Anyone who has had the pleasure of dining in my company will know that I have an obscene passion for condiments. Lamb must have mint sauce, fish must have tartare sauce, fried eggs must have brown sauce (preferably Daddies but I'm pretty free and easy and will take what I can get!), lentil soup must also have brown sauce and tomato soup must have curry powder and worcestershire sauce (blame those last two on my wonderful Grandad, Aly Keir!). Everything has a condiment to go with it and if something contains vinegar it's pretty much a winner with me. A couple of months ago I discovered a local Fife company called Chillilicious who make chutneys as well as a gorgeous range of glassware. You can find their lovely stuff at http://www.chillilicious.co.uk/shop and their Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/Chillilicious.Products.UK
When I first started Pots of Love they very kindly sent me a sample of their red pepper chilli chutney. I can take or leave peppers, and as much as I love anything pickley and chutney-ish I wasn't going to be an easy one to bowl over since it had peppers in it. But my word, what a delicious surprise! The peppers were really plump and sweet and still nice and chunky, I hate it when chutneys are too fine so this was onto a winner. The vinegar wasn't too overpowering, the sugar wasn't too sweet, the chilli gave a lovely warmth to the chutney without it taking over completely. A beautifully balanced chutney that was heavenly on some oatcakes with a big slab of tangy Anster cheese. Gorgeous!
Not long after that, Chillilicious had a stall at a craft fair in Dunfermline. Alister and I toddled down and finally decided on a jar of cheeky chilli piccalilli and some chilli and coriander oatcakes. I LOVE piccalilli, always have done. I reckon I would pretty much eat anything if it was pickled first!
Here's my jar of yellow heaven:
Divine. I could eat this with everything, I am completely hooked. Actually I would be quite content eating it from the jar with a spoon! The veg was crisp and chunky, the sauce had a tangy mustardy vinegar hit that I adore, the chilli heat in the background gave it a little special something - it's just flaming LOVELY! I had it on the chilli and coriander oatcakes with some mature Lockerbie cheddar and it was phenomenal. The oatcakes leave a lovely warm glow in your mouth and are nice and rough, just the way I like them.
Unfortunately this jar of yellow heaven is now very much empty, but it's such a pretty jar that it now holds some paper clips on the desk in my little office!
I was planning to go and visit them during the recent Open Studios North Fife weekends to see where they grow their chillis (yes, all Fife grown!) and also their glass studio. Unfortunately far less interesting things got in the way of this and I never did make it to Ceres to see them. Next year, for sure!
So another fantastic Fife company making high quality products, how fantastic! And there are still lots more for me to discover, my mouth is watering already!
