pepperhead212
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Re: 2017 - what peppers are you growing?

JayPoc wrote:Nice Pepperhead. Do you sell these...or sell products made with these? I cook with peppers nearly every day and I couldn't use all those peppers in 3 life times....
I give away a lot of them, when I get huge harvests, like this. But I eat a lot of them - not a day goes by that I don't eat something with peppers in it. I use more Thai peppers than anything, as they dry well, and the red and greens freeze well, and they have the best flavor - many similar peppers are just hot, with little flavor. And here's another favorite pepper of mine, that I use only fresh - Hanoi Market. It has a unique flavor in the ripe peppers, which I had only found in the Bulgarian Carrot - another orange chili. I have grown countless orange chilis through the years, trying to find one with that Bulgarian Carrot flavor, but that would grow better, and the Hanoi Market is the only one that had the flavor. And it is an indeterminate, while the BC is determinate, and smaller. Here's a harvest from a previous year (only got about a pint, so far this year, but they are loaded!):
Image009 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

These are delicious in salsas, guacamole, and many Thai and Vietnamese dip sauces. The green ones aren't special, and the dried ones also weren't anything great, so I freeze all of them.

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pepperhead212 wrote:
JayPoc wrote:Nice Pepperhead. Do you sell these...or sell products made with these? I cook with peppers nearly every day and I couldn't use all those peppers in 3 life times....
I give away a lot of them, when I get huge harvests, like this. But I eat a lot of them - not a day goes by that I don't eat something with peppers in it. I use more Thai peppers than anything, as they dry well, and the red and greens freeze well, and they have the best flavor - many similar peppers are just hot, with little flavor. And here's another favorite pepper of mine, that I use only fresh - Hanoi Market. It has a unique flavor in the ripe peppers, which I had only found in the Bulgarian Carrot - another orange chili. I have grown countless orange chilis through the years, trying to find one with that Bulgarian Carrot flavor, but that would grow better, and the Hanoi Market is the only one that had the flavor. And it is an indeterminate, while the BC is determinate, and smaller. Here's a harvest from a previous year (only got about a pint, so far this year, but they are loaded!):
Image009 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

These are delicious in salsas, guacamole, and many Thai and Vietnamese dip sauces. The green ones aren't special, and the dried ones also weren't anything great, so I freeze all of them.
So you eat peppers every day. Even so, it sure looks like you'd have to be eating a diet largely based on peppers if you wanted to even remotely dent your fine harvest. So apart from freezing, what else do you recommend re other ways to use them? What are the top 3-4 ways in which you use up a substantial quantity of peppers at one time? I ask because I'm getting close to needing something similar. Thx!

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[quote="KitchenGardener
So you eat peppers every day. Even so, it sure looks like you'd have to be eating a diet largely based on peppers if you wanted to even remotely dent your fine harvest. So apart from freezing, what else do you recommend re other ways to use them? What are the top 3-4 ways in which you use up a substantial quantity of peppers at one time? I ask because I'm getting close to needing something similar. Thx![/quote]


I've had years where my harvest was very extensive between Habanero, Butch T Trinidad Scorpions, Ghost Peppers and others not so high on the heat scale. I use many of them to make my own brand of hot sauces, also some used in pepper jellies, pickled peppers, dried peppers to make into flakes and simply diced up and put into something I'm cooking.

I also give a lot of them away to folks that I know can handle the heat and they are much appreciated by them.

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gumbo2176 wrote:[quote="KitchenGardener
So you eat peppers every day. Even so, it sure looks like you'd have to be eating a diet largely based on peppers if you wanted to even remotely dent your fine harvest. So apart from freezing, what else do you recommend re other ways to use them? What are the top 3-4 ways in which you use up a substantial quantity of peppers at one time? I ask because I'm getting close to needing something similar. Thx!

I've had years where my harvest was very extensive between Habanero, Butch T Trinidad Scorpions, Ghost Peppers and others not so high on the heat scale. I use many of them to make my own brand of hot sauces, also some used in pepper jellies, pickled peppers, dried peppers to make into flakes and simply diced up and put into something I'm cooking.

I also give a lot of them away to folks that I know can handle the heat and they are much appreciated by them.[/quote]

So...recipes or I discount your whole post, lol! Have members been posting recipes to the recipe forum? I'll go look, but if you all have not give us ideas on what to do with our peppers, I may have to send you my excess. :lol:

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KitchenGardener wrote:
gumbo2176 wrote:[quote="KitchenGardener
So you eat peppers every day. Even so, it sure looks like you'd have to be eating a diet largely based on peppers if you wanted to even remotely dent your fine harvest. So apart from freezing, what else do you recommend re other ways to use them? What are the top 3-4 ways in which you use up a substantial quantity of peppers at one time? I ask because I'm getting close to needing something similar. Thx!

