What to do with an assortment of hot peppers

[applestar]

I made my "Sriracha" sauce. I had three recipes to draw from and I took a "good look at" the bottle of Sriracha at Trader Joes on Wedesday.

But in the end, I ended up with a thoroughly immersion blended un-strained thick "sauce", except I didn't boil it. I was thinking ai wanted to keep the live culture.

I made a few changes -- I can't seem to help myself -- I used 1/4 cup date sugar and used two garlic cloves and two myoga flower buds. Myoga is hardy Japanese ginger and you harvest the flower buds that grow underground BEFORE the delicate pale yellow flowers emerge from the ground. I only have a newly planted small patch and had about a dozen flower buds to harvest this fall (I did notice I missed three of them when they bloomed). I used rice vinegar based on a friend's recommendation.

Again, I ended up practically licking up what was left in the mixing container and swiping off the outside of the blender with my finger. So yummy!

I'll post photos and the actual peppers that went into this later, but I did intend this one to be more hot than any of the others since I wanted to give some to my brother. I made it with the contents of the square middle jar in the photos above.

I also made something called "Cowboy Candy" -- candied jalapeño peppers, except I didn't have enough jalapeños so I used an assortment of peppers. The recipe recommends waiting two weeks before opening the jars and starting to eat them, so they should be ready to eat on Monday.

[pepperhead212]

I freeze most of my peppers at this time of year (I am not fond of excessive vinegar in pepper sauces, and I have not been able to perfect lacto-fermenting them). I dry them earlier in the season, then in Oct. I pick the ripe ones and freeze them, then just before it is ready to freeze out there, I pull all of the full sized green ones off the plants, and freeze those. They get a little mushy, esp. the thick fleshed ones, but are still very good in recipes. I keep a large jar of red Thai peppers, as well as a bunch of green peppers of different sizes, some habanero peppers, and some Hanoi Markets and Fresnos, and anything I have a lot of I freeze extras in Foodsaver bags.

One thing I have found that helps peppers keep better when freezing is to leave the stems on. This keeps the moisture from seeping out though the hole formed when snapping the stem off. I just cut them back to about 1/4" when I harvest.

And come spring, I have found that excess thin fleshed peppers, like red Thais, still dry OK, after being frozen all winter!

[imafan26]

good tip. I leave the stems on because it takes so much time to clean them, but I am glad to know it helps them to keep. The red ones can be dried. They get even hotter but also sweeter when dried. The others I usually make hot pepper sauce or I freeze, but mostly I end up giving them away. My friend gave me his hot pepper sauce recipe years ago, but it doesn't taste the same as when he makes it. One time he called me from San Francisco because he forgot the recipe.

It is very simple
Just pack a jar full of cleaned and chopped or minced peppers. This is a job for the food processor.
Add a few cloves of minced garlic, depends on how much you like and the size of the jar.
Fill the jar with fish sauce to cover the peppers
1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
I usually use 8 oz jars.
Keep in refrigerator. Add hot pepper sauce to dishes and can be used as a condiment.

[pepperhead212]

good tip. I leave the stems on because it takes so much time to clean them, but I am glad to know it helps them to keep. The red ones can be dried. They get even hotter but also sweeter when dried. The others I usually make hot pepper sauce or I freeze, but mostly I end up giving them away. My friend gave me his hot pepper sauce recipe years ago, but it doesn't taste the same as when he makes it. One time he called me from San Francisco because he forgot the recipe.

It is very simple
Just pack a jar full of cleaned and chopped or minced peppers. This is a job for the food processor.
Add a few cloves of minced garlic, depends on how much you like and the size of the jar.
Fill the jar with fish sauce to cover the peppers
1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
I usually use 8 oz jars.
Keep in refrigerator. Add hot pepper sauce to dishes and can be used as a condiment.

I always keep a bottle of nam pla prik in the fridge. This is a simplified version of the fish sauce you describe here (which sounds delicious!) - it is just 1/2 c thinly sliced Thai peppers (mostly red, but some green, esp. at this time of year) and 1 c fish sauce. After using about 3/4 of the fish sauce, I top it off once, then make another batch with new chilis when that is gone. Great condiment for many foods, not just Thai!

[applestar]

I started a small batch (a pint jar) to make fermented pepper sauce. Diced dried/semi dried hot peppers and fresh sweet peppers. All intensely red. I'll post a picture once they start bubbling. For this one, I added some honey and garlic, a bit of wine yeast, a bit of fresh salsa liquid....

[HoneyBerry]

I'd rather dehydrate them thsn freeze them. I've never done it myself, but sometimes I buy them dehydrated.

