It's All About Alberto

My beautiful boy has all grown up and has given me my first harvest of 2018... 6 ripe plump pods of ALBERTO'S LOCOTO Rocoto from Peru. The fruits were all hand-pollinated indoors in March so will be viable for saving for next year. Being a Capsicum Pubescens variety, they shouldn't cross-pollinate with other varieties anyway. They were started off early indoors but have been outside in a pot for 9 weeks, since mid-April.

There are plenty more fruit on the plant, some 15 or so still growing, and it's still covered in flowers. I'm hoping by harvesting these, the other flowers will fruit faster.

The chilli was surprisingly hot. No pith to worry about, and the seeds fall out easily. It seems hotter than a Cayenne or Jalapeño, maybe not as hot as a Habanero. It's a mainstay of Peruvian cooking so I will serve it with Prawns or Turkey later, perhaps as a Ceviche.

Here's a very tasty little lunch using a lemon juice and rocoto chilli marinade for the prawns, red onions served with fresh greens from the garden (purslane, thyme, mint, Mammoth and Thai basils, radish rat tails and broad beans) and potato slices and sweetcorn... So easy to put together. I'll have this again on a sunny lunchtime outdoors.