Chillies

[caseylee]

I am looking to dry my chillies which is the easiet way to do this.  Also I have lovely jalepenos what is the best way to pickle these please
thank you
Linda

[caseylee]

[Garden Manager]

I am looking to dry my chillies which is the easiet way to do this.  Also I have lovely jalepenos what is the best way to pickle these please
thank you
Linda

In 2006 I grew chillis for the first time. Thanks to the long hot summer (remember one of those?) I had a bumper crop (Numex Twilight). Couldnt keep up with them fresh so ended up preserving many of them to use later. One method used was drying in the oven on a very low heat (too high and they cook/burn). Not sure how long so you need to keep checking - I suppose it must vary depending on the size of the chilli. Once fully dried you can either store them in an airtight jar to use whole orthey can be crushed up to make chilli powder.

We found the powder method was better if you want to use the chillis in a curry since it produces a much more even flavour than chillis that have only been chopped up.

Using these methods plus freezing, we saved enough chillis so as not to need to grow any last year (grew sweet peppers instead). Have grown them this year though but due to the awfull weather they have been far less prolific and are only now starting to ripen. So it just shows what an exceptional year 2006 was.

Hope this helps.

[Barnowl]

The thin walled types I just tie in a string with thread and hang them up in the kitchen

I wouldn't try to dry any chillies that are particularly fleshy.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I mince them up raw, cover them with vinegar, and keep them in the fridge.

[Mojo_77]

I wonder what chilli wine's like....

[saddad]

They do a chilli beer! I've drunk some...  :o

[Mojo_77]

I once had chilli vodka, but of course as it's illegal to distill I couldn't possibly suggest trying that... ;)

[littlebabybird]

i have had chilli chocolate  :-X

cooked with it in the end

lbb

[tim]

And, once again, Chilli Sherry. Indispensible in cooking!

[caseylee]

thank you for all the suggestions, I decided to buy some pickling viniger and have put my jalpeno chillies in there, and the green long ones are going to be frozen for cooking with, i might try hang some up to see how that goes

[dtw]

Why not make some chilli sauce.

I usually just de-seed them, chop them, fry with some onions, add a couple of tins of tomatoes (or fresh), boil for a bit, whizz in a food processor and pour into jars and sterilise.

The proportions of the ingredients are dependent on how hot you like it.

My chillies aren't even ripe yet. :-\

[dtw]

I don't think you can jsut put the jalapenos in viniegar, I think they need to be cooked in it first.
Otherwise they'll rot from the inside.

[caseylee]

i got the recipe from a friend who has done this before, i though they might needed to be blanched but supposly as long as its proper pickling viniger they will turn out lovley just like the ones you get at the kebab vans

[Tinkie_Bear]

I did a jar of pickeled jalapenos last year, washed then then sliced them into about .5cm slices then put them in white pickelling vinegar.  They have kept in my fridge for the last year and hubby still has them on pizzas with no ill effects!

I dried loads of chillies last year, I used a needle and sewing cotton and went through the stems making a string of them - not too close together, then stitched this to the bottom of my kitchen blind so they got the light and breeze from the window and the heat from the radiator below (when it was on)  They have all dried perfectly, even some of the fatter walled ones.  I might just have been lucky though!

Enjoy your harvest.

Helen x

[Bean_Queen]

to dry chillies, you just need to sew them together with ordinary sewing thread & needle.  Hang them somewhere dry not damp (airing cupboard?).

the heat intensifies in dried chillies :)