Guajillo Red Chili's & New Mexico & California Chili's

[Gary350]

After several cooking experements I have learned that Guajillo Red Chili's make the best Chili Powder for cooking a pot of chili with beans. So called Texas Chili with NO beans it NOT chili. I am going to plant 30 of these plants in my garden this year and stock up on seveeral pounds of chili powder. These are very MILD chili peppers with a LOT of chili flavor. It makes a dark color chili powder with excellent flavor.

Mild New Mexico Red Chili and Mild California Red Chili both make excellent very good Enchilada sauce. I assume everyone knows enchilada sauce containes no tomatoes. These are on the very mild side too with a slightly different chili flavor. Most spanish people here in AZ say, New Mexico Chili is what they use for enchilada sauce and some say California chili so I tried them both. I can not tell much difference. Both of these make a bright RED chili power with a good flavor. I think the California chili is slightly more spicy it is so close it is hard to tell.

Harvest the peppers after they turn RED color. Slice them down the middle to expose the inside to air so they dry out before they have a chance to mold or rot. I like to slice them twice to get 4 cuts so it opens up like a banana peal. They dry quick this way. A spoon works good to remove seeds. If you remove the seeds after slicing them open it speeds up the drying process. I let them dry for a month so they become crispy like potato chips they grind up very easy in the kitchen blender.

I learned a trick for growing all peppers including bell peppers. I put about 5" of peat moss on the surface of soil in the row where the peppers will be planted and till it in. I'm not sure what this does but the peppers love it. Plants grow much faster than normal 7 feet tall in 4 months.

[pepperhead212]

My favorite chili powder for Texas chili is a mix - one alone always seems sort of bland, sort of like making a mole with one variety. I usually just buy some of my favorites from Pendery's, as I have never really found a mix of home-grown as good as the ones I get there. Texas Red Dog, Chimayo, and Rancho are the three I combine, the latter being a well toasted, dark powder, which I use about 20% of.

Chimayo I have found seeds for (though the powder did not seem quite the same with home grown ones), but not the others. Any ideas?

[imafan26]

Good to know about the guajillo peppers. Someone gave me seeds for them, but I haven't grown them yet. I made the mistake of growing too many varieties I did not know at one time and since I did not know what they would look like it was hard to tell them apart especially when the tags got lost or they were labeled cilantro.

[Rairdog]

I will have to try some of those. I have been looking for a good pepper for chile, tacos and enchiladas forever. I can not grow peppers worth a crap here. the best I've done is in SWC with peat and mushroom compost. My ph is high. I wonder if the peat you tilled in lowered the ph to make the peppers thrive.