Frugal Food: Fatalii Devilled Chicken Livers

Fatalii are my favourite chillies by a mile: very hot, sweet and with a citrus fruity tang.  A chilli with heat and flavour.  And such a pretty colour, too!

To get off to an early start, I always try to over-winter one or two chilli plants and, as it is quite slow to grow and come into production, fatalii is always one of them.  Mind you, as we have a freezer full of 2013 chillies I'm not to worried for 2014!

We don't eat a lot of meat and usually then only on weekends; whilst we do have an excellent butcher in the next village, his prices reflect the quality of his products, so it is a case of little and not very often.  So this Saturday the carnivorous option was going to be something with chicken livers.  A 300g tub cost under two Euros and as this recipe only needed half the pot, that left the rest to be frozen for another day.  

What is the Point of Green Zebra Tomatoes?

OK, so I've been growing them for three years now, three plants a year.  At the current rate, and with tomato seeds seemingly remaining viable for centuries, I should have enough seeds for at least another decade.  Oh joy.  Well, every cent I can save on tomato seeds means a cent or two I can spend on other things.  Aubergine seeds, perhaps, or maybe a real splurging out, and crossing the 1€ per litre barrier for everyday wine.  The seeds were free, a thank you gift for spending a pretty fortune through Graines-Baumaux, although after three years of growing the wretched things, I'm beginning to see why.  Beware the neighbour giving you free plants - lemon balm and mint have spread like Japanese Knotweed around my plot - and beware the seed company giving away free seeds.

 The problem?

Sweet Chilli Sauce

Now that the garlic and shallots have been harvested and the first chillies are fruiting - only a month late thanks to the non-event which was spring 2013 - it's time to make a first batch of sweet chilli sauce.  The first up are the fatalii, hardly unexpected as the plant was over-wintered indoors and then put back outside in May.

This sauce isn't a long-term keeper, not that it would survive long in this household anyway, but one to eat fresh.