Ridgerunner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2009
- Messages
- 8,235
- Reaction score
- 10,088
- Points
- 397
- Location
- Southeast Louisiana Zone 9A
Broke Down Ranch's post of that fabulous pepper harvest got me to thinking. How do others store peppers. I'll start it off.
Here is my version of the traditional tie them on a string and hang to dry. These are Habeneros and Anaheim Chilis from last year, hanging in my garage. I first dried them in a well-ventilated shed.
I have taken Habeneros, dried them in a dehydrator (split them open so they dry a lot faster), then put them in a blender to make a powder. I've also ground the string dried ones in the blender. The dehydrator ones make a prettier colored powder but both work.
With sweets and anaheims chilies, we've grilled them til they blister, take the skin off, seed them and cut them into strips, freeze them on waxed paper on a cookie sheet, then store them in a ziploc type bag. One of our favorite uses for these is pizza. The grilling gives them a good flavor. If you freeze them on the waxed paper first, you can just grab a few instead of having a frozen lump.
And I've taken fresh sweet peppers, chopped them, frozen them on waxed paper on a cookie sheet, and stored them in the ziploc type bags. These are only good for cooking, not fresh eating, but a lot of times when I'm sauteing onions and garlic for certain recipes, I'll throw in a handful of these. A typical use is on a version of Hattie's recipe for cooked greens. Boil the greens. Meanwhile saute onions, garlic and green peppers. I usually add paprika but suite your own tastes. Add the greens and stir. Salt and pepper to taste.
Here is my version of the traditional tie them on a string and hang to dry. These are Habeneros and Anaheim Chilis from last year, hanging in my garage. I first dried them in a well-ventilated shed.
I have taken Habeneros, dried them in a dehydrator (split them open so they dry a lot faster), then put them in a blender to make a powder. I've also ground the string dried ones in the blender. The dehydrator ones make a prettier colored powder but both work.
With sweets and anaheims chilies, we've grilled them til they blister, take the skin off, seed them and cut them into strips, freeze them on waxed paper on a cookie sheet, then store them in a ziploc type bag. One of our favorite uses for these is pizza. The grilling gives them a good flavor. If you freeze them on the waxed paper first, you can just grab a few instead of having a frozen lump.
And I've taken fresh sweet peppers, chopped them, frozen them on waxed paper on a cookie sheet, and stored them in the ziploc type bags. These are only good for cooking, not fresh eating, but a lot of times when I'm sauteing onions and garlic for certain recipes, I'll throw in a handful of these. A typical use is on a version of Hattie's recipe for cooked greens. Boil the greens. Meanwhile saute onions, garlic and green peppers. I usually add paprika but suite your own tastes. Add the greens and stir. Salt and pepper to taste.
I hope to do some dried tomatoes too. OMG, if I can dry some of my yummy mater's to go with the green chile's - does it even get any better than that?!
