wish to turn them once during the drying time, but this is not necessary.

Another old-fashioned method is to hang the chillies to dry. If you have a screened in porch or other area where there is plenty of airflow, this method works well. You do not have to seed the chillies for this method of drying.

You will need a large eyed needle, and either heavy thread or fishing line. Begin by threading your needle with a long length of thread or fishing line. At the other end, tie a small wooden dowel or stick to keep the bottom pepper from falling off. Thread the line through the centre of each chilli, stacking one on top of the other in a rotating manner.

When the line is full, hang in a well ventilated area and allow nature to take its course. This method may take three weeks to a month for the chillies to dry completely.

The last way of drying chillies is in a dehydrator. Dehydrators can be purchased with or without a fan, and while the ones with a fan are a bit more expensive, they do their magic faster than those without. Prepare your chillies as you would for the oven method. You can leave the seeds in or remove them if you wish. Lay the prepared chillies evenly on the trays of your dehydrator and turn the machine on. Chillies generally take 8 – 10 hours to dry in a dehydrator with a fan or 10 – 12 in one without.

Pickling chillies

Did you know that if recipe calls for a chilli pepper and you can’t get hold of a locally-grown fresh chilli, you can always use pickled chillies. However be aware that the heat of the chillies is reduced slightly through the pickling process so you may need to use a little more than you would a fresh chilli.

Here is a ‘recipe’ to get you started. However, sterilize any jars and jar lids before using. Boil them on the stove for a half hour, or throw them in the dishwasher for a cycle or two.

600g / 1lb 5oz medium green or red chillies
15 black peppercorns
5 bay leaves
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
5 teaspoons salt
6 heaped tablespoons caster sugar
1 litre / 1 3/4 pints white wine vinegar or rice vinegar

For this recipe you must use perfect green chillies without any blemishes (you can use red chillies but they will be slightly hotter).

Carefully score from the stalk end to the tip on one side only and remove the seeds (use the handle of a teaspoon for this. Pour boiling water over the chillies, let them sit for 5 minutes, then drain. This will get rid of most of the seeds left behind.

Next put your black peppercorns, bay leaves, coriander, chillies and salt into a large jar or other airtight container.

Put the sugar and the vinegar into a pan and heat until the sugar is fully dissolved. When this is quite hot, but not boiling, pour it into the jar with the chillies.

Allow it to cool down and then put the lid on, put into the fridge and leave for a minimum of 2 weeks before using. They will keep in the fridge for at least 4 months.

Freezing chillies

Chillies freeze reasonably, retaining most of their flavour and heat. Freezing is the best way to preserve fleshier chillies like Scotch Bonnets and Habaneros.

To freeze chillies whole, spread them out on a baking tray so they are not touching, freeze and pop into a sealed bag or container. This way they do not clump together.

Frozen chillies, however, do not always keep their shape or texture well with freezing so you may prefer to process them first. Remove the stalks and the seeds if you like (seeds can go a bit brown on freezing but this will do no harm) and freeze in a sealed bag. You can them smash the bag with a rolling pin and use as required.

Alternatively, pack the chopped chillies into an ice cube tray, then empty chilli cubes into a sealed bag to store to make easily measured portions. Keep the ice tray just for your chillies though!

Following on from my video blogs giving tips on how to get your chilli seeds to germinate, and also how to make sure they grow from tiny seedlings into big healthy chilli plants and how to pollinate your chilli plants so that they produce chillies, this video blog explains how to deal with the most common diseases and nasties that can try and harm your lovely chilli plants!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1knsAz-ac3A

First things first. As I’ve mentioned before, make sure that you keep the compost moist and not drenched. If you overwater, then this will not help your chilli plants, and will probably kill them. It is best to water them little and often, rather than nothing for ages, and then drench them in a mad panic because the compost has dried out.

If your plants have produced flowers already, then you can give them a helping hand by putting liquid tomato feed into their water for every other watering. I tend to use it at half the concentration recommended on the back of the bottle. Alternatively, if you search on the internet, there are specialist feeds for chilli plants.

The second thing to watch out for is the enemy of the gardener, slugs and snails. The only surefire way to get rid of these is to check your plants periodically. You can use slug pellets, but obviously these tend not to be organic. However, I have tried a natural product called ‘Slug Gone’, and had very good results from it.

