Madras last night. 'Twas good, but oh the aftermath! :(

Babri last night. Not feeling too bad.

I'm not sure that I've ever experienced a babri. Should I?

I only had my 2nd one last night. They're good. I don't like really hot curries, and it was the right balance. A citrus kick to it too.

Y'know, proper curry really shouldn't do that!

My experience is that if it burns going in it burns coming out!

I made a stir-fry last night, wanted to spice it up so added a touch of cayenne pepper. Except the lid fell off the jar and half a pot went in >.<

 

I know your pain!

I must admit, I don't do mega spicy stuff really. Baltis and Jalfrezis are about my limit.

Oddly enough I'd put a jalfrezi up there with a madras. Both are as hot as I can go. My brother is one of the vindaloo/phall brigade, bloody idiot that he is.

Maybe I should try a Madras some time - thought they were a fair bit hotter. We used to get these awesome kits from the local farm shop with real ingredients (Curry leaves, coconut, spices etc) which made awesome curries from scratch but they stopped doing them :(

Just buy the ingredients yourself?

A not unreasonable answer, but I've not had any chance to try and collate a list of what they actually are where to source them. Plus it was nice that they had the right amount for one portion, so never any waste.

That happened to me with a stew last week. The bit of the lid with holes in it for shaking through came off with the lid, first I knew of it was when a lot went in. I decided to scoop out as much as I could from the surface and then just stayed quiet. It was fine!

For really super-super-hot use fresh habanero/'scotch bonnet' peppers, the light green ones (not red). Chop up really fine including seeds and add a pinch at a time (no point in chopping up much more than a half-teaspoon at one go). Wash your hands with soap and water after chopping them (peppers and/or hands). Most so-called hot peppers aren't really that hot. These ones really are.

Still only about half as hot as a Naga Bhut Jolokia.

(Though I have to say, eating shit just because it's ridiculously hot is dumb. Eat things that taste nice (pleasant chilli heat being a part of that))

Habanero != Scotch Bonnet

My brother used to make his own curry from base ingredients. You end up with stupid amounts of different spices and using teeny tiny amounts of each.

I know there's hotter, these you can generally find at your local supermarket [YMMV], and measure without a microgram scale.

Close enough in size, appearance and effectiveness.

So, by "habanero/'scotch bonnet'" you meant that they're equivalent not synonymous? 'Cos that's not how I read it, and I suspect the same for Kos.