On Thu, 5 Jun 2003 14:11:09 +0100, NC wrote:

and it gets you ****ed - 2 for the price of one - I like your style !!


Pop a cayenne into a bottle of beer - it gets quite interesting towards the
bottom.
Tim.

Tim wrote:

On Thu, 05 Jun 2003 12:35:06 +0100, A.Malhotra wrote:



"John S. DeBoo" wrote:

NC wrote:

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 -

Here's how we preserve chile in NM. Once plucked from the plant, place
the
chiles in some water for maybe 20-30 minutes. Then put them onto the
BBQ grill
until the skins are fairly black or darkened over most of the surface.
Remove
from the BBQ and cover with wet towels. After 10 min or so, take them
out from
the towels 1 by 1 and peel using thin plastic throw-away gloves. Remove
the
seeds.

Its always seemed perverse to me to go to all the trouble of growing hot
chillies then throwing the best bits away! Anita

The seeds are just hard. The seeds aren't hot. But I know what you mean.

It's the pith that they're attached to - that's the hot bit. It's just that
when most TV cooks say "remove the seeds", you see them scraping the whole
insides out. I bet you 90% of so-called expert cooks don't even realise
that the seeds aren't hot.
If you don't believe me, take some out, remove all flesh and carefully wash
and dry them, then eat a couple - compare that with the heat of the pith.
Tim.

You maybe right but the operation "removing the seeds" always seems to mean
removing the seeds and the bits they're attached to ie the good parts.
Meanwhile there IS some relationship between the number of seeds and the
hotness of the chilli at least for some varieties. I used to do
chilli-eating competitions and always chose my chillis very carefully by
the feel of how many seeds they contained (of course this only works with
some kinds of chillis).
Anita

On Thu, 05 Jun 2003 16:14:59 +0100, A.Malhotra wrote:



Tim wrote:

On Thu, 05 Jun 2003 12:35:06 +0100, A.Malhotra
wrote:



"John S. DeBoo" wrote:

NC wrote:

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 -

Here's how we preserve chile in NM. Once plucked from the plant,
place
the
chiles in some water for maybe 20-30 minutes. Then put them onto the
BBQ grill
until the skins are fairly black or darkened over most of the
surface.
Remove
from the BBQ and cover with wet towels. After 10 min or so, take
them
out from
the towels 1 by 1 and peel using thin plastic throw-away gloves.
Remove
the
seeds.

Its always seemed perverse to me to go to all the trouble of growing
hot
chillies then throwing the best bits away! Anita

The seeds are just hard. The seeds aren't hot. But I know what you mean.

It's the pith that they're attached to - that's the hot bit. It's just
that
when most TV cooks say "remove the seeds", you see them scraping the
whole
insides out. I bet you 90% of so-called expert cooks don't even realise
that the seeds aren't hot.
If you don't believe me, take some out, remove all flesh and carefully
wash
and dry them, then eat a couple - compare that with the heat of the
pith.
Tim.

You maybe right but the operation "removing the seeds" always seems to
mean
removing the seeds and the bits they're attached to ie the good parts.
Meanwhile there IS some relationship between the number of seeds and the
hotness of the chilli at least for some varieties. I used to do
chilli-eating competitions and always chose my chillis very carefully by
the feel of how many seeds they contained (of course this only works with
some kinds of chillis). Anita

I agree, if the pod has been well fertilised, the plant is likely to
produce a lot of seed, and therefore lots of protective nutrient pith.
That's how I try and guess the heat of a chilli with my home-growns as
well, squeeze them to guess how many seeds they have, before cutting them
open. It does seem to be a reasonably relaible way of estimatinge the heat.
It doesn#t seem to work with habaneros though, I find. Anyway they're
always too hot. Tim.

Unless you don't remove the seeds - in whch case you'll get pithed (groan)
Art N2ERI
"NC" wrote in message
...
and it gets you ****ed - 2 for the price of one - I like your style !!

"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...
Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
"NC" writes:
| 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 ??

Take an old, clean Worcester sauce bottle, fill it loosely with
half-dried chillis (hot ones, of course) and top up with some dry,
sherry-like substance. "English Sherry - fino style" will do if
you can still get it :-)


I've made some interesting hot sauce using Chinese cooking wine (rice
wine,
quite salty, about 21% alcohol) and chopped habanero peppers. Nicely
different than vinegary sauces.

Best regards,
Bob

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
newsprp8im1ubwxhha1@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.