Dried hot peppers

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Yooper

Ale's What Cures You!
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Someone just gifted me with two pint jars of home grown and home dried hot peppers. I'm no expert, but I can tell there are different varieties. Some I recognize (cayenne, habanero), some I do not.

Here's my question! "Now what?" :D

I know I can grind them into homemade chili powder, but I'm hoping that someone can give me some great ideas on how to use them in everyday cooking. I assume that they are all hot varieties, as that's why I got them. They were "too hot" for his parents, so they gave them to me!

They are in pint jars with some rice on the bottom. They are very very dry, leathery in texture.
 
Curious about this also. Spent too much time fishing last year (if there is such a thing) and all my jalapeno and serrano turned red before I could pick 'em and eat 'em or gift 'em.
Ended up dehydrating and storing them in evacuated mason jars. Also leathery here.

So far have made pepper flakes, rehydrate and used in home fries, used whole when cooking carnitas, simmered in spaghetti sauce and rehydrated and blended in bloody mary mix.
 
You could make some awesome sauces with them. Most mole sauces are made from dried, reconstituted peppers. Thai stir fry and seafood dishes can also appreciate a little heat. A nice little fine grind to them and you could dust some truly sinister deviled eggs this year. :)
 
I tend to just throw dried peppers in dishes whole and skip the PITA of grinding them. Good idea to take them out before serving or warn people, obviously. An unexpected habanero makes a bay leaf in the mouth seem like the time of your life. Black beans are one of my favorite things to throw peppers in. Yummy, cheap, easy, & healthy is hard to beat.

Another way to use the peppers is to soak them in something - oil, vinegar, & vodka all come to mind.
 
Chili oil. my bro gives me dried chilies every year. all i do is crush up a lot of chilies in to some cooking oil and slowly raise the heat and then let them steep in the hot oil. the trick is to get the oil hot enough with out over toasting them.
 
I just ground one up, so that the texture is more like tough pepper flakes, to use in my marinade and avocado salsa.

I put olive oil, lime zest, lime juice, white wine vinegar, garlic, and the pepper together and then set aside about four teaspoons of that. I used the bulk of it for marinading a grass-fed beef boneless sirloin. I took the rest of the marinade, and added more garlic, some green onion, and cumin, and added two mashed avocados and cilantro.

So tonight, it's marinated grilled steak with avocado salsa.

Bob gave up his old coffee grinder and told me I can use it to grind up the rest of the peppers if I want. I'm thinking I probably will go that route, and use it as a mix of "unknown" hot pepper flakes.
 
You could put a couple in a bottle of olive oil with a sprig of rosmary and what not. Looks cool and tastes good too.
 
If he grows "HOT" peppers there could be a few really killer varieties in there like Scotch Bonnet or Bhut Jalopa (Ghost Pepper).

I would go real easy on the amounts at first, as from experience one Ghost Pepper in a gallon of chili made it intolerable for almost anyone who tried it.

bosco
 
You could split 1 or a couple of those dried peppers & put them in a belissima bottle with vinegar, spicy vinegar is a nice thing to cook with. You might also put some whole cranberries in the vinegar with the peppers; they add quite a bit of fruitiness & a bit of tartness to the sweet/sour/hot. BTW, it makes for a fantastic vinegrette dressing. Only takes a few weeks to get good & a couple months to get REALLY GOOD. If you use some nice bottles, it makes a nice gift too.
Regards, GF.
 
Great ideas! I don't have any quality vinegar on hand at the moment, but I do have some quality olive oil and can buy vinegar.

I think maybe I'll crush half, and use for flaked peppers for cooking/sprinkling.

There could be some ghost peppers in there- but I have no idea which are which! I recognize habaneros, cayennes, and scotch bonnet, but as to the rest I have no idea.

I like things super spicy, even my puttanesca sauce, but I will be careful to not make it too hot with unrecognized peppers!
 
I would smoke some of them...

:confused: Somehow I thought they were smoked fresh/raw. I don't know how much smoke flavor my dried peppers could assimilate. Plus, chipotle gets packed in adobo and is kinda mushy, but don't know if that is tradition or what.
 
I took most of the peppers, and ground them up to "flakes" in the coffee grinder. I put them in a pepper shaker jar, with big holes. The rest I'm saving for vinegar/oil/soups/stews/etc.