Lastly, everyone gets aphids on their chilli plants occasionally. A natural way to control these is to encourage ladybirds to live near your chilli plants, as they are the natural predators of aphids. You can even buy them from the internet!

Another way to try to control them is to spray your plants with a very weak solution of washing up liquid in water. However, do not use one that is describes as “anti-bacterial” and use one that is fragrance-free. Also, don’t spray your plants when it is hot, or in direct sunlight, as you will scorch the plants, and kill them.

The next video blog will give you tips about how to recognise when your chilli plants are ready for harvesting. However, if anyone would like to see anything specific relating to chillies, leave a comment below and I will try my best to answer it in a video blog.

In the meantime, happy chilli growing!

Following on from my video blogs giving tips on how to get your chilli seeds to germinate, and also how to make sure they grow from tiny seedlings into big healthy chilli plants, this video blog explains what to do when your chilli plants starts developing flowers. The flowers are crucial, as they turn into chillies when the flowers have been pollinated.

If your chillies are planted outside then hopefully Mother Nature, with the help of bees and insects will have done the job of pollinating the flowers for you.

However, if your plants are indoors, or in a greenhouse, you will need to give them a helping hand, otherwise those flowers will not develop into chillies.

The first method is rubbing your little finger inside the flower, then doing the same in another flower on the same plant. Alternatively, you can do the same thing with the humble cotton bud. If you watch the video, it will all make sense!

After a while, you will notice that the flowers that have been pollinated will start to turn brown, and eventually drop off. DON’T PANIC! All that is happening here is that a chilli is now starting to push through the flower, and you are well on the way to your first harvest of chillies!

There will be some further chilli related video blogs later on in the year, but if anyone would like to see anything specific relating to chillies, leave a comment below and I will try my best to answer it in a video blog.

In the meantime, happy chilli growing!

You’ll remember that last month, I gave you some tips about how to give your chilli seeds the best chance of germinating, and starting to grow into big healthy chilli plants.

So, you’ve planted your seeds, crossed everything that wasn’t painful, and all of your dreams have come true! Your chilli seeds have sprouted! But before you get ahead of yourself, just hold on a second, you’ve got to make sure you look after them well if you’re going to be rewarded with precious fruit.

When your chilli seedling has developed its second set of leaves, it is time to pot it on to another pot.

A mistake that some people make at this stage is to repot it straight into a huge pot, thinking that this ok. If you do this, all that will happen is that the chilli plant will grow its roots to fill the pot, and concentrate on producing foliage, but not the stems and flowers. If the plant does not produce flowers, then you will not get any chillies!

As a general rule of thumb, your chilli plant should be potted on to a larger pot when the roots start to appear out of the bottom of the current pot. Personally, I pot on plants from a 3 inch to a 5 inch and eventually to a 7 inch pot.

Keep an eye on your plant and water it if the compost looks as if it is drying out. Again, the idea is to keep the compost moist and not drenched. In the colder months, you will find you only have to water every two or three days, but as the weather heats up, you will probably need to water every day.

When flowers start to appear on the plant, you can give it a helping hand by adding liquid tomato feed to the water. It should be diluted at half of the recommended ratio for tomato plants.

Alternatively, you could use one of the feeds that are specifically designed to be used with chillies.

Also remember that your chilli plants also need light, and the more light that you can give them, the faster and stronger they will grow!

In the next installment, I’ll be giving you tips about how to make sure that all the flowers on your chilli plants turn into lovely chillies. See you then!

With all the current publicity about Britain holding the world record for the hottest chilli, you might have been bitten by the bug, and decided that you want to start growing your own chillies.

If you haven’t already planted your chillies, now is the best time to start it, as chillies need a fairly long growing season.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you will remember that I was lucky enough to be chosen as ‘Wahaca’s Chilli Growing Guru’ and that I post videos giving growing tips on their website.

My first video gives some general tips about how to give your chilli seeds the best chance of germinating, and starting to grow into big healthy chilli plants, which will produce a good harvest of chillies all summer long!

The easiest way is fill a multi-cell seed tray with multipurpose compost, firm down and moisten with water. Place a seed in each cell, lightly cover with compost. Water gently, either with a fine rose, or spray the tray with a little water, and make sure the compost is moist but not sodden.

Light is not a factor in germination, but heat and moisture definitely are. Germination can then take up to 6 weeks depending on variety, although the majority of seeds germinate in the first 2 weeks. Electric heated propagators help, and start at about £10 from the larger DIY stores for a basic tray with heat. if you want better precise control over the heat, use one with a thermostat, but these will obviously cost a bit more.

