Congratulations Rafi and co!

Apparently Rafi's Spicebox in York, England, has been awarded 'Best shop in York' at the annual York tourism awards! We can only agree! Rafi's was the one thing we liked best about York whatsoever when we visited for a week in June. So congratulations to all involved in Rafi's, you did really earn this award!

(And I did just eat some leftovers from the freezer - Do Piyaza from a Rafi curry pack. Great as always...)

Something really bad happened...

Today we had filled Jamaican Bell chiles as a starter. They were filled with some kind of cream cheese with taste of chèvre cheese. But when this was to be documented the camera just flashed a green light like crazy. Well, we had to eat before the starter got cold, so that's it. No picture.

What is worse is that it seems like there is a severe problem with the camera. We will call the service center tomorrow and hear what they have to say, but for now it seems like no photos, or just more simple photos from the pocket camera in the next couple of weeks until the camera has been repaired...

:-((

Aji Amarillo

This is the latest Aji Amarillo harvest. These three were the only ones on a tiny plant. Some day I must learn to not plant in small pots, but when all the large ones are taken and there still are small plants wanting a larger pot rather than to die, then I plant in almost whatever size of pot I can find. And, it's not really so much more work to give water to some more (small) plants. And hey, these three Aji Amarillos look nice! I wouldn't have had them if I had thrown the baby plant away!

Bye, bye my little chile plants...

The chef is on a business trip, so there is not really much cooking going on in our kitchen this weekend. Instead I have taken care of some chiles and chile plants. You can't expect to get a good harvest every year in Sweden. As I've said before we had yet another lousy summer, and the chiles had no chance to be ready before we had to take them in. We can't have plants everywhere all winter, so by now it's time to harvest what we can, and then throw the least interesting plants away. So today I said bye bye to a small Arizona plant, a small Aji Amarillo plant, two Peruwian Purple plants (that didn't give any fruit that the lice didn't eat) and a big Malaguetta plant that just has been a big lice magnet this year (second year for this plant).

So, some plants less and the living room looks a bit more like a living room that it did just yesterday, but still too many plants left. I think we'll harvest all Jamaican Bell next weekend. The fruity ones are not really good in the freezer, so we have to eat them right away. And to do that we need the chef. So, they get to live yet another week.

And the picture? It's a yellow Hot Lemon and a tiny red Arizona.

Could this be any good?

Today I found a strange can in my local suburbian grocery store. A can of sweet potato! In Sweden we don't eat sweet potato, but once we bought a fresh one and tried. I don't really remember with what we had it or if I even liked it, but this canned one looked American and interesting. So I bought it. Now what?

How should I use this? Of course I would like to serve it with something hot, but I don't know if that's the right way to eat it. Is it like a sideorder or should I have it instead of potato/rice/pasta? Tell me, tell me, tell me!

Jalapeño harvest again

Some days ago we harvested our jalapeño. There are still some fruits left to harvest, but I guess this was the large autumn harvest from this plant. This comes from the plant we have had since last summer, which has survived lice and a long winter. It actually gave us fresh jalapeño all last winter. Now all this fruit is in the freezer and the question is if the plant will survive another winter. Just as last year the fruit is very late. Some plants haven't even made flowers yet. We can't keep them all over winter, so we'll see which ones we'll try to save. Some say that chile is an annual plant and that it only can give fruit one year. This is my proof of that being incorrect. But can it handle three years in a row? It's tempting to try. Jalapeño is so useful and nice to always have around.

Strange in orange

This is weird. This is supposed to be a Chocolate Scotch Bonnet, which is a member of the Habañero family. It is supposed to be brown like chocolate and it also has a taste that reminds of chocolate. But this one is bright orange. Never seen that before. So, has there been some mismatch among the seeds or a cross pollination? We don't know. Now there are some more fruits on this plant, and they also shine in orange, so probably not cross pollination. Something is weird. I guess we will have to try it. And that will be really interesting!