Well, Bob wanted some of our fermented veggies for dinner (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f56/fermented-foods-374912/) but I think they're sort of boring since there was only one habanero in with all the veggies.

So I did sort of a "make shift" kimchee. I took out a wide shallow bowl, and added fish sauce, minced garlic, ginger, and liberal amounts of those "pepper flakes". I stirred in a couple of big ladles of the fermented veggies and let them sit for an hour in the spicy garlic gingered fish sauce.

Bob LOVED it, and so did I! It was spicy, but not hot. Until later. By the time dinner was over, and we were finishing up our wine, both of us commented on the afterburn! My lips are still burning a little. In other words, SUCCESS! :ban:
 
They will taste a lot better if you toast them before using. Stand back the fumes can be intense.

Add them to soup or chili, especially when you have a cold
 
What I would do is find one of the ones that you have already tried and deemed to be "oh not THAT hot" and put it in a saucepan with some milk and let it simmer for a while (since I'm a wuss it wouldnt be very long at all). Remove with tongs. Then I would use milk chocolate melted into the hot milk to make spicy hot chocolate.

You Michiganders have like 4 foot snow drifts and drink a lot of hot chocolate this time of year... right? :ban:
 
What I would do is find one of the ones that you have already tried and deemed to be "oh not THAT hot" and put it in a saucepan with some milk and let it simmer for a while (since I'm a wuss it wouldnt be very long at all). Remove with tongs. Then I would use milk chocolate melted into the hot milk to make spicy hot chocolate.

You Michiganders have like 4 foot snow drifts and drink a lot of hot chocolate this time of year... right? :ban:

Yes, but I am probably one of the few women alive that hate chocolate! I dislike milk, too, but I really hate chocolate. So, not to ruin your hopes of trying this, but, NO! :D

None of the ones I tried were very hot. I mean, they had some heat to them but nothing hot at all.

The pepper flakes I made are great- sort of spicy/smoky and adding depth to everything. They are great on meatloaf!
 
Yes, but I am probably one of the few women alive that hate chocolate! I dislike milk, too, but I really hate chocolate. So, not to ruin your hopes of trying this, but, NO! :D

None of the ones I tried were very hot. I mean, they had some heat to them but nothing hot at all.

The pepper flakes I made are great- sort of spicy/smoky and adding depth to everything. They are great on meatloaf!

Oh I knew that... my fault. Got any venison shanks or other super tough fibrous meat? A pepper or two in the crockpot on a long slow braise would be a good addition methinks!
 
Oh I knew that... my fault. Got any venison shanks or other super tough fibrous meat? A pepper or two in the crockpot on a long slow braise would be a good addition methinks!

Yes, we did that just about two days ago, as a matter of fact. We've got wonderfully flavored grass-fed beef, but some of the cuts are a little tough. I made something like a swiss steak, then put it in the crockport with some stout and two of those peppers and a few frozen tomatoes from our garden. It came out really really good!

We still have plenty of venison (got three deer this year), and lots of lamb and quite a bit of that beef.

Tomorrow Bob is roasting an organic chicken, and he told me he's using both the pepper flakes and one or two whole dried peppers in that. That sounds really good to me!
 
Oh, and dare I even suggest you add a little kick to one of your beers??

I thought of that! Right now, the "lightest" colored beer I have is an American red, and it's very hoppy so I don't think it would go well.

But I wonder if I pulled off a growler of oatmeal stout and put some dried peppers in there? I am not sure. Maybe I'll pour one now, and sprinkle some flakes in it just to see if I like it!
 
Yes, we did that just about two days ago, as a matter of fact. We've got wonderfully flavored grass-fed beef, but some of the cuts are a little tough. I made something like a swiss steak, then put it in the crockport with some stout and two of those peppers and a few frozen tomatoes from our garden. It came out really really good!

We still have plenty of venison (got three deer this year), and lots of lamb and quite a bit of that beef.

Tomorrow Bob is roasting an organic chicken, and he told me he's using both the pepper flakes and one or two whole dried peppers in that. That sounds really good to me!

That DOES sound good! You could probably stew a chicken with almost the exact same braise liquid as the beef (or quail, or whatever lean game-bird you might have access to) and get spectacular stew too. I would make it with rice for sopping or with big ole chunks of crusty bread. Curse you Yoop, you're making me hungry.
 
