What to do with a pepper surplus

September 16, 2009 10:41 AM

I've been given a bounty of peppers. Jalapenos, banana peppers, some other peppers I'm not sure of (I think they're poblanos). What should I do with this pile of spicy?

My initial thought is to make a batch of my chili spiking sauce, which I use to make my chili deliciously spicy while the wife can have the standard fare. I'm not sure how best to preserve a large batch of it though, input regarding that would be appreciated as well.

posted by borkencode to food & drink (19 answers total)

Giardiniera!
posted by Juliet Banana at 10:48 AM on September 16, 2009

Stuffed banana peppers. Yum.
posted by alynnk at 10:53 AM on September 16, 2009

Do you make your own guacamole? Adding some minced Jalapenos to it gives it a really nice, deep savoury background flavour while the cool avocado ameliorates a lot of the bite.

Coincidentally, guacamole goes really well with a lot of the spicy dishes you might make with your other chillis.
posted by Lorc at 10:56 AM on September 16, 2009

Egg or bean burritos with lots of chopped pepper. Or hash browns with lots of diced peppers. I really don't know if heat actually weakens capsaicin, but I find that if I cook the peppers a bit in some oil it cuts the hotness down a bit where I can pack more of them in a recipe and enjoy a lot more pepper flavor without a 4-alarm incident.
posted by crapmatic at 11:00 AM on September 16, 2009

Poblanos are pretty mild, but they've got wonderful flavor... I'm not a "so hot it gives my tongue chemical burns" kind of guy when it comes to chili peppers, so when I make chili I usually use a couple of poblanos plus one or two hotter peppers to give it a nice balance of heat and flavor.
posted by usonian at 11:09 AM on September 16, 2009

Jalapeno jelly.
posted by hortense at 11:11 AM on September 16, 2009

Riffing on alynnk's link, here is Stuffed Poblano Peppers. Yum.
posted by netbros at 11:13 AM on September 16, 2009

Seconding hot pepper jelly. Lots of recipes on line. Good with cheese, as a garnish to things like chops or fish, and actually very good on toast or even the right flavor of ice cream. Excellent gift.
posted by Mngo at 11:26 AM on September 16, 2009

You could make up jars of pickled peppers to give as gifts. You'd win thoughtfulness points.

I saw this done artfully recently for party favors. It was little canning jars maybe 4 inches tall. Jalapenos had been sliced lengthwise into about four slices apiece and then stuck vertically into the jar so that everything facing out was an inside part showing seeds. Then you stuff all the rest in the middle to keep those pretty parts pressed up against the glass. For some color they also put some vertical slices of carrot in there as well as some onion chunks and garlic cloves.

Then it was the regular pickling process after that involving boiling vinegar with non iodized salt, filling up the jar of peppers with that, submerging the sealed jar in boiling water for a while to process, etc. Google that part for precise instructions.

Then you could put some kind of label or homey/folksy cloth ribbon or something around it to make it a gift. Now you don't have to go shopping! Plus they might be good things to have on hand for when you need to give a gift to someone you forgot you needed to give a gift to.

What you'll need to google though is how long they last. Like if pickled now, would they make it to the holidays? Never done it myself.
posted by Askr at 12:05 PM on September 16, 2009

Roast 'em.

Cut the peppers open, remove the seeds, membranes and cap so that just the pepper flesh remains. If you have a gas stove you can roast the peppers over the flame until the skin chars and begins to bubble away from the flesh. Set the peppers aside in a covered bowl for half an hour. Take the now-cooled peppers and gently rub the skin away from the flesh of the pepper. It should come off easily. Throw the skins away and keep the pepper flesh. Use it in everything. EVERYTHING.

Roasting will make the peppers sweet, as the sugars in them caramelize, and will take away some of the spice so that everybody can enjoy them.

Also: Poblanos make awesome chile relleños.

Also also: Jalapeños stuffed with cheese = yum.
posted by lekvar at 12:48 PM on September 16, 2009

Are they ripe (i.e., red)? If so, you can smoke them. If you don't have an electric smoker, you could make a stovetop smoker. But they take a while, and that would smoke up your house pretty bad, so you could also go the Alton Brown flower-pot smoker route.