I've had years where my harvest was very extensive between Habanero, Butch T Trinidad Scorpions, Ghost Peppers and others not so high on the heat scale. I use many of them to make my own brand of hot sauces, also some used in pepper jellies, pickled peppers, dried peppers to make into flakes and simply diced up and put into something I'm cooking.

I also give a lot of them away to folks that I know can handle the heat and they are much appreciated by them.
So...recipes or I discount your whole post, lol! Have members been posting recipes to the recipe forum? I'll go look, but if you all have not give us ideas on what to do with our peppers, I may have to send you my excess. :lol:[/quote]


I have posted recipes on here before and I do believe I've also posted mine for jellies and hot sauces. If a search doesn't turn up something, PM me and I'll forward them to you.

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Check out the post "Preserving Peppers in small quantities" in this section for a brief rundown on how I make the hot pepper sauce. I don't give quantities all that specific in it since I usually fly by the seat of my pants when making it depending on how many peppers I have at the time.

pepperhead212
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Like with tomatoes, some years I don't have a huge harvest of peppers, esp. when I am trying new ones which just don't hack it. Still, now that I am using those SIPs, at least for the habaneros, I am going to have reduce the numbers of plants. BUT, there's always that possibility of a plant here or there getting destroyed, like what happened with the chocolate hab in the spring, and certain varieties I simply HAVE TO HAVE, so I plant extras!

I don't have enough land to grow enough to make hot sauce for sale, even though this looks like a lot of peppers!

And one of those that I have to have is that Hanoi Market, which I just harvested today - all these from just two plants!
ImageDSCF0309 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Today I pulled all of the stems off of those habs, halved the chocloate ones, and put them in my dehydrator, on its lowest heat. I also took two small vacuum pacs of chocolate habs from last season out of the freezer, dumped them on another shelf of the dehydrator, and when those are dry, I'll take those and crumble them, and use them as a rabbit repellent, tossing them under my shed, and other places the rabbits run through. They really don't like these! I just make sure it's not anywhere I will get into them!

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gumbo2176 wrote: So...recipes or I discount your whole post, lol! Have members been posting recipes to the recipe forum? I'll go look, but if you all have not give us ideas on what to do with our peppers, I may have to send you my excess. :lol:

I have posted recipes on here before and I do believe I've also posted mine for jellies and hot sauces. If a search doesn't turn up something, PM me and I'll forward them to you.[/quote]

To give you an idea of the many recipes I make with chilis, here are some indexes from an app that I put all of my favorite recipes on. Ignore all those numbers - those aren't heat levels, but I think the order they were input. Not all have chilis, but many do, esp. in the Thai and Mexican chapters! The Indian cooking I haven't been into long enough to get a lot of my favorite recipes tweaked and entered - only 7, so far, but there are many hot ones there!

Thai and SE Asian

Chicken Wings in Caramel Ginger Sauce (Vietnamese) 31
Chicken With Cashews 11
Chiles in Fish Sauce - Nam Pla Prik 44
Chiles in vinegar sauce - Prik Dong Nam Som 5
Chili Dipping Sauce - Nam Pla Prik Kee Nu 15
Cilantro Pesto 1 - Rahk Pahk Chee 6
Cilantro Pesto 2 16
Country Style Tomato Sauce with Ground Meat 2
Curried Peanut Satay Sauce 36
Curried Peanut Satay Sauce II 24
Curry Paste, Classic Red 47
Curry Paste, Panang 35
Curry Paste, Green (I) 28
Curry Paste, Green (II concentrated) 48
Curry Paste, Green (II concentrated) x 1.5 26
Curry Paste, Masaman 34
Curry, Basic Recipe 43
Curry, Fish Sauté with Yellow 10
Curry, Panang Beef 9
Drunken Pasta 41
Eggplant and Bell Peppers in Nam Prik Pao 8
Hot and Sour Lemongrass Shrimp 13
Mahogany Fire Noodles 37
Malaysian Spiced Pineapple Pickle 18
Nam Prik Pao - Roasted chili paste 33
Nuoc Cham - Vietnamese Table Sauce 42
Pad Thai 12
Peanut Snack, with Kaffir Lime Leaves, Lemingrass, and Chili 30
Pho - Rice Noodle Soup 19
Scallop Salad 20
Shan Eggplant - Makeva Oop 45
Shrimp in Nam Prik Pao 29
Som Tum - Green Papaya Salad (One serving) 39
Som Tum - Green Papaya Salad (I) 38
Spicy Gingered Asian Slaw 46
Spicy Thai Mussels and/or Clams 3
Steamed Eggs 17
Steamed Meatloaf 23
Sweet and Spicy Dipping Sauce - Nahm Jeem Gratiem 1
Thai Cucumber Salad 25
Thai Lemongrass Lemonaide 27
Thai Mussels in Oyster Sauce 4
Thai Tea 7
Tom Kha Gai - Chicken and Coconut Soup 40