That DOES sound good! You could probably stew a chicken with almost the exact same braise liquid as the beef (or quail, or whatever lean game-bird you might have access to) and get spectacular stew too. I would make it with rice for sopping or with big ole chunks of crusty bread. Curse you Yoop, you're making me hungry.

Ha- except I'm so weird with what I eat that I won't eat bread. (I don't eat wheat at all, and rarely other grains). Bob eats rice, but I don't. We harvest wild rice every year (not actually rice, it's a grass seed) and Bob eats that alot, while I occasionally have a bite of that. I bet he's making wild rice for tomorrow, though!
 
Can you malt wild rice?

Want me to send you some liver sausages for some wild rice?

Teehee...

Actually Im not joking...
 
Can you malt wild rice?

Want me to send you some liver sausages for some wild rice?

Teehee...

Actually Im not joking...

You probably can malt wild rice, but you can also use it unmalted.

Bob is actually interested in your liver sausage. Can you give me a link to a thread about it? He may take you up on the swap offer, but it's for Bob, not me. I don't eat liver, either! :D
 
I would smoke some of them...

If you do, make sure you use a water pipe or hookah. They really burn. :ban:

Actually, I would grind some of them up and use them like you use crushed red pepper. Probably a very unique taste with the blend that you have.

And I like the vodka idea...probably some fantastic bloody marys there.
 
Pepper vodka for bloody mary's is really great. I always keep some on hand, usually with whatever peppers I have leftover after making my chili.

All told though, I would highly recommend going to oil route. I also usually keep homemade chili oil in the house as much as I can, and I use it all the time. Need a little olive oil to saute veggies in? CHILI OIL! Need some oil to keep that chicken from sticking to your pan? CHILI OIL!

Like you Yooper, I love anything spicy. I have only had one or two dishes in my entire life that I found were legitimately too spicy for me. So I love to be able to add that to anything I want. One of my favorite uses for the chili oil is to drizzle it over the top of whatever soup I've made. It adds heat as well as a nice depth and richness of flavor.
 
I love me some hurka, That's liver sausage with rice. Without the rice it's hurky. Pronounced hoork'a/hoork'e. The lil bit of seasoning in it is great. It comes in a fat ring,& mom would steam it without breaking it with taters,eggs,& buiscuts for breakfast on weekends. Dang,now it's makin me hungry. You & your oysters & such will be my undoing! :mug:
By the way,we grow New Mexico chiles. Allowed to turn red on the plant,& they aren't hot or spicy. But rather like fresh chili powder. Picked green,they have a nice little bit of heat & the spice is great. Either can be dried. I wanna get this lil grinder thing I saw on youtube with a seperate lil SS cup that comes out after grinding for our peppers. We're gunna increase the yield this year. I've had some drying above the monitor right now...
 
I love me some hurka, That's liver sausage with rice. Without the rice it's hurky. Pronounced hoork'a/hoork'e. The lil bit of seasoning in it is great. It comes in a fat ring,& mom would steam it without breaking it with taters,eggs,& buiscuts for breakfast on weekends. Dang,now it's makin me hungry. You & your oysters & such will be my undoing! :mug:
By the way,we grow New Mexico chiles. Allowed to turn red on the plant,& they aren't hot or spicy. But rather like fresh chili powder. Picked green,they have a nice little bit of heat & the spice is great. Either can be dried. I wanna get this lil grinder thing I saw on youtube with a seperate lil SS cup that comes out after grinding for our peppers. We're gunna increase the yield this year. I've had some drying above the monitor right now...

I would be tempted to serve the riceless sausage along with a nice piece of beef or venison jerky. I would call my creation "hurky-jerky"
 
Someone just gifted me with two pint jars of home grown and home dried hot peppers. I'm no expert, but I can tell there are different varieties. Some I recognize (cayenne, habanero), some I do not.

Here's my question! "Now what?" :D

I know I can grind them into homemade chili powder, but I'm hoping that someone can give me some great ideas on how to use them in everyday cooking. I assume that they are all hot varieties, as that's why I got them. They were "too hot" for his parents, so they gave them to me!

They are in pint jars with some rice on the bottom. They are very very dry, leathery in texture.

If you have any left you can just rehydrate them by submerging in a little boiling water for 30 mins and using them as a direct analog in any recipe that calls for fresh chilli pods.
 
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