They'll need to smoke for several hours -- maybe up to 6 or 8, depending on the peppers. (They don't need smoke all that time -- just constant, low heat.)

Dried, smoked peppers keep indefinitely and are great in soups/stews, or anywhere you'd use bacon or ham. You could also make your own chipotles in adobo with them. Yum!

They've got to be ripe, though. The green ones just don't dry out well, in my experience.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:54 PM on September 16, 2009 [1 favorite]

Poblanos are very, very good for stuffing. You can do everything from making chilis rellenos to stuffing them with a good risotto.

Poblanos are also mild enough that you can make a wicked salsa by mincing some fresh ones and tossing with corn, black beans, onion, olive oil, salt, pepper, and some cilantro.

Jalapeños are good in almost everything. Slice them super thin and top nachos with them, scramble them in eggs, make guacamole, add them to marinades for meats...

For preserving, I am not so much a fan of the pickling as such, but roasting and freezing work fantastically well for peppers.
posted by kaseijin at 2:23 PM on September 16, 2009

I made a great chili colorado the other day.

Fire roast one pablano pepper plus a couple of jalapenos or chilis. Just hold them in tongs over a gas burner, and rotate. Then remove the seeds and stems from all the peppers.

Throw all of the peppers, plus a small onion (quartered), plus a little tomato paste (maybe half a little can), plus most of a bulb of garlic into a food processor and puree it. Add just enough water that the sauce will pour.

Heat a cast iron skillet to very hot. Sear some cubed beef or buffalo steak in the skillet. After it's sufficiently seared and browned, pour the sauce in the pan and simmer, uncovered, for about two hours. If the sauce starts to thicken too much, add a little more water. Stir occasionally.
posted by Netzapper at 3:23 PM on September 16, 2009

This might be helpful: http://ask.metafilter.com/99216/Cooking-with-fresh-cayenne-peppers

I grow a wide variety of hot peppers. I use them to make hot sauce - see link above. The peppers freeze really well, so if nothing else you can store them that way. I've stored peppers for a couple years without a problem.
posted by blaneyphoto at 3:41 PM on September 16, 2009

Hot sauce is fun to make and keeps well if you can it. Pepper puree + vinegar + whatever for flavor + canning = fantastic and practically free!
posted by wrok at 5:31 PM on September 16, 2009

Note: The "fire roasting" process actually depends on waxes in the skin of the pepper, not on open flame. You can do it in a pot or pan on an electric stove, too, as long as you get most of the surface of the pepper sufficiently close to the pan at some point to get hot. I'm not sure I got quite as much smoky flavor that way, but it was close. Freaking electrics.
posted by eritain at 10:42 PM on September 16, 2009

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I'm going to try making some giardineria, and some roasted pepper salsa.
posted by borkencode at 4:33 PM on September 19, 2009

Note: The "fire roasting" process actually depends on waxes in the skin of the pepper, not on open flame. You can do it in a pot or pan on an electric stove, too, as long as you get most of the surface of the pepper sufficiently close to the pan at some point to get hot. I'm not sure I got quite as much smoky flavor that way, but it was close. Freaking electrics.

I tried this tonight. I chopped up my peppers into big chunks and then toasted them in a hot, dry cast iron skillet. Worked about as well as flame roasting them, although it did take a little longer than the fire does. Neither of these methods are as good as barbecuing the peppers over hardwood charcoal with either wet mesquite or wet hickory. I wish I still had my kamado.
posted by Netzapper at 10:37 PM on September 19, 2009

Note: The "fire roasting" process actually depends on waxes in the skin of the pepper, not on open flame.

This is true, as I use the broiler in my grumble growl grumble electric oven. But, having used a gas range in the past, I can say that the results from an open flame are so much better.

Neither of these methods are as good as barbecuing the peppers over hardwood charcoal with either wet mesquite or wet hickory.

*begins drooling uncontrollably from anticipatory foodgasm*
posted by lekvar at 3:19 PM on September 20, 2009