[Habaneros] Can I dehydrate them AFTER having frozen them?

[or...@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu]

My two habanero plants produced almost 300 peppers last summer. I
dehydrated 150 of them and froze the rest whole. Now I've discovered
that while I and friends use the dehydrated ones, I'm not finding
as much use for the frozen ones.

Anyone know if I could safely dehydrate them, and if not, what other
ideas do you have for using them up, other than chopping one up in
spagetti sauces, soups, chili, etc.?

Steve Orth
or...@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu

==========================
MI Bulb Update: 16 days have passed; still no $250 check in the mail.

[Harry Jiles]

On Sun, 2 Feb 1997 20:20:40 GMT, or...@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu wrote:

>Anyone know if I could safely dehydrate them, and if not, what other
>ideas do you have for using them up, other than chopping one up in
>spagetti sauces, soups, chili, etc.?

You can dry them if you use a dehydrator. They will not keep long
when thawed, so if you don't dry them use them immediately. It is
best to chop them and use them in recipes while still frozen, as they
are pretty soft when thawed.

You can make hot sauce out of them. If the sauce is vinegar or citrus
juice based, it will keep indefinately if refrigerated. If not, the
hot sauce can be frozen until needed. If made into hot sauce, don't
cook the habs as cooking will kill the distinctive hab flavor. You
can get several hot sauce recipes from the Chile-Heads web site at:
http://chile.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu:8000/www/recipe/sauce.html

If you can't think of enough ways to use them, you can send them to me
and I will gladly get rid of them for you.<grin>

[Libby J. Goldstein]

I'd not try dehydrating frozen habs, but do try grinding them up with
some garlic, toasted cumin seeds and brandy or rum. Great sauce! And the
booze keeps it from going bad besides making it taste super.

Libby

[Rick Cook]

orth wrote:
>Anyone know if I could safely dehydrate them, and if not, what other
>ideas do you have for using them up, other than chopping one up in
>spagetti sauces, soups, chili, etc.?

Yes, you can deyhdrate frozen peppers. I'd suggest crushing the result to
make habanero flakes because the result won't look very attractive, but
anyone who uses habaneros as a color accent in their food -- well. . .

One other thing. Both drying and freezing increase the effective heat of
the peppers. So your frozen-dried habanero flakes are probably going to be
hotter than you're used to.

--RC

[Gerry Hebert]

or...@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu wrote:
>
> My two habanero plants produced almost 300 peppers last summer. I
> dehydrated 150 of them and froze the rest whole. Now I've discovered
> that while I and friends use the dehydrated ones, I'm not finding
> as much use for the frozen ones.
>

> Anyone know if I could safely dehydrate them, and if not, what other
> ideas do you have for using them up, other than chopping one up in
> spagetti sauces, soups, chili, etc.?
>

> Steve Orth
> or...@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
>
> ==========================
> MI Bulb Update: 16 days have passed; still no $250 check in the mail.

From last years garden, I had quite a variety of hot peppers. I simply
diced them and put them in some vinegar-water mix, then stuck in the
fridge. They kept fine all winter long... I don't know if this is the
best idea - any other suggestions??

[Rick Cook]

Gerry Hebert wrote:
>From last years garden, I had quite a variety of hot peppers. I simply
>diced them and put them in some vinegar-water mix, then stuck in the
>fridge. They kept fine all winter long... I don't know if this is the
>best idea - any other suggestions??

Make your own hot sauce -- peppers, vinegar, carrots, salt and seasonings
to taste. The carrots give the mixture body. Blend it to a puree in a
blender or food processor.

You can use up a _lot_ of peppers until you get the mixture exactly to your
taste. Of course when you do you can put your own label on it and give it
as Christmas gifts. Uses up even more peppers.

--RC

[Jack Dinsmore]

>Make your own hot sauce -- peppers, vinegar, carrots, salt and seasonings
>to taste.

I would like to suggest Chiltepins aka Chiltepes/Chiltepens
instead of the usual hot peppers. They are related to the
peppers and are essentially a weed, therefore very easy to
grow (but not so easy to germinate). They produce pea-sized
berries in abundance, the juice of which is tasty and blistering.
I saw them in either Parks or Burpees; don't remember which.

Here in North Florida, after the cold kills the tops you can
cut them back and cover them with mulch. They will regrow
in the spring.

>

Jack from Taxacola (formerly Pensacola), Florida