Ok so this blog is all about my love of spicy things!! I never liked spice before, a chicken tikka masala was the hottest thing that I could handle!! That was until I met my boyfriend, he turned me on to the world of chilli's. Now I can't cook a Stir-fry, curry or bolognese without turning up the heat! My favourtie chillis are the birds eye chilli's from asda, just little red and green gems that can kick a meal up a notch.
Then you have scotch bonnet chilli's which you can buy from tesco which are scorching hot but taste so lovely!!! Also, Jalapeno chilli's, now lets get this right it's pronounced: Hala-peeno. It isn't hard is it?? The J is silent!!!! Really bugs me when people get it wrong, like chipotle, its pronounced Chip-ot-ley, not Chip-otle!! Wtf people??
Ok rant over... Any way, a show that showcases some amazingly spicy food is Man VS Food, which can be found on Dave or the Good Food Channel. I just love this show, it makes me want to go to America so much! The premise is a normal guy travelling around America savouring the biggest and the best food that America has to offer. This often invloves him taking on some ridiculous eating challenge and winning... most of the time!
But anyway, my favourite spicy meal is pasta, bolognese sauce and spicy meatballs, and now I will attempt to write the recipe for y'all.
Ingredients:
Minced beef or lamb
Ground Cumin
Ground chilli powder (or kashmiri powder)
Onions
Mushrooms
Tinned, chopped Tomatoes
Pasta, spaghetti or any other variety
Cooking oil
Worcestershire Sauce
Tomato Sauce
Bird's eye chillis (or any other chilli)
Chilli Sauce (Any brand but not sweet chilli)
An Egg
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Cheddar cheese to serve
Method:
So first of all you want to make up your meatballs! Mix the minced meat, cumin and chilli powder in a bowl, then add half a diced onion, a whole chopped chilli (or two) and the egg for binding together. Mix it up with your hands!! It feels good! Ok... after mixing these ingredients together, start to roll out your meatballs into well, balls and make them as big or small as you want.
Get a frying pan started on a medium to high heat and another pan for the sauce. To the sauce-making pan add the other half of the onion, diced or thickly sliced depending on your preference and the mushrooms. When the mushrooms and onions are on their way add some salt and pepper for seasoning. Turn on the frying pan to brown your meatballs. Add the meatballs to the frying pan while checking your other pan doesnt burn. Add another chopped chilli into the sauce-pan if you want it hot!!!
Whilst the meatballs are browning, add the whole can of chopped tomatoes into your saucepan and stir. For flavour add a dash of worcestershire sauce, a big blob of tomato sauce (Heinz is best) and as much chilli sauce as you want. Now keep the sauce bubbling at a high temperature so that when the meatballs are nicley brown, they can continue to cook in the sauce.
Put on a big pan of water to boil and add salt to season. Add the pasta when the pan is boiling, then turn down the heat and place a lid on to let the pasta cook. Add the meatballs to the sauce when they are a lovely brown colour, they wont be cooked through at this point but the bubbling sauce should continue to cook them.
Now I usually sit down at this point and have a beer and a ciggie while everything is cooking away. If you want to keep an eye on the food that is cool, but this is my chill time.
Anyway, when everything is cooked, drain the pasta, and don't stir the meatballs too much or they might break and place into a bowl, then add some sauce and meatballs and add cheese to serve!! Viola!! Spicy meatballs and Pasta!
Now for a funny story to break up this post... One night my boyfriend was making a spicy bolognese for us, and he went through most of these recipe steps whilst making up the food. Needless to say, he had just chopped some chillis up and must have forgotten about it because he proceeded to go to the bathroom for a wee...
All I saw was him running in our bedroom, face and shirt soaking wet, gasping in agony and motioning at his crotch! At some point he must have rubbed his eyes with his hands too so that's why his eyes were streaming and he was in pain. I remember him saying: "babe, I am burning up, I need to have a cold shower!" so we bustled him into the shower, stripped naked with the water on the coolest setting... Our housemates at Uni found this hilarious I must say!! And that must have been the craziest chilli experience we have had, although his younger brother did get a chilli seed in his eye at Shanghi Fusion and that was pretty mad!
But that's a story for another time! Hope you enjoyed!! xxx
