Chiltepin!

I finally have a chiltepin plant. Yea! Though not much of a gardener, I seem to do pretty well with chiles. My Super Chili (a hybrid Thai pepper) has given 2 seasons of delicious scorching hot peppers and is going strong. The first year I had the Super Chili, something attacked it and ate almost all of the leaves. It survived, thankfully, and continued to produce. Hopefully this plant will remain pest free and fruitful in the years to come. It's comfortable now in a much larger pot. With any luck we'll have a warm fall while it gets settled in.

These fruits are a bit dry from sitting too long on the plant. I ate about a half dozen of them with ice cold watermelon last night. They're delicious and quite hot yeow! That was my first time eating the fruit fresh. The flavor is less smoky but they're still very good. The heat of the chiltepin is powerful but fades quickly. They're quite addictive!

I pickled most of the peppers with some garlic, allspice, bay leaves and fennel seeds. The pickled peppers and garlic should be ready just in time for Thanksgiving. Later today I'm making garlic ginger paste for the first time. When Indian recipes call for garlic ginger paste, I usually grate equal parts of each to make the amount needed. Today I'm going to grind a larger quantity of garlic and ginger together to have ready in the fridge. Maybe the remaining peppers could go in some of that. Hmmm...

And speaking of Indian cooking, I recently bought my first Indian cookbook. It's called My Indian Kitchen by Hari Nayak. After reading a preview of it on Amazon, I had to have it. And wow is it ever a gorgeous book. Every recipe in it appeals to me. I'm attracted to bold, assertive, spicy, colorful, and festive Indian food. That style of Indian cooking is perfectly presented here. The food is flavorful without being overly complicated to make. I really look forward to cooking my way through this book. Since many of the recipes use mint, I bought these two yesterday.

I hope this post finds everyone well and in good spirits. The high today is a very temperate 97 degrees. The cooler weather puts me in the mood to cook and work with my plants outside. I have plans to super clean and organize my apartment this fall. So far all I've done is goof off. Ah well that's ok. My better half early on realized he wasn't getting the best housekeeper! My kids are not too fussy either thankfully. :)  I better get back to my garlic while Milla sleeps. I want to get my housework done so we can go to the gym or Indian market when she wakes. Happy Fall!

Mary :)