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It happens every year.
Enamored with names like 'Burmese
Looking-to-the-Sky' and 'Chinese 5-Color,' I purchase too many
seeds of too many varieties of hot peppers.
'Scotch Bonnet' and 'Fish
Pepper'--really, how can I resist?
I can justify the purchases and the
work in growing them—they're for my business, of course. But then I
begin planting our family garden, and suddenly I'm squeezing pepper
plants in every available extra bit of sunlight that I can find.
This year, 30 hot pepper plants
consumed the garden.
Our abundance of hot peppers would
make sense if we often cooked exotic, spicy meals. Occasionally, we
try interesting recipes. But the reality of life with two younger
children means that mealtime relies on tried-and-true basics. After
all, it's enough work to cook dinner after running the kids to horseback
riding lessons, soccer, chicken shows, or play dates. Preparing a
hot-and-spicy meal that no one will eat isn't worth the effort.
Still, the peppers overrun the garden.
Bags upon bags of hot peppers line the shelves in the refrigerator.
Every time I walk to the back garden, I return with a shirt full of
hot peppers.
Thankfully, college son and his girlfriend love hot peppers, so I always count on them to take a bag back
to school. They even made hot sauce a few weeks ago.
While I haven't attempted hot sauce
yet, I decided it's time to take charge of the plethora of peppers.
After all, I can't stand wasting perfectly good produce, especially
food that I've nurtured from seed.
It's sacrilegious.
Plus, earlier this year, I set a goal
to learn how to preserve food. Faced with my bounty, it was time to
live up to my self-imposed challenge.
In case you, too, possess an
overabundance of hot peppers, here are five ways to use your spicy loot:
First, PLEASE NOTE: Treat yourself to
plastic gloves before you begin working with hot peppers. Trust me.
There is nothing worse than cleaning and cutting hot peppers, then
later removing your contacts.
It. Is. Excruciating.
Also, handling lots of hot peppers,
particularly the seeds and membranes, can burn your skin.
Please, please—wear the gloves, even if you think they're dorky.
For all types of preparation, make sure
to wash the peppers and dry them well prior to use.
Dehydrate
Drying peppers in the oven is
simple—but quite honestly, it took a long time. An unexpectedly
long time. Much, much longer than any instructions mentioned. And our
house smelled rather...spicy, to put it nicely.
I used the setting on our oven for
dehydrating. Honestly, you don't need a special setting. Set your
oven to its lowest temperature. If you do not have a convection oven,
leave the oven door slightly open to allow air circulation.
Arrange peppers in a single layer on a
baking sheet.
Initially, I began the process with
whole peppers. However, because several varieties were not drying
well due to thick flesh, I cut them in half to help aid drying.
Most recommendations I found suggested
drying the peppers in the oven for 12 hours. After 12 hours, I halved
the peppers. Still, I found that the peppers required another 24
hours in the oven.
Dehydrating peppers in the oven is
extremely easy—but it definitely ties up your oven.
If you have a food dehydrator, a friend
recommended setting up the dehydrator outside to avoid the noxious
fumes that might make your children run away from home.
Once the peppers finish drying, let
them cool. You can either store the dried peppers whole or crushed.
Because I needed to save space, I chose to crush the peppers. Again,
be careful with the process.
I placed the dry, cool peppers in a
Ziploc bag...
...then crushed the peppers using a rolling pin. (It's very
therapeutic!) Even with the peppers contained in the bag, enough dust
and fumes escaped to cause a pretty nasty coughing fit. You might
consider wearing a mask.
While slightly hazardous, the end
result looked good—a nice jar of pepper flakes, ready to use.
Canning
I'm not sure why I find canning so
daunting. My first attempt at pickling peppers seems successful. I
suppose the true test comes this winter, when we open the jar. Still,
the process is simple.
From my newly purchased kitchen Bible,
Ball Blue Book of Preserving:
Pickling Hot Peppers
(Yields about 5 pints)
Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds banana peppers
1 pound jalapeño peppers
¼ pound serrano peppers
6 cups vinegar (I used white—cider
vinegar can affect the color of the peppers)
2 cups water
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Leave peppers whole or cut into 1-inch
pieces. Mix peppers together. Combine vinegar, water, and garlic in a
large sauce pan. Bring mix to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for
5 minutes. Remove garlic. Pack peppers into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch
headspace. Ladle hot liquid over peppers, leaving ¼ inch headspace.
Remove air bubbles. Adjust two piece cap and tighten on jar. Fill a
large canner or stock pot with water. Heat water until boiling, and
place jars into the pot, making sure the water covers the entire jar
(including the lid). Process for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to
cool.
Freezing
Honestly, if I possessed unlimited
freezer space, freezing would be my choice of preservation. It's so
simple. Wash peppers, dry peppers, put in freezer bag, remove excess
air, label with date, and store.
That's my kind of food preservation!
The drawback of freezing: lose your
electricity, lose your food. For people looking for food security,
freezing might not be the best option.
But it's so easy...
I'm torn. That's why I'm trying lots of
options this year.
Air drying
I've always loved gorgeous ristras
hanging in kitchens, with dried peppers within easy reach for use.
The key to making a ristra is to use peppers that can dry easily. You
don't want to use peppers with very thick flesh, as they tend to mold
instead of dry.
To make a simple ristra, thread fishing
line through a needle and make a large knot at the end of the line.
Push the needle through the stem base of the pepper, stringing the
pepper to the end of the line. Continue to add peppers, leaving
enough space between peppers for good air circulation. When you have
strung the peppers, tie off the line at the top. Hang the ristra to
dry, which may take several months.
Fresh
Of course, using the hot peppers fresh
from the garden is ideal. Here's an amazing
Thai dish for you to try from one of my favorite foodie blogs,
Orangette.
Do you have a favorite recipe for using
fresh hot peppers? If you do, would you please, PLEASE share it?
Because when I was in the garden
yesterday, I found literally hundreds of hot peppers, waiting to be
harvested.
Hundreds.
Next year, I promise—I will be strong
and resist all of those intriguing chile names.
Two plants, maybe three.
Four, tops.
(If you're in Upstate SC and need some
hot peppers, come on over!)
Good luck with your peppers—I'd love
to hear how you preserve your peppers.
Cheers!
XO ~
Julie
