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last year i grew habaneros, but the flavour and heat meant i couldn't really do alot with them.in various Indian restaurants i have had jalfrezi curries, and they contain long, thin green chillies, with a nice flavour and good heat.whereas the habanero had a totally different, less nice taste.

can anybody please recommend some nice varieties for me,or a possible match.

thank you in advance

also, when is best to start sowing the seeds.

thanks

You are right about the long red/green chillies used in indian restaurants, also seen in my avatar. They are really tasty, perfect in a jalfrezi, but I nearly always have to ask them to be generous with the chillies when ordering.

You can get them from Kings seeds, just called chili pepper, ref no 13610. Price probably about £1.00.

I am growing these again this year by the way, they freeze very well, and keep their flavour that way.

Sow anytime from now if heat, otherwise wait until April, under glass.

thats brill.thanks for that.excellent

I really like Rocoto chillies, I sow mid to late February.

If you send me your address i will send you some chilli seeds, this year i have sown 49 varietys !! and have a few left over if you would like them , some are not so hot :)

Having read on this board that chillies were not difficult to grow, on an impulse I picked up a packet of Bolivian Rainbow, whilst browsing through Tesco. Does anyone know anything about them - culinary wise?
JeremyB

Quote from: Curry on February 05, 2006, 18:11:34
You are right about the long red/green chillies used in indian restaurants, also seen in my avatar. They are really tasty, perfect in a jalfrezi, but I nearly always have to ask them to be generous with the chillies when ordering.

You can get them from Kings seeds, just called chili pepper, ref no 13610. Price probably about £1.00.

I am growing these again this year by the way, they freeze very well, and keep their flavour that way.

Sow anytime from now if heat, otherwise wait until April, under glass.

Aren't they your bog standard cayenne chillis?

Today found a lovely 'gardeners' garden centre not far from here (just different direction.

A pack of Johnson's  'Cook's Kitchen' seeds  assorted pepper from mild to Whoooof! caught my eye so the seeds will be sown in a tray and kept in the kitchen for now.

Have grown one or two varieties before, but the 'mix' sounds good.

You guys who've grown from seed.....could do a tray or could do tiny indy pots, which means they're more mobile (do swaps all the time with great friend)?

Here's to hot stuff!

CLx

Cayenne? No idea, the packet just said chili .

I grew bolivian rainbow last year, and will be again this. They make fabulous compact plants with masses of upward pointing chillis.  Heat wise, not bad....hottish but not head blowing off, BUT of course, heat is in the mouth of the beholder.  The more you eat, the more immune to the heat you become.  We eat loads and I struggle to find a chilli that would blow my head off, but then I wouldn't eat a scotch bonnet just for fun!  :-X

what about the flavour?is it something you would enjoy the taste of?for instance a jalapeno!

Anyone for a frozen toilet roll :D :P

What you enjoy the taste of depends entirely on your taste. When my wife makes cassava leaf rice, she chucks a few habaneros in, then eats them whole. Not everyone's fancy!

i know what you are saying,maybe mine where a bad batch.i am particularly looking for that type that goes in the average jalfrezi curry

Thai Dragon?-goes from mild to hot as it ripens but never so hot as a Habenero.Apache is another one I like for good crops and flavour with heat but not indendiary

To the expert chilli growers then....

Put my seeds in pods on the kitchen window sill for now (greenhouse too cold and crowded with OH''s 'stuff') ....future advice welcome!

CLx

Quote from: swainclubber on February 07, 2006, 20:33:30
i know what you are saying,maybe mine where a bad batch.i am particularly looking for that type that goes in the average jalfrezi curry

Most Indian recipes call for the aforementioned Cayenne also known as the chilli pepper.  Strangely enough, chilli does not specify the pepper you should use.

I think the chilli in a Jalfrezi is indeed a bog-standard Cayenne.

Chilli-heads.com suggest "fresh green bird eye or thai chillies"

Most INdian recipes I've looked at just say Green chillis.

So - the question is which one.

Last year we grew 6 different varieties from a T&M mix packet, and I must say they were all dissappointing, not least the Jalapeno which was like a miniature regular pepper, with almost no chilli heat at all.

Our best chilli by far, grown three yeaqrs in a row now is just a plain old "Capsicum" from Fothergill's. (I always thought of capsicum as being the larger, mild pepper, but clearly not so!

They have good taste, not outrageous heat, freeze well, and produce decent sized and numerous chillis.

We grow them the same way as we grow tomatoes - sow a single seed into individual small pots indoors (two weeks ago in fact), then gradually plant them on into bigger pots until late spring. Half then go in the greenhouse or plastic sgreenhouse, the other half into the allotment or into a huge pot on our patio, by the wall.

Last year we had about 10 plants in all, and produced about 200 chillis. The year before we got even more from the same number of plants, but it was of course much hotter.

Tony

Quote from: CotswoldLass on February 07, 2006, 21:48:51
To the expert chilli growers then....

Put my seeds in pods on the kitchen window sill for now (greenhouse too cold and crowded with OH''s 'stuff') ....future advice welcome!

CLx

Chillies can be fussy, they like to germinate at temperatures of 21°-35°C, I find them happiest at around the 30°C mark. They are also quite slow to germinate, don't be surprised if only 50-70% are up after a fortnight, especially if your temperature is at the lower end. Once germinated the plants want at least 16°C to grow happily*

They will only be happy on a windowledge if it s a warm one, maybe try the top of your fridge or airing cupboard, they will germinate in teh dark, but because of tehuneven nature of germination you may want to use small pots or supply light.

In my house there is nowhere that maintains a temperature of above 15°C at all, so I will use a propagator, the problem is many of these have a thermostat fixed at 18-19°C, which is not ideal.




*I keep them over winter indoors, my house is often as cold as 8°C this year it has hit as low as 2°C, the plants survive but growth and fruiting stops.