In Maryland, USA, I had mixed results "air drying" chiles. I built a drying
rack using some screen wire and wood for a frame, and keep that on top of my
refrigerator. With that, the thinned skinned varieties like Thai Dragon
fared well, but thicker skinned varieties like Serrano still tended to mold.
So I experimented with drying or at least helping them along by putting them
on a tray in a toaster oven on very low heat. They dried well without
molding, but they also lost their pretty natural colors and became brown in
the process.
Then by accident I found a better way.
In season, I would sometimes use only a portion of a fresh pepper, and since
I had my drying tray handy, I began putting the leftover portion of those
peppers in my tray. I discovered that cut open, they dried much faster and
therefore without molding, and kept their nice color as well.
So now I halve or at least cut open my peppers, put them on the drying tray
in that form, and they dry without any help from the oven.
When a batch is dry, I put them in plastic zip-lock bags.
After they all dry, I grind them up with a small electric grinder made for
home use grinding coffee beans. After a couple of times doing this and
getting lots of hot pepper dust in the air, I decided (with a little
"encouragement" from my wife!) that I need to do that job outside.
I had been leaving the stems on until dry, but then it's extra work breaking
them off before the grinding, and even with protective gloves I end up with
pepper dust on my hands afterwards. This year I plan to cut off the stems
when I cut them to dry.
I haven't tried freezing them. I think I'll try that this year also.
"Tim" wrote in message
news
prp8im1ubwxhha1@localhost...
On Wed, 4 Jun 2003 09:12:46 +0100, Druss wrote:
"NC" wrote in message
...
Hi all,
My chilli plants are starting to bear some nice fruit, and by the looks
of
the number of buds, I'll be getting lots!!
As a result, I'm looking for ways in which to preserve them for later
use -
one of which is to make a hot sause of the type you get in the
supermarket -
peri peri for example.
Anyway, I've found one good looking recipe
(http://olliver.family.gen.nz/chilli_sauce.htm) but can anyone
recommend
any
others ??
One small drawback to the question - I dont know what kind of chillis I
have
!! One plant looks like birdseye, and the other looks like it will bear
larger rounder fruit - maybe habanero (!!!)
Any suggestions much appreciated.
Can they be dried, 'spose to improve their flavour/strength and after
all
it's pretty much what the mexicans do isnt' it ?
Duncan
Chillies dry very well. You can either sun dry them (in the UK? not a
chance), or *sowly* in a warm oven or a microwave on low. Beware - they'll
produce a cloud of pungent chilli-vapour in your kitchen that probably
contravenes most international strategic arms limitation treaties.
I also freeze a lot, they go soggy when thawed, like paprika does, but
they
can be cut reasonably eaisily while still frozen, then bunged in the pan.
You can pickle them, I find a slightly sweet pickling solution to be
perfect for most types, especialy Jalapeno,something like the sweet
pickled-onion liquid would do for a start. Just slit them and make sure
they're not bad inside, and to allow the solution to get everywhere. Do
wash the chillies carefully and only pickle the perfect ones.
Tim.