The spice gods gave me a bountiful harvest of reapers, dragon's breaths, and surprise mushrooms. My jalapeños, on the other hand, have not loved this hot summer quite so much. Now I've got a ton of super hots and no real plan for them. I only used 2 last week to make a big jar of salsa.
Any suggestions on what to do with dozens? Can I dry them and make salsa with the dried chilies later? I don't trust myself to can anything without it becoming Botox, so that's out.
by TheCureIsNotGoth
15 Comments
Pickle them by varietal, lasts forever and will add a nice tang along either the kick.
Drying them is a great option, so is freezing. Consider putting the dehydrator in the garage if the smell gets to you.
Or find a friend who is experienced at canning?
Commenting so I can piggy-back on this since I also have no idea lol.
I’m at the point where I think I’m going to vacuum-seal/freeze the fresh ones and hope for the best as far as quality and texture when they defrost. I know people make hot sauces but I don’t go thru an a major amount of that in a small household.
You should make hot sauce, I used the serious eats recipe and it was very simple and straightforward when I was in a similar predicament.
Last year I grew about 200 reapers. I destemmed then froze a bunch to throw into jerk sauce and salsa. It worked fine.
My big success was to destem, pop them in the dehydrator, and once dried through, blend in the vitamix. I made the most delicious, spicy chili powder we throw on popcorn, into stirfrys, chili etc.
Good luck!
Make chili powder:
Put on gloves, wash, rinse, cut in quarters remove seeds and stem, cut in little segments and spread evenly on a baking sheet. Bake for 4-6 hours at 150-175 F or 60-80 C. Stir every 30 minutes or so. If completely crisp, grind to a powder with a coffee grinder or food processor.
Dry them and grind them
Botox, lol!
It’s actually hard to get botulism from such things. Water bathing is easy. So is freezing (not ideal, just for the logistics of having to thaw before you use it), and so is adding enough acid to forget about botulism. Or, fermenting to produce said acid.
Chili powder can lose a lot of aroma. It’s arguably harder to make, unless you have a decent dehydrator — ovens don’t usually go low enough, and using the summer sun is, well, just not very reliable.
You can hot bottle it too, if making sauce. Copy pasting a reliable method; never failed me:
I would ferment some of them and make them into a hotsauce! Cut them in half or quarters and cover them in a mason jar filled with a 2-3% salt water brine for 3 weeks, with a cheap silicone air release lid = perfection.
After they’re done: You just add lime juice and sugar and blend them up with maybe half of that tasty salt water brine you fermented them in = a ridiculously tasty non-vinegar hot sauce that’ll keep in the fridge for a long long time and it only gets tastier over time.
There are lots of tutorials online and on YouTube if you haven’t done a ferment before. It’s so easy! That’s what I’d do.
Currently smoking and then drying a variety of chiles. I have also had a bountiful harvest but the hottest peppers I have are habaneros. I have also had very good luck with freezing peppers. Pickling peppers is also pretty easy if you are used to canning pickles. The vinegar used in canning keeps the PH at a place where you don’t need to be concerned about botulism as long as you get a good seal.
Get a starter going and fermented them to desired funk. Blend it up then can them. Then you can add it straight or turn into a hot sauce or whatever.
I have been in markets where they only sold small peppers in packages of 10+. I froze the ones I didn’t use right away. The frozen jalapeños, serranos, and habaneros were fine for recipes needing a whole or chopped chile.
Pepper jelly. So easy
Send me some!! Are those scotch bonnets?