If you haven’t a heated propagator cover your seed tray with cling film which will hold the heat in and humidity up and place in airing cupboard, on top of a boiler or somewhere near a radiator.

Keep a regular check on them, because as soon as the seedlings are up they will then need maximum light to stop them going straggly and getting weak. You will also need to spray them again with water if the compost looks like it is drying out. Again, the aim is make sure that your compost does not dry out, so keep your compost moist, not sodden.

I’ll do another post shortly which will give details on what to do with your chilli seedlings once they have poked their heads through the compost.

This year has been a little weird so far. First we got an allotment, then the chickens, then I won the competition to be Wahaca’s Chilli Guru.

However, the weirdest thing of all is that I have made my first appearance on TV!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that I have appeared on Britain’s Best Dish this week on ITV cooking my starter of ‘Thai Spiced Mackerel With A Cucumber & Green Papaya Relish.’

For those of you who have never seen it, it is a cooking programme that is broadcast on ITV every weekday at 5pm, and each contestant cooks one dish only. Eventually the best starter, main course and dessert cook off against each other in the final to be voted ‘Britain’s Best Dish.’

It all started off when I received an email from the production team asking me if I wanted to enter. I went along to the audition in Nottingham thinking nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Imagine my surprise when, a few days later, I received a call saying that I had been picked to appear on TV in the Midlands heats.

To say that I was nervous was an understatement! Although I had cooked the dish over and over again at home, the pressure of having the cameras watching my every move, together with three professional judges, one of whom has a Michelin Star to his name, sat on the other side of the studio within earshot commenting on every move got to me!

I also overcooked my mackerel so it started to disintegrate as it came out of the pan. There was no time to rescue it, so I plated it up as best as I could, and hoped for the best. I really thought that I had blown it, as the fish looked like it had been through someone else’s system before it hit the plate.

I think you can tell by the look of shock on my face when they announced the result how surprised I was to be put through to the next round!

I had very little time to get over the shock of getting through before going back down to London for the next round of filming. This time it was for the Midlands finals, and there was the added carrot of £500 being up for grabs for whoever won.

Although I knew what to expect this time, I was up against someone else who had won their heat, so the pressure was still as intense. It wasn’t helped by the delicious smells coming from the food from her side of the kitchen, as I love duck, and the dish she was creating looked and smelt gorgeous.

Again, in the line up I was thinking to myself “Oh well, I’ve had fun, and it was an experience that I would never have expected at the start of the year.” So, hopefully again that explains the look of shock on my face when my name was called out as the winner of the Midlands starters and that I was going through to represent the Midlands in the National Finals.

Oh and also that I had won £500 to boot!

The nerves then kicked in again, as not only would I be cooking off against six other cooks who had won their regional finals, but I would also be being judged by three restaurant critics as well as the three judges.

I would also be cooking in a professionally kitted out kitchen at Hackney Catering College.

So, what happened in the National Finals? Well, you will have to watch ITV at 5pm on 20th September to find out!

You may remember that recently I was lucky enough to win the competition run by Wahaca, the Mexican restaurant chain opened by Thomasina Miers, to be their ‘Chilli Guru!’

The first of my video tutorials has just been published on their blog, but if you’ve not yet had the chance to see it, here it is. Keep your eyes peeled here for the next video shortly, both here and on Wahaca’s blog.

This week, since my greenhouse was becoming increasingly overcrowded, I decided to treat myself to a polytunnel, so that I would have more room to grow what I wanted.


I’ve started moving some of the chillies, papalo, tomatoes, cucumbers and tomatilloes from my greenhouse to my polytunnel, and to be honest, it doesn’t seem as if I have made any difference at all. The good thing is that there is still loads of room left in the polytunnel, so eventually I will be able to reach the watering can in my greenhouse without having to hack my way through all of the undergrowth in there!

I’ve now got more room to grow some of the more unusual Mexican herbs such as Epazote or Hoja Santa.

The chickens are coming on in leaps and bounds, and they have blessed us with two eggs between them a day. What has surprised my wife is that, although they have only been out of the battery farm for a week, they have already learnt how to take themselves to bed.

I’ve also been busy this weekend sorting out my first ‘Chiili Guru’ video for Wahaca, and that will be appearing on both their and my blog very soon.