Chilies [Revisited]

13 Mar 2006

A season or two on, the Chilies plant is still fruiting many times a season. Only a few weeks after one harvest, and already the next crop is waiting to be picked as a few dry on the vine, while the following crop of green chilies almost ripens before my eyes! So I've started to dry them in the sun now. One baking tray left on a window-sill or out in the sun, with daily shuffling to ensure nothing feels like getting mouldy on one side, and a few weeks later I've got some naturally preserved chilies on hand for my next vat of spag-bol (spaghetti bolognese). It's working out quite well. $9, I tell ya!

So I was cooking the other night and harvested the couple of chilies I needed. While the sauce was stewing, I gathered the last two crops of dried chilies and plucked off their (previously) green tops. Then I crumbled the shells to separate the seeds from the skins. The seeds I can use whole, but the dried skins I threw into the blender to turn into chilli powder (aka, dust). Three hundred and fifty chilies later, my finger tips were a bit sore. I wear contact lenses, and I've had a brush with chilli oil before (it's not pleasant), but I was a handful of chilies in before I remembered the latex gloves. Too little, too late. - I never knew I rubbed my eyes at least 5 or 6 times a night till I had chilli dust on my fingers and each meeting of finger and eye resulted in my being suddenly wide awake with burning eyes and nothing to solve the situation.

But before I crumbled the chilies up, I had to revisit the shot I'd taken of them in their full luscious glory. Now withered, but believe me when I say; all the more potent! Perhaps they looks a little innocuous, but trust me, they pack a punch that would stop a horse! And the horse trainer. And his mother. Dead. In their tracks. - Or at least keep them awake at night when they rubbed their tired eyes.

Moral of the story. Remember the gloves. - No glove, no love!

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