Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Playing Horticulturalist

Fragrant kenanga (cananga)


Dwarf banana trees

Kalamansi limes

Mengkudu (Indian mulberry/noni). The fruit and leaves have medicinal properties.

Pitahaya bloom

Pitahaya

Unripe pitahaya (dragon fruit)

Bunga kantan (torch ginger bud) and kaduk (piper sarmentosum) leaves

Red & green bird's eye chillies at the backyard.

Bird's eye chillies are very hot with SHU of 50,000 – 100,000. For the uninitiated, SHU stands for Scoville Heat Units, which is used to rate the hotness or piquancy of chillies.

Unripe Habanero chillies of the capsicum family.

Habaneros are exceptionally hot with SHU of 100,000 – 350,000. SHU stands for Scoville Heat Units, which is used to rate the hotness or piquancy of chillies. A new method is HPLC (High–Performance Liquid Chromatography).

In comparison, bird's eye chillies are very hot with SHU of 50,000 – 100,000. Go figure how pungent habaneros are.

Habaneros thrive in hot weather. Overly moist soil and roots will produce bitter–tasting chillies, so the trees should be watered only when dry.
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2 comments:

  1. Joseph Pulikotil1:16 pm

    Hi SkyJuice:)

    Very informative post along with lovely photos.

    You have provided a lot of information about chillies. Do you use plenty of chillies in your cooking? In Andhra Pradesh people eat raw chillies. I am scared of chillies. I was told too much chillies can produce ulcers.

    Best wishes:)
    Joseph

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  2. SkyJuice4:54 pm

    Thank you, Joseph. :-)

    I do use chillies in my cooking, but not as much as some others especially the Thais. I'm not fond of eating raw chillies. Yes, we're told that too much of a good thing can be bad for us. Moderation is the key.

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