What to do with all the hot peppers?

[Troy Anderson]

 

[Kristie Nackord]

Make salsa!

[Larry Snyder]

Buy lots of Ice Cream

[Katie King]

Roast in oven for 10 min with a little olive oil (until blackened in spots), then when cooled down, take the skins off and slice in slivers. Add to salads, pasta, eat as a snack, whatever. Or you could make a nice roasted pepper soup...

[Lorie G.]

I pickle mine using a sweet gherkin recipe, so you get that sweet/hot thing, very good on burgers or like my father just eat them out of the jar for a snack.

[Christa Nelson]

i've been pickling all the garden jalapenos with carrots and garlic, Tex-Mex style........mmmmmmm........i just eat 'em right outta the jar!

[Pat Johnson]

I keep a brine of 1/2 cup canning salt per 1 gallon vinegar and just keep adding the peppers I can't use. Keep a weight on top to hold them under the liquid. I add them all summer a few at a time. They last for ever that way. When I get the urge, I fish out the amount and type peppers I want and put them into the food processor to make hot/pepper sauce. They keep their bright color and firm texture in the brine so I proudly keep it on the counter as an ornament. You can add a little of the vinegar juice if needed to make the hot sauce soupy enough to pour. Do not slit or cut the peppers before adding them to the brine. The idea is to preserve them not to infuse them with vinegar taste. The good thing about this technique is that you don't have to do anything after the initial set up. Yoouu simply add more peppers when you have more than you can use instead of allowing them to rot. Find a fish bowl or something pretty and use some sort of lid to keep out the critters & dirt.

[Troy Anderson]

Thanks that is a great idea. What do you use for weigh?

Pat Johnson said:

I keep a brine of 1/2 cup canning salt per 1 gallon vinegar and just keep adding the peppers I can't use. Keep a weight on top to hold them under the liquid. I add them all summer a few at a time. They last for ever that way. When I get the urge, I fish out the amount and type peppers I want and put them into the food processor to make hot/pepper sauce. They keep their bright color and firm texture in the brine so I proudly keep it on the counter as an ornament. You can add a little of the vinegar juice if needed to make the hot sauce soupy enough to pour. Do not slit or cut the peppers before adding them to the brine. The idea is to preserve them not to infuse them with vinegar taste. The good thing about this technique is that you don't have to do anything after the initial set up. Yoouu simply add more peppers when you have more than you can use instead of allowing them to rot. Find a fish bowl or something pretty and use some sort of lid to keep out the critters & dirt.

[Pat Johnson]

Anything handy that will weigh the peppers down. Someties a baggy filled partially with water. Sometimes an empty canning jar. A saucer or small bowl work fine. A wadded up piece of Saran Wrap...... Doesn't make much difference as long as it does the job. Finding a vessel that is shapped in a way that it is easy to keep the peppers under the liquid is the best start.

[Misty]

We had the same problem. We actually grew a ton a red cherry peppers and jalapenos. We just throw them on the grill, let them cool, and slice them up and put them in vinegar, garlic and salt in a jar. My husband loves them on sandwiches for work.

We also dry out cayenne peppers and crush them to make red pepper flakes.

[Pat Johnson]

Be careful. I once made the mistake once of dehydrating some jalapenos & hapaneros and then putting them in the food processer to make a powdered pepper. What I thought was a toxic pepper gas from the dehydrater was mild in comparison to what happened when I hit the high button on the food processer!!! Doing this has definately become an outdoor activity since that.

Misty said:

We had the same problem. We actually grew a ton a red cherry peppers and jalapenos. We just throw them on the grill, let them cool, and slice them up and put them in vinegar, garlic and salt in a jar. My husband loves them on sandwiches for work.

We also dry out cayenne peppers and crush them to make red pepper flakes.

[Christa Nelson]

i just made some jalapeno jelly from the garden jalapenos.......mmmm.......sweet n spicy

[Lynn S]

We are growing quite a few types of hot peppers and I have been using them fresh in salsas and in Jalapeno breads. I've also been canning whole Jalapenos and sliced Anchos in vinegar brines. Some hot peppers have been used for canning up hot pepper jellies, Chili Sauce and canned Salsas. I also can ring-sliced sweet Italias (both green and ripe, red ones) and Cubans and Bananas, not just the hot peppers.

Now that I have plenty of canned hot peppers, today I will pick and prepare them for dehydrating -- mostly Habaneros, Serranos, and Anchos. After reading Pat Johnson's instructions for the vinegar/salt brine soak, I am really excited to try that so I will start that today, too. I love the look of mixing green, orange, and red peppers -- it's so festive!