Feelin' Hot Hot Hot !

I've had such a fabulous crop of chilli peppers this year in the greenhouse. The plants are now as tall as the tomatoes (to the glass ceiling, almost) and all of a sudden they have all ripened, a wonderful fiery red. Like an idiot, I've lost the seed packet so I can't remember the variety.

Can you feel the heat yet?

Big problem - what in the hell am I to do with them all? It's like the usual glut issue on the veg plot, mainly with courgettes. I'm not complaining. I'm pleased, really pleased. But I've gotta get rid of them!

So this was my master plan yesterday. A 'get rid of the chillis and courgettes in one go' plan. I acquired a recipe last year for a courgette tea bread (zucchini to you guys across the water) using grated courgettes and chopped walnuts. Only I ate it here, nobody else liked the walnuts. Perhaps because I always refer to them as dried monkey brains.

Anyway, I thought I'd adapt it a bit and add a bit of a 'zing' to the recipe by adding a handful of chilli peppers to the mix... Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 oz butter                                        2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of
3 eggs                                             soda
10 oz sugar                                      1 teaspoon baking powder
8fl oz veg / sunflower oil                     1 teaspoon of salt
10 oz plain flour                                 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
4 oz chopped walnuts                        1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
PLUS 5, yes 5 red hot chillis!             2 medium Courgettes - grated !!
                                                         (Zucchini to you Jim)

More tea loaf Vicar?

Line a loaf tin with some greaseproof paper and grease. Then, in a saucepan, melt the butter over a low heat. When melted, set it to one side to cool a bit.

Beat the eggs and the oil together with a mixer until it has a nice thick consistancy. Then beat in the sugar, stir in the melted butter and the courgettes and the chopped chillis.

In another bowl, mix all the dried ingredients well and gently fold the dried mix into the wet mixture and then fold in the walnuts.

Pour the lot into the loaf tin and put in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F / GM 4. Should take about 50-60 minutes but check every now and again with a knife through the centre of the loaf to see if it comes out clean. When it does, it's ready!

Now, I like hot food, but maybe I'll reduce the number of chillis. Just a bit...