Chilli Workshop at May Street Larder
My friend and I attended the Chilli Workshop at May Street Larder on Thursday the 13th of April. It was a really informative workshop and we went home with a jar of pickled jalapeno, Caribbean chilli, Sriracha and kimchi!
The workshop was run by the Executive Chef of May Street Larder and Bib & Tucker, Scott Bridger. He shared some stories about his experiences working at different places around the world as well as his love for chilli. He also grew different types of chilli trees at his house. Chilli trees are always so beautiful and the peri-peri chilli tree can certainly become a substitute for a mini Christmas tree sans the Christmas baubles.
The workshop started with an introduction to the different types of chilli. Chef Scott mentioned that many years ago we could only find 2-3 types of chillies and I really agreed with what he said. I still remember walking into the Asian grocery shops and was disappointed that they only had two types of chillies available on the shelves (usually the bird eye chillies and the big red one). That night we took a close look and even tried some slices of a couple of exotic chillies (yes, the red Reaper and yellow Fatali).
Make your own sriracha! The sriracha was so yum and very easy to make.
The famous Caribbean chilli sauce, made from a combination of 3 exotic chillies.
The workshop was very informative because we got a booklet filled with chilli recipes to create sauces that May St Larder actually sell at the premise! Yes, I was so excited to get my hands on the Caribbean chilli sauce recipe (yum yum)! At a game night organised by my friends (which also happened on the same night), the 6 of us finished almost half a jar of the sauce with our KFC chicken...
Chef Scott ended the night by cooking us a hearty meal of delicious pan fried Fremantle Octopus. The workshop ran a bit late but we really enjoyed it especially because it was only catered to a small group.
The Chilli Workshop is part of a small group workshop series that May Street Larder runs in 2017. Please click here to see other workshops on offer such as smoking and curing, fermented food, kombucha and probiotic drinks. We really enjoyed our workshop and found it easy to ask any question to Chef Scott. He was also very passionate about what he taught and that spirit really transferred to all of the members of our small group workshop.