Cooking with chillies - Mango Cry and Arrabiata Passata

We have an abundance of chillies right now - habanero and fatalii - both lend a really hot and sweet flavour to the dishes they are used in.

Using that sweetness is very easy when teamed with mango in this delicious chutney, which I call Mango Cry - sweet and savoury and quite the tear inducer!

The flesh of 2 large ripe mangoes
1 head of garlic, chopped
3cm ginger, grated finely
1 1/2 brown onions, diced
chillies - adjust to your heat limit (I used 9 habaneros and 2 fataliis - seeds and all!)
1 heaped tsp english mustard
4cm stick of cinammon - broken into large peices
5 cloves
lots of black pepper
salt to taste
1/2 - 1 cup white vinegar - as needed

Chop the chillies and garlic in a food processort. Put all the ingredients into a good heavy pot, and cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently, until mango is completely disintegrated and onions are cooked. Whilst still hot, put into heat-sterilised jars. Allow to come to room temperature and then place into fridge for 2 weeks (to allow flavour to develop) before using.

Whilst the chutney was cooking, I made some arrabiata passata (pasta sauce base) - which was super easy and so much tastier than store bought stuff. Well worth the wait!!

2 kgs of cooking tomatoes

300gms long red chillies, chopped

1 1/2 heads of garlic, chopped

1 brown onion, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Chop the chillies and garlic in a food processor. Put all the ingredients in a good heavy pot and cook over medium heat until tomatoes have disintegrated and the liquid has reduced significantly. 

Whilst hot, put into heat sterilised jars and allow to come to room temperature before storing in the fridge - or use straight away!!

Vego Caesar Salad

Caesar salad is a domain usually reserved for bacon, chicken and anchovies... most vegetarians feel that it is out of the question. 

Nowadays, there are plenty of mock-meat substitutes that can be used in place of bacon and chicken in a caesar! My favourite is smoked vege deli slices - lightly pan fried - in place of bacon.

And making your own croutons is tastier and cheaper than the packet ones.

Salad: mix this up in a salad bowl

2 heads baby cos lettuce, washed and drained

4 eggs - hard boiled, shells off, place in fridge to get cold

3 smoked deli slices - cut into 2cm squares and lightly pan fried - drain on paper towel

Croutons:

4 slices bruschetta bread - sprayed both sides with oil

1 clove garlic - chopped in half, used to rub on browned bruschetta slices

Dressing: mix this up in a jar

5 tablespoons whole egg mayonaise (Thomy is a good one!)
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
1tsp wholegrain mustard
generous splash white wine (sav blanc is good)
salt to taste
copious amounts of black pepper

Bake bruschetta slices in oven until lightly golden - rub both sides with copious amounts of garlic, then return to oven for about 5 minutes until golden brown. set aside

layer all salad ingredients in bowl, add freshly prepared dressing and serve with croutons.