Guindilla - the Spanish word on a jar of these. They have them here. Can’t remember what they’re called in FR.
But I do assure you that 3 - 4 of these guys will give you all the bite you can cope with. Each of those is about 10mm L. Wimps don’t use the seeds. I haven’t tried them without the seeds. Maybe the husks don’t taste of anything, like the so-called picante chillies in Carre4. To prove it I ate a whole one in front of the staffer who took me to where they were hiding [out of shame, I’d say]. “Rien de tout” was my comment.
Interesting about the treatment of the spices in ‘curry’. Some years ago an Indian customer of Tesco contacted the company and told them they were putting the spices in one of the ‘curries’ into it in the wrong order.
In total disbelief, Tesco contacted the woaman and challenged her to a tasting of the Tesco version and her version, with the spices added in a different order. She picked her version every time. Tesco modified their recipe.
They’re still crap, tho’
I was taken out for dinner to an ‘Indian’ restaurant in Sheffield. There was a large Asian party dining - a good sign.
My friend asked if a particular lamb dish was being made for the party. It was and she ordered it for herself. Foolishly I ordered a lamb dish from the menu.
When we were served, once I’d had some of my lamb, my friend offered me a taste of hers. What! How so different?! Compared to hers, my lamb was bland and tasteless. Like the FR chillies “rien de tout”.
I did have a go at authentic Indian cooking. My house in Bristol was 5 ins walk from an Asian shop/wholesale supplier to all the Asian restaurants in Brsl. Their ‘onion lorry’ was such a feature, parked on the bus stop outside being loaded with hundreds of kilos of onions every day, that the bus stop was moved!
The smell of spices was sensational. There was not an ingredient for South Asian cuisine that they did not have. But doing these recipes just for myself - eventually I lost interest and went back to fresh but fast.
Surely, like musicians, writers and artists, a real butcher never retires. He just doesn’t do it in a shop any more. He still knows where to get whatever you want.
Curry that’s even less authentic than at The Ganges or Star of India in every UK town? The monthly ‘Curry Lunch’ in a British Army/RAF officers’ mess.
I suppose the format of this meal was inherited from days of The Raj, brought back to UK, dished up in the Mess - regiments at a big base like Catterick or Aldershot would stagger their Sundays so’s not to clash.
But the endless bowls of ground coconut, sliced banana, chopped tomato, raisins and sultanas, chopped h/b egg, mango chutney, diced cucumber, sliced red onions - peanuts! - I almost forgot the peanuts! … and somewhere amongst the regimental silver: perhaps a team of 6 towing a 13lb’er, tearing forever down the enormous mahogany table, if you’re in an R.H.A. mess - are the tureens of chicken and lamb ‘curries’, tasting of “rein du tout”.
But it’s a tradition that the Army and R.A.F. are very fond of. I dare say the R.N., too but I’ve never been to one of theirs.
Steak haché - cook it as it is or, much better, use it as a base for American/Italian meatballs. I also use duck sausage to make duckballs, sorry, boulettes de canard.
I grow herbs and order most whole grain spices online, but since Brexit some UK based retailers of Middle Eastern spices no longer ship to the EU. However recently found a place inJordan that ships all the whole grain spices and from where I got 500gms of the compound spice, khabseh. A friend who lived in Dubai for many years said it had the definitve scent of the local spice bazaar. But otherwise, I use the excellent (https://www.mesepices.com/)
Should add that unfortunately, the Jordanian site appears to be Kiev based!
Maybe it depends where you are, I buy lots of dried green peppercorns from them because in the UK I preferred them to black ones (green ones are less acrid) but they also sell things like dried lemons and jalopeno flakes that just aren’t available locally.
In French salad dressing (as I was taught nearly forty years ago by a copine from Marseilles) one crushes the fresh peppercorns with the tines of a fork, whose points are then used to puree the garlic, before adding the mustard, vinegar,salt and oil.
But of course there’s endless variations - I use chilli oil in many marinades and dressings, which is probably anaethema to most French people.
