Spicy sauces on the horizon

It's starting to look like there will be a definite glut of tomatoes, chillies, garlic and coriander this year.

So I've been looking at different storage options. Freezing or drying are always good options for chillies, and garlic stores well. But what about the tomatoes? Sure you can freeze some, and most people make pasta sauces, but we don't really eat that much Italian food, or tomato-based pasta sauces.

What we do however eat mountains of is spicy food. Not necessarily country-specific, although we eat a lot of Asian cuisine. Basically anything with chillies in it is popular in our house. 

Today I started looking for spicy sauce recipes with these ingredients and came across this wonderful website & blog:

Jalapeño cilantro salsa from
Laylita's Recipes

...can't wait for this lot to grow so I can get saucing...

Chillies - Ají Colorado, Trinidad Scorpion, Ají Límon, Padron

Tomatoes - Yellow Pear, Flavorino, Super Sweet, Tigrella, Black Cherry, Green Zebra

Garlic - Cledor

Coriander - bought in bulk from Olssons

And although there isn't a single flower on any of the toms yet, things are looking promising on the chilli front...

Ají Límon

Padron

Jalastar

 :)

Chilli chaos again...

Oops.

The house has turned into a chilli jungle again. I guess I should have realised that 35 little seedlings would turn into monster plants and take over the place.

These are the survivors:

Lombardo 6
Aji Colorado 6
Trinidad Scorpion 5
Hot Lemon 4
Early Jalapeno 4
Jalastar 3
Purple Serrano 3
Padron 2
Bailey Piquin 2

So... I have to 'get rid' of a few. I want to keep at least two of each, just in case.... But any takers on any of the others?

This year's chillies

I'm really late with my chillies and tomatoes this year, having sowed the majority of them just last week (13th March).

Slow progress....

There is however some sign of life :) Look what popped up during the night.

Maskotka bush tomato babies.

Luckily I had the foresight to at least sow a few chillies in January.

Two Jalastar & One (surviving of two sowed) Chiluacle Negro capsicum annums.

My list of chillies and toms sown this year is:

2 Jalastar capsicum annum - after the heat of last year, I'm opting for milder varieties this year
2 Chiluacle Negro capsicum annum - only one germinated
2 Aji Colorado capsicum baccatum - our absolute favourite to date
1 Cayenne capsicum annum - after the heat of last year, I'm opting for milder varieties this year
1 Trinidad Scorpion capsicum chinense - sown for a curious family member - hope it survives the postal journey :/

2 Maskotka bush tomatoes
2 Supersweet 100 F1 cherry tomatoes
2 'supermarket' baby plum tomatoes - shop-bought favourite that I saved some seeds from - experiment