Tom Yum Kung - Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup 22
Vietnamese Chicken Salad w/ Rao Ram - Go Xe Phai 21
Vietnamese Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup 14
Yum Woon Sen - meat, poultry, seafood salad 32

Mexican

Beef in Morita Sauce 15
Chicken Livers in Chipotle Sauce 16
Chili - Reno Red 17
Chili - Texas Bowl of Red 18
Chorizo 1
Jalapeños en Escabeche 20
Jalapeños en Escabeche x 1.33 2
Jalapeños en Escabeche x 1.5 3
Mushroom-Passilla Tacos 4
Poblano Rajas - seasoned, roasted chile strips 5
Pork Brain Filling For Quesadillas 6
Pumpkin Seed Dip - Sakil P'ak 7
Recado Colorado 8
Salsa Con Muchos Chiles 19
Salsa Cruda 9
Salsa De Chile Cascabel 10
Salsa de Chile de Arbol 23
Salsa Negra (original) 21
Salsa Negra (simplified) 22
Shrimp in Chipotle Sauce (I - Bayless) 11
Shrimp in Chipotle Sauce (II - Kennedy) 12
Tomatillo and Chipotle (Morita) Salsa 13
Torta de Flor de Calabaza - Squash blossom Torte 14

Chinese (less hot ones here, but there's the Szechwan!)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Spareribs 24
Ants CLimb a Tree 23
Basic Dump Sauce for Jao-tze 1
Basic Lo Mein 6
Chicken With Fresh Button Mushrooms - Moo Goo Gai Pan 7
Dry-Fried Green Beans 8
Ground Pork with Hot Peppers 9
Hot and Sour Soup 10
Lo mein in Meat Sauce 11
Macerated Broccoli Stems or Kohlrabi 22
Mandarin Pancakes 12
Moo Shoo Pork 13
Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce 21
Spicy Soybeans 14
Sweet and Sour Cabbage 15
Sweet and Sour Cucumbers 16
Szechwan Chicken 17
Szechwan Eggplant 3
Szechwan Lamb 18
Szechwan Preserved Vegetable and Pork Soup 19
Szechwan Shrimp 2
Tea Smoked Chicken 20
Tea Eggs 4
Velveted Chicken (basic recipe) 5

And this is just my cookbook. Being a cookbook junkie, I have probably over 500, many of them on spicy cuisines!

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gumbo2176 wrote:Check out the post "Preserving Peppers in small quantities" in this section for a brief rundown on how I make the hot pepper sauce. I don't give quantities all that specific in it since I usually fly by the seat of my pants when making it depending on how many peppers I have at the time.

Thank you!

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This is what we're growing this year...King Arthur's Bells (very productive and they get HUGE), Thai Vesuvius (the pretty red one), and Hungarian Wax (these are nice and warm, but about every 5th one is pretty darn hot). Anyway, this was the pepper bill for a pot of chili I made yesterday. It's not really chili weather, but I had a few pounds of 'maters that were going to go bad if I didn't do something with them...lol...

Image

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Incredible production from these chocolate habs this season! One of these plants would have produced way more than I need, but one of the seedlings was put in a pot where nothing sprouted (the red savinas), and I have to plant more than one of the varieties I can't be without, in case something happens to one plant, like what happened to the one plant in the spring, when 3/4 of the plant was taken out in a storm. Amazingly, it came back, and produced more than the smaller plant.

