Preserving Summer by Drying Chilies

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

What do you do when you have too many chili peppers? You set them out to dry for a few days. Spicy, earthy, and overpowering, I'm now storing them in a jar since they easily took over the apartment once I brought them inside. A fantastically fragrant way to preserve some of the summer sun's last few vainglorious rays. (And yes, I hung them with mint floss. I had no twine.)It's all very simple: just tie them up, hang them in an open space outside that gets lots of sun, and come back a few days later. Ground them up into a powder or keep them whole in an air tight jar. Tasty and perfect for hearty chilies come the cold nights.

17 comments:

  1. Yum. We also throw a bunch in a freezer bag (Ziploc-style from America!)--fresh peperoncini all through the winter :)

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  2. Great pictures. My parents used to live in New Mexico, where the dried chiles were everywhere, and I always loved them.

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  3. The one (and only) reason I miss living inland is the ability to grown peppers (and garlic and eggplant). Coastal fog just doesn't do those hot-weather crops well. Yours are beautiful plus you get the (very) warm fuzzies from harvesting out of your own garden. Nice touch using mint floss -- not sure I would have thought of that.

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  4. I just got hit with a huge crop of peppers and this is precisely what I'm going to do with them. I'm still waiting for all of them to turn red, though.

    And I like how you hung them with floss - I've totally done that before (for drying herbs) because my dad is a dentist so I have tons of floss lying around.

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  5. Besides using a blender, how would you grind dried peppers? Any tips?

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  6. Prissycook - Mortal and pestle. Or put them in a zip lock bag and go psycho with a rolling pin or rubber mallet.

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  7. the brother- Do you have any information on how to use a pressure cooker to create an air tight jar? Might be some good information.

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  8. Nope, not a clue on that. I bet a google search will turn up what you need though.

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  9. These pictures are great, vivid and colorful. And mint floss? Nice. You are one class act, Mr. Vanilla Garlic! (I would have used cinnamon, but that is just me:)

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  10. That first picture is gorgeous!

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  11. I am hoping for a large crop of chillis this year so I can make loads of chilli jam and try them out in cupcakes. On a side not thanks for a great blog, full of laughs and sighs and oh my I must try that one day. Good luck with your return to study.

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  12. almost like chilli potpourri . Another fantastic thing to do would be to pickle them...that way they last almost forever !

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  13. Hey Garrett - I'm doing the same thing with my chilis. The dry and hot Sacramento weather has to be good for something, doesn't it?

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  14. I just came across your blog and noticed your chili peppers. I just did a post on harvesting my chili peppers also. Guess it is that time of year! Yours look fantastic.

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  15. I dried my chilies in a dehydrator and crushed my peppers at the end of Aug. Put them in a plastic jar. Just noticed it contained bugs. What did I do or fail to do?

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  16. rroche - My guess is the bugs were always there in the chilies. Just bad luck. I doubt you did anything wrong.

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Hey, you're leaving a comment! That's pretty darn cool, so thanks. If you have any questions or have found an error on the site or with a recipe, please e-mail me and I will reply as soon as possible.
~Garrett

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