[HoneyBerry]

Pickled hot peppers are good. If you have time to do the canning.

[applestar]

I like freezing thick walled ones. Easy to pull out chop and add to recipes. But this year, I'm hoping to dehydrate and Grind to make paprika.

[applestar]

Only in the sun for the photo op. I usually keep it on the kitchen counter where no sunshine reaches.

I'm still waiting on my really hot peppers to ripen. For this one, I used dehydrated Fish and Bolivian Rainbow, fresh Jalapeño, my not quite Scotch Bonnet, and a Takanotsume. Then added Tollis Sweet Italian, what I think may be Pimento, and Mini Paprika Red. Generous amount of minced garlic. Sea salt, Himalayan Pink, drizzle of honey and maple syrup, last of my Sriracha, drained liquid from fresh salsa, a splash of orange juice, and a sprinkle of wine yeast.

[pepperhead212]

I have tried to ferment peppers, to make a version of the Szechwan staple Chili Paste With Garlic, but I haven't been able to get it as good as the best brands I have used. I think it just needed much longer fermentation. Maybe adding that wine yeast will help...maybe I'll try that.

[Rairdog]

These are some of the super hot powders I made this past week.


I have a freezer full of peppers and 4 quarts of hot sauce.

I just made a quart of the nam pla prik since I have a big bottle of fish sauce going to waste. I used all red serrano's, pepperocini's, some asian's, a super and sweets. Thanks for the idea!

I also have a fridge full of fermented pepperoncini/serrano and refrigerator pickled sweet serrano's.

I am about to pick some supers to experiment with fermented hot sauce. Then call it quits. Peppered out!

[applestar]

I love those bright yellow ones!

Pepperhead212, I think this was a Korean cooking show, but they had an episode in which they showed a tiny white haired (tied in a knot at nape of neck) eldery woman walking among her giant fermenting jars of chilli paste in full sun. The jars were so big she could have climbed right in. And when she opened a jar, the paste was such a brilliant red orange they LOOKED hot.

[Rairdog]

Picked another batch today


Made a mash for fermenting with the Aji Limon and Beni Highlands....the two bright yellows on right...for AS


I also added red bell so it (should come out a light orange), onion, garlic, carrots and ground ginger. I didn't have any hooch on the sourdough so I used a little diakon/cabbage sauerkraut I made a few month ago for a kicker. Added that to 1 cup warm water and 1 Tbs sea salt to top it off and submerge.

[imafan26]

Sounds amazing. What do you put it on?
I am a wimp I only use chili pepper water which is more water, some salt, garlic and a couple of hawaiian peppers and that can go on eggs, stew and rice. I usually prefer fenad1ne on meat. I also like hot pepper jelly slathered on BBQ chicken.

[applestar]

Thanks @rairdog! That looks and sounds yum! I'll have try putting some of those ingredients in my next one, especially ginger.

I have Hot Lemon but not Aji Limon which I believe is different although they look alike.

@imafan, last fall DH had an office gathering to which he took a small jar of Cowboy Candy (except I made it with assortment of hot peppers) and it was a hit. DH likes to eat it on Ritz type cracker with cream cheese.

I lost a bunch of overwintered hots due to exceptionally cold winter, so I am again harvesting ripe sweets while hots are still green. I'll have to freeze them and make things like hot pepper jelly, etc. later.

[Rairdog]

Sounds amazing. What do you put it on?
I am a wimp I only use chili pepper water which is more water, some salt, garlic and a couple of hawaiian peppers and that can go on eggs, stew and rice. I usually prefer fenad1ne on meat. I also like hot pepper jelly slathered on BBQ chicken.

It should be about the level of a Habanero sauce or less. I put hot sauce on about everything. The Aji and Beni are slightly less than Habs in heat. I could eat a whole one but it would be painful. Most of the sauces I make are not unbearable if I get a mouthful. It's like bitting into a peppercorn or maybe a little more. They really change the flavors with the fruity heat.

This mash will be cooked down and strained after a month or so of fermenting. It will have the consistency of Tabasco or a little thicker and a little more heat.

@ AS...A lot of people make their initial mash with just peppers and sometimes veggies/fruit. Then they add garlic, onion, ginger, coriander(mostly root or seed spices) etc in the final cook to their tastes. The garlic, onion, carrot seems to be an ole standby for most. They add the extra sugars to kick in the fermentaion when you use a lower salt percentage. All my fermented dills, pepperocini's kraut, kimchi etc...have been pretty salty. I am trying this recipe to lower the salt.