All in the left 4 qt bowl is from the one plant! The ones in the 3 qt bowl on the right, from the smaller plant, and the comeback plant:
ImageDSCF0336 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

This was the best shot I could get, but you can sort of see what it looked like from just one side!
ImageDSCF0335 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I also harvested more Thai peppers, and a few more Big Jims, but the habs are the ones going crazy this year. The Gold bullet plant is also loaded again, but I didn't pick those today. The habs are in SIPs, which has a lot to do with it, I'm sure.

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Those are beautiful - if scary looking - peppers :D Which SIP? Earthbox or home-made bucket? Have you observed any difference between them?

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Those are in original Earthboxes, apple. The homemade ones have a larger reservoir, which is better for tomatoes, since they suck up a lot more water, but the EB works well for peppers, even these big things.

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And here are more Gold Bullets! I harvested a bunch more today, with a lot I missed, plus countless green ones. Too bad those really aren't a type of green chile you can really cook with, as I'll be wasting a lot.

This is my favorite chile to toss into smoothies, since they are so small, but packed with flavor!
ImageDSCF0337 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

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Peppers are on their way out, but still getting a few. And this heat wave in the forecast might give me even more of them!
ImageDSCF0361 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The front row are Aleppos, then a few Big Jims (not real big now), a few Jalapenos, the orange Hanoi Markets, a small pile of Thai (many more out there, but it got dark), 3 small poblanos, and one last Godfather.

I didn't bother with the habaneros, but they are still producing big time!

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pepperhead212 wrote:And here are more Gold Bullets! I harvested a bunch more today, with a lot I missed, plus countless green ones. Too bad those really aren't a type of green chile you can really cook with, as I'll be wasting a lot.

This is my favorite chile to toss into smoothies, since they are so small, but packed with flavor!
ImageDSCF0337 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

OK, I need the smoothie recipe. :)

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After a little bit of a shaky start, the pepper season in the open garden was a good one.
Peppers in Greenhouse.jpg
These, however, are from the greenhouse where I prepared a very narrow bed against the south wall. They are late but ripening now!

There have been about 2X this many in the garden and there was a limited number of sweet peppers (& jalapeños to go with them). It probably didn't make a whole lot of sense to plant the Thai & Super Chili in the greenhouse as well as the garden, where they always have done just fine. However, it wasn't always apparent that peppers were going to be okay in the summer greenhouse. It was hot in there!

As open through the day as I could keep it and with an exhaust fan running, it was still hot! The greenhouse isn't really set up for summer growing and I've done very little of that sort of thing. The plants took an inordinate amount of time to set fruit. The plants were busy growing - about twice as large as in the garden. I think that the flowers may have had the same trouble as tomato flowers do in very hot weather. I didn't spend much time in there trying to figure it out ... just did the best to make sure that the peppers had enough water.

Having staved off a first frost and after such a warm summer, there are plenty more hot peppers in the garden, albeit they are all green after our "rescue harvest" last week and just as the threat of frost loomed. There are also plenty more in the greenhouse. I don't intend to turn on the heat this fall but the structure's protection should allow continuing ripening of fruit for several more weeks. I'm expecting only about 7 more days before frost outdoors will once again be at hand.

Steve

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Gardener123 wrote:
pepperhead212 wrote:And here are more Gold Bullets! I harvested a bunch more today, with a lot I missed, plus countless green ones. Too bad those really aren't a type of green chile you can really cook with, as I'll be wasting a lot.

This is my favorite chile to toss into smoothies, since they are so small, but packed with flavor!

OK, I need the smoothie recipe. :)
The smoothies that the habanero flavor is really good in are those based on canteloupe. And you know that seed slop you scoop out and throw away from canteloupe and other melons? You don't have to through it away, and it has an intense flavor! A Mexican drink is made with it - Horchata - and it is blended up with the seeds still in it, then strained. Using my Vitamix, the seeds are ground up so fine that I don't even have to strain it! I blend the seeds from a half of a canteloupe on highest speed, until it is totally ground up, then add the flesh from that half, along with a gold bullet, blend until totally ground up, then add ice, until it is the right thickness, then divide it in half or thirds. The habanero flavor is incredible with this.

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Wait, horchata is made with ground rice, sugar, water, and honey, I think.

I have a cantelope ripening in my kitchen now.... I will try to use the seeds.

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That's one version of it. The one I'm talking about is a recipe I've been making since the early eighties, from one of Diana Kennedy's early cookbooks. She said that it was usually made with cleaned seeds, but saw it made with the "uncleaned" seeds, and the flavor was much better. And here version was not a smoothie - it was more watered down, and sweetened. I just used the basic idea for grinding up the seeds - why waste something like that?



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