Chilis

[gringo]

You have a bumper crop, what do you do with them? I've played around with a few methods - some wins and some fails & I would love to get some tips.

1. Dry
2. Freeze
3. Make into pastes or sauces
4. Pickle
5. Oil
6-10. ???

Drying
Every year I grow a Korean type, which I think is a variety of Cayenne. The OH will eat these raw when green, but when they turn red we harvest and dry. She uses the dry ones to make kimchi. Initially I just dried them laid out on newspaper in the spare bedroom, but then I discovered ristras
I get about 100 fresh red chilis, a needle and LONG thread and thread them through the stems, close to the flesh. I bunch them in groups of three. Then i get a length of string and tie the ends together, hang it on a hook in the garage or more recently the end of a curtain pole. Put the thread of chilis around my neck and put the first group of three onto the loop of string, press down and twist the loop of string around the top of the 3 chilis. put the next three on top, twist the string the other way, and so on until all your thread is on the loop of string. Knot the string just above the last chilis and hang to dry, ideally somewhere with a bit of airflow. keep an eye on them, if any start to get mouldy or rot, remove them immediately.
As well as looking pretty, they smell amazing as they dry. They also make wonderful presents. I've not been brave enough to try myself, but looking online the ristras can also be made into stunning wreathes or Christmas decorations.





Freezing
The last 3 years I've grown Fresno chilis. These give chunky, fleshy, stumpy fruits that aren't too hot but imho have an amazing flavour. Because they are so fleshy I freeze them instead of drying - and here's the good bit - when you want to cook with them, they are so sturdy frozen that you can grate them with a cheesegrater. This allows the flavour to diffuse through your meal wonderfully well.

Pastes and sauces
I'm a huge fan of the various chili pastes out there. Harissa is my favourite - especially the Belazu brand rose harissa & verbena harissa. M&S do a good one too, and my local Asian supermarket does a fabulous Tunisian brand called La Phare du Cap Bon which comes in a tube. I'm also a big fan of Mexican Luchita paste and a new discovery, Malaysian Simbal pastes.
I've tried making my own harissa from my home grown chilis but to be honest it took ages and was a poor comparison to bought brands, and didn't keep very well

If anyone can share any recipes or tips though, I'd like to try again!

Pickle
Tips, please, never tried this!

Oil
I've always been keen to try storing in oil, but one of the first articles I read about it mentioned botulism and I've been too scared to try!

Anything else
well?

[Nicos]

Chilli jelly/ jam?
They are quite a favourite on here!

[Elfeda]

I freeze whole green chillis. this year I hope to grow excess plants to get some ripened chilli's for freezing. a big no to drying as I can buy them cheap.

[Tripmeup]

This year I made chilli jam, hot chilli sauce, tomato and chilli relish, dried and flaked chillis amongst other things...

[jackarmy]

I mainly freeze mine but make relishes and hot sauces with them, from frozen works just as good for a hot sauce.
Last season i grew a shedfull of ceyane and Ring of fire with the intention of drying and powdering them ( i bought an old coffe grinder for the job) but unfourtunatley the chillis failed massively, will be tryng again this year tho.

[spamvindaloo]

A word of warning, be careful if you try grinding dried hot or superhot chillis to powder, especially don't try it in a food processor or electric grinder. The fine powder gets everywhere (nostrils, throat, lungs, eyes). I tried this a number of years ago when I was very new to these things and learnt by my very uncomfortable mistake

[snakeshack]

we grow lots of chillies and keep in various ways
1.threaded up and dried as ristras
2.pickled, first salted rinsed and dried, either whole or sliced then with white vinegar, no pickling spice reqd
3.smoke dried, whole jalapenos threaded up then processed in the hot smoker twice, then hung to dry taste like chipotle
4.chipotlish paste, whole chillies ,mixed varieties cut in half longways then run through hot smoker twice. These then have salt added(to taste) are then pureed and put into little 1oz jars and processed in a water bath.one jar of this gives a great smoky chilli for 4 people
5. chilli jam ,pick your recipe
6.chilli flakes/powder, if you do use a grinder processor to grind you dried chilli leave 5 mins for dust to settle then open outside to prevent dust inhalation
7. frozen whole, as it says
8. frozen chopped/minced,mince or chop fine then press into ice cube trays or roll up as a sausage in cling film before freezing then bagging

I dont recommend oil either because of the botulism risk and would also recommend wearing marigold gloves when prepping chillies,if you are prepping large quantities I would chuck the gloves after, medical gloves are too thin and provide no protection.avoid that moment when a) you need the loo b)pick your nose c) scratch your eye , buy the gloves you wont be sorry or a constant source of entertainment

[Jet1447]

Pickling hot chillies

Pickled chillies are a favourite in our family. Any shape, size (within reason!), colour, variety of hot chilli. They don't need to be fully ripe either - I noticed some contributors were concerned about ripening the fruit but with pickling you don't have to wait til the very end.
I used to pickle Scotch Bonnets in Africa and that's where I got the recipe. Quantities depend on how many jars you hope to fill.
You need malt vinegar, Coriander Seed, Yellow Mustard Seed, Root Ginger, Cloves, Black Peppercorns, Allspice berries (large Tesco stores), bay leaves, Cassia Bark and ,of course, your chillies. "Spices of India" supply spices on line.
Wash and dry chillies. Add mixture of spices to the malt vinegar in a pan and bring to the boil while stirring occasionally. Simmer for half an hour. Allow to cool to room temperature. Divide pickling liquid between the clean screw-top (or other) jars. Add the chillies. Do not fully tighten lids. This allows for any contraction. After 24 hours fully tighten lids and invert jars. After this turn the jars each day for a week. Label with date. Pickled chillies ready in a month.
Please note exact proportions of spices depend on taste. Experiment! THE PICKLES WILL BE HOT BUT NOT AS HOT AS FRESH CHILLIES.