September 17, 2008
The September Chilli Newsletter
G'day
Welcome to the chillies-down-under.comSeptember 2008, Chilli Newsletter.
What a great time of year down under - it's Spring time which means it's chilli planting time !
This month is a big newsletter again as I've managed to focus some time on the site, so besides the usual features, there's some extra big news that I hope you'll enjoy.
September is also a little sad as I had to reach the decision to close the Gold Membership even though it was going well. Unfortunately the time consumed by the behind the scene logistics forced me into the position where the site and the newsletter were suffering. Somthing had to go.
The upside is more time to improve and grow the site.
OK, let's get into it;
Food Quote Of The Month
"The man who does not eat chile could be a sorcerer."
Tarahuma Indian Proverb
The Tarahuma Indians inhabit the north-west region of Mexico around Chihuahua
Chilli Tip Of The Month
As chillies evolved in the tropics they are not adapted to our hot, dry days in December, January, and February and lose a great deal of water through their leaves during this time.
This causes the leaves to wilt and frequently the flowers and even the fruit to drop right off the plant.
To counter-act this, boost humidity by maintaining a thick layer of mulch around your chilli plants during this time of the year.
chillies-down-under.com Sister Site !
I have to tell you the big news first as I'm going to bust if I keep it in any longer;
chillies-down-under.com now has a sister site - bbq-down-under
It still has that new website smell and is a long way from being as big as I want it to be, but that will come with time.
It's a little more sophisticated in the way I've set it up as I've learnt a lot going through the process of setting up chillies-down-under.com. It's also got a lot more graphics which is feed-back I've had from a number of people about chillies-down-under.com.
So, if you're interested in BBQ at all, have a look at bbq-down-under.com and see what you think.
All feedback welcome - simply reply to this newsletter.
P.S. - please note, the BBQ Types section only has content for Hooded Grills at the moment - the rest will be added over the next week or so.
Olympic Doping Scandal
In late August I was surprised to read the below story in the Vancouver Sun newspaper.
I was even further suprised when I found that the article was related to chillies - Yes, they are a banned performance enhancer in part of the Olympics rule book.
Read On...
The Olympic equestrian events, which reeled from success to scandal as doping again cast doubt on the future of the sport.
The suspension of four riders from Thursday's final show jumping contest -- after their horses tested positive for capsaicin -- points to the possibility of systemic doping in the sport, and resurrects the spectre of Athens and Sydney, when show jumping team and individual medals had to be re-allocated due to doping.
Said Sven Holmberg, head of the International Equestrian Federation's jumping committee: "This is certainly a serious blow to the sport."
The use of this specific product also points to cruelty in the training regimes. Capsaicin is a product of chillies that causes first hypersensitivity and then numbness, much like chilli does to the lips. Applied to the legs of a horse, it causes the animal to lift higher to avoid hitting the fences.
Suspended were Bernardo Alves of Brazil, Christian Ahlmann of Germany, Denis Lynch of Ireland and Tony Andre Hansen of Norway.
Nigel: I'm continually amazed at where chillies pop up in our lives - would never have thought of the Olympics !
New Twist On Chilli Crime
Just yesterday a number of Malaysian news sites carried the following story;
Kuala Lumpur - A Malaysian robber who broke into a grocery store took off with 35 packets of ground chillies after he failed to find any cash, a news report said Tuesday.
The 49-year old owner of the store in the north-eastern Terengganu state discovered the break-in early Monday, but found that the robber had taken nothing else, the New Straits Times daily said.
The robber had broken the front door of the store, and upon discovering that the owner had stashed all cash and valuables at a different location, made off instead with the chillies worth 52.50 ringgit (16 dollars), the report said.
Police later detained the suspect, and discovered the packets of chillies in his home.
Nigel: He must have had the philosophy - "Oh well, since I'm already here....". Weird and amusing.
Share Your Recipes
I frequently get sent recipes from generous readers but unfortunately don't have the time to make them all available.So, I have created a page where you can submit your own recipes, and photo if you have it, to share with everyone. Other readers will be able to append comments to the page - all of which will help build up the chillies-down-under.com community.
You can share your recipes at the Reader's Recipes page and all new recipes will be featured in the newsletter.
Sharing a recipe will create your own web-page for each recipe that you can then share with friends and family as discussed in the article below this one.
Updates To The Site
This month I've managed to put a good amount of time into the site;
- I'm always trying to keep up with web technology, yet avoid flash-in-the-pan fads.
So you can now share any page on the site with friends and family through either, social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace or, through link sharing tools and pages such as Del.icio.us, Yahoo! Buzz, Technorati, and several others.
The buttons for this can be found at the bottom of every page.
- There's a new book review covering Dave DeWitt's The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia
- It's not particularly obvious yet but I have begun retro-fitting the navigational tools used in the bbq-down-under.com recipe pages. This will progress to completion over the next couple of weeks
- The Barbecue section of the website, which was never that great, now points to bbq-down-under.com
Recipes
Three recipes this month for no particular reason. If you don't see the recipe heading once you click on the below link , you may need to hit F5 on your keyboard to refresh the webpage on your screen.Cashew Chicken With A Burnt Chilli Paste
OK, that's it for this month.
I hope every one of you is well, enjoying the newsletter and getting ready to get this summer's chilli patch up and running.
Wishing you a life full of flavour
Nigel
Secret Chilli Recipes
I have created this book to cater for both the experienced chilli lover and the beginner. As a result it is an incredibly useful resource for simple and complex recipes and a great learning tool. It also contains some of the best cooking secrets that I have picked up over the years such as;
- How to create tender, melt in your mouth BBQ ribs everytime, and
- The secret of making the most amazing Satay sauce that I was taught in Sulawesi, Indonesia
Chilli Clothing
Looking for unique chilli clothing for yourself or the chilli fanatic in your life - check out these fully guaranteed items.