[JayPoc]

Is there some magic ratio of vinegar to peppers that I need to observe in making hot sauce? I'm not planning on putting anything up for long term storage....just something that will keep a few months in the fridge. I want to play around with a few different flavors, and don't want to poison myself. I know commercial hot sauce pretty much lasts forever and doesn't even require refrigeration.

[applestar]

The fermented pepper recipes I've been looking at generally use 1/2 as much vinegar as the volume of puréed peppers and liquid after fermenting.

[JayPoc]

The fermented pepper recipes I've been looking at generally use 1/2 as much vinegar as the volume of puréed peppers and liquid after fermenting.

I'm not quite adventurous enough to try fermenting. It's funny. I make my own beer, and have no problem whatsoever with that. Just a little too squeamish for trying my own bacterial fermentation. But then, I don't eat yogurt, sour cream, etc...etiher.

[Rairdog]

It's just like beer. Once that smell goes bad your done. I got beer goin, mead and peppers as we speak.

Picked a good batch today. I still have a bunch of EOB Mustard to pick and some other yellows.


Peppers atcha!

[thefuriousone]

I am a little late to this party, but Applestar those preserves look awesome! And Rairdog those peppers look tasty! I am probably going to make a simple pepper sauce with my harvest- vinegar, water and peppers.

[applestar]

Yep. I'm going to process some more into sauce. This time I think I'll make some that can be hot water bath'd to keep in the pantry and maybe give away if they turn out good.

[Stefano]

These are my cayenne peppers harvested this year. There are more than 300. I am thinking to dehydrate and put them in olive oil in order to make spicy oil to be added on pasta, pizza and other foods

[imafan26]

I started using pepper flakes from dried peppers on Pizza and in Spaghetti sauce and stew.

[gumbo2176]

One of my favorite ways to keep my excess of peppers, besides drying them, is to make hot sauces with them. As a youth growing up in New Orleans, every time you went to a local mom and pop restaurant you would find a shaker bottle of vinegar with hot peppers in it to kick it up a notch and that usually sat next to the bottles of Tabasco and Crystal Hot Sauce for patrons to use. You don't see the bottles of pickled peppers in vinegar much anymore, so I make that for myself to use at home on salads or for a little kick on sandwiches. I also love to make my own hot sauces with my hotter varieties of peppers and have ventured into using them in pepper jellies as well.

Here's my favorite recipe for pepper sauce and this will make about a pint jar of HOT sauce:

30 Habanero peppers with stems and green stem end removed. Do not remove seeds or pith.
1 medium onion coarse chopped
4-5 cloves garlic whole---skin removed
1 1/2 cups vinegar of your choice. I use basic white distilled vinegar
1/4 cup salt
1 tbs. Mustard Powder

Blend very well until all ingredients are uniform in size and it is in puree' form.

Place the mixture in a stainless steel pot and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes stirring often so nothing sticks. Have your canning jars ready, pour the sauce in the jars, clean any spill off the tops of the jars and tighten the lids. Allow to cool and this will make the jars form a vacuum. It is ready to use from this point on.

I've made gallons of this stuff over the past several years and am constantly being asked if I have extra by the folks I've given some to. It is a hit, but it is HOT and not for the person that finds Tabasco type sauces not to their liking.

I've used this recipe for Ghost peppers, Trinidad Scorpion Butch T's, Habanero and Serrano. I don't even make pepper sauces with jalapeno or similar peppers now.

Like I mentioned, I also use the hotter peppers for pepper jelly and that too is fast becoming a hit with family and friends. It is a bit hotter than normal pepper jelly, but it can be controlled by simply using less hot peppers than normal.

[Stefano]

Thank you Gumbo2176 for your recipe. In the next days I'm going to try make hot pepper sauce with some of my peppers inspired from your recipe!!
I hope that will be good!

[gumbo2176]

Thank you Gumbo2176 for your recipe. In the next days I'm going to try make hot pepper sauce with some of my peppers inspired from your recipe!!
I hope that will be good!

It is best if you use a non-porous pot for this and that is why I use a stainless steel one. I've used a Calaphon pot which is the coated aluminum and I made the mistake of only washing it when done. The next time I used the pot, my food came out very pepper hot because apparently a washing wasn't a good enough cleaning.

If you use one of those type pots be sure to fill it and bring the water to a boil and do this a couple times to eliminate the pepper heat.

[Stefano]

Thank you for the tip! I will use a stainless pot and then I'll clean it very well by boiling. Otherwise another solution could be to use the pot for cook the food that intentionally you want spicy. For example together to water it could be added pasta and I cook it in order to obtain spicy pasta without add hot pepper!