What to do with Red Chillies

[ios94]

I picked a good amount of red chillies from my garden to end the season, any ideas on what to do with them? Make a past and freeze them is what I'm thinking. Any other ideas?
Thanks

[pine time]

A question on ristras: I made 5 giant ones from my habeneros and bhut jolokias. They're beginning to dry well, but a few have developed black spots. Are the blackened ones still okay to use or spoiled? First try at ristras.

[Novelli]

I've gotten a few peppers with black spots and usually find there's some sort of mold on the seeds inside. You can discard now, or wait until they dry to open them and see what's up.

But I usually just leave them on the ristra and let them dry out with the rest, and check when it comes time to grind them up.

I've got a numbers of ristras all over the house right now. Peperoncino, sweet peppers, little Calabresi cherry bombs (which actually look like a big string of candy!LOL), etc. Some even have a mix of different peppers on them.

I have a dedicated coffee grinder for my peppers and do both coarse and fine grinds (using a fine mesh to sift into sweet and hot powders).

Hell, I'm still picking them...but not fast enough! LOL

[JungMann]

It depends on what kind of chilies you have. You can freeze them whole, make pepper and eggplant preserves, chutney, pickles, hot sauce, but there are some peppers that are better than others for each application.

[BobB]

I also got a bumper crop of red chilies this year, a nice mix of cayenne and Thai Dragon. What I do is wash them, then spread them out to dry for a month or more.

Once they're fully dried, some I grind to powder in my mini food processor and store in an old Cayenne Pepper jar for use in cooking (so much more aromatic than storebought!), some I crush roughly and put into an old Crushed Red Pepper jar for sprinkling on pizzas and such, and the rest just go into a big ziplock baggie for various uses until next year's crop comes in. I store them in the cupboard, there's no need to freeze them once they're dried. I could make ristras out of them I suppose, but then they'd collect dust and I'd be reluctant to use them in cooking after a while.

[pippimac]

Sweet chilli sauce goes with everything...
My strings of dried chillis (ristras) are very handy, the rest are in the freezer. I'd like to make proper fermented chili sauce next season

[arktos]

Salt em!

Very popular in Hunanese cuisine.

Ingredients:

1 lb Fresh Red Chilies
¼ Cup Sea Salt

Just wash and dry some red chiles. Cut off their stems and chop coarsely with the seeds. Mix withKosher/sea salt salt and place in a jar, covered with more salt. Wait two/three weeks before using, Then store in the refrigerator once opened. The chilies will keep for months.

[grayelf]

Love this ^^!

I just used a bunch fresh in stir fries (Thai to be exact) sliced and cooked with the protein. Delicious way to use them as a vegetable rather than as a seasoning or heat addition -- they were grown on Vancouver Island and were quite mild.

[Novelli]

ristras

[nattythecook]

Wash and freeze them, stay good for a year.

Sun dry them and save for other uses such as Thai curry pastes.

Dry and fried in oil, serve as condiments.

Dry first, toast and grind as chili powder, add to noodles (pad Thai).

Take the above chili powder and lightly fry in oil, serve as condiment for noodles and other dishes.

Grind/slice and pickle, serve as condiments to Asian noodles.

Save some seeds for next year. ;)

[letsindulge]

My Thai neighbor freezes them whole. I've seen them frozen @ Asian stores as well.

[DiningDiva]

You could also pickle some of them. Do you know what kind of chiles they are? Look for recipes for jalapeños en escabeche or pickled jalapeños and then just sub in your red chiles for the jalapeños. They'll keep for a long time.

[Motosport]

Chop them up and mix with olive oil.

[ios94]

I was thinking of that too, how long will they last for in oil?

[Motosport]

If they are dried and then out in olive oil they should last a long while. Drizzle on salad or bruschetta and appetizers.