Hot pepper haul from my garden
Maybe turn some of them into Sambal Oelek? It’s a fantastic condiment/base for a lot of cooking, and a glass of it makes a great homemade gift.
The recipe in the image looks plenty hot enough
Any reason you let them all ripen to red? I personally find that the sweetness sometimes interferes with the taste I expect
I can’t speak for OP, but for me it is just a different flavor profile. You do have to account for the added sweetness and fruitiness, but it can really open up the complexity of whatever dish you are making. It takes some experimentation for sure though to figure out how to balance the sweetness of fully ripe peppers.
If you want a really sweet heat, a mango hot sauce/salsa with mango, hot red peppers, onion, lime juice and salt makes for a simple and delicious topping. They also work well in a chimichurri, where the fruitiness of the red pepper mixes well with the herbs and the garlic.
For pico de gallo, tomatillo salsas, or stuffed peppers, I much prefer green peppers, as you want that punch of tangy/sour.
This is the secret knowledge I was hoping for! Thank you!!
The salsa I made on Sunday night has been a big hit. I wanted a more smokey flavor, as I had found some chocolate habaneros at my local market and wanted to capitalize on the smokey/earthy profile of them. I see a couple chocolate varietals here, so I think it might substitute well with what you have. Here is my recipe:
Ingredients:
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10 red jalapeños
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6 chocalate habaneros
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10 bird’s eyes
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2 dried ancho chilis
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2 dried arbol chilis
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6 medium roma tomatoes
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1.5 large onions (I did 1 red and 1/2 yellow)
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4 cloves of garlic
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juice of 7 limes
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salt, msg, and cilantro to taste
Directions:
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Broil the Jalapeños, habaneros, and bird’s eyes together on high, about 6in from the heating element, until the tops of the Jalapeños are blackened. Flip all the peppers and repeat on the other side. Bring a small pot of water to a simmer.
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While the peppers are broiling, bring a pan to medium-high heat and smoke the dried chilis. This will fumigate the immediate area, so if you can, you might consider doing this outside.
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After the dried chiles have been darkened and are smoking, remove them from the heat, add the hot water to the pan, and cover to rehydrate the chiles for ~10min. You might need to flip the chilis after a few minutes if they aren’t fully submerged. SAVE THIS WATER!
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Remove the peppers from the broiler and set aside to cool. Chop the onions into halves and broil the tomatoes and onions on high until the tomato skins have split and blackened a bit.
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Flip the onion halves and tomatoes. You can also add the garlic at this point, but be very careful not to let it burn, otherwise it will spoil the flavor. Remove once the tomato skins have been blackened on both sides.
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Blend all the peppers, tomatoes, dried chilis, onions, garlic and lime juice together (unless you have a massive blender, you might want to use a large bowl and an immersion blender, as this is the “party size” recipe). Add the chili water from the rehydration until you achieve the desired consistency.
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Add the desired amount of cilanto and salt to taste. You can’t really go too far with the cilantro in terms of flavor (in my opinion) but this recipe makes a brilliant deep red salsa and too much cilantro can muddy it, though ymmv.
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If you have msg, I have found it adds a little extra special something to the recipe. Again, season to taste. I usually do a ratio of 1 to 2 msg to salt as a guideline, but really I just eyeball that shit and taste test it at every step.
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Let cool in the fridge (overnight ideally) and serve with anything salsa belongs on. This recipe also freezes well if it makes too much.
You have quite a bit more heat here than I did, so my recomendation with what you have is to swap the 10 bird’s eyes with 5 Fatalii Jigsaws and the choco habaneros with the scorpions and the serpents. If this is for the general public to eat, I would only do 1 scorpion and 1 serpent. If you wanna fuck some shit up, do 2-3 serpents and 2-3 scorpions.
This recipe was made for my friends and fiancee who can’t hang with me on spice, so it has some room to be hotter for someone who likes a really good kick in the ass.
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I’d probably fill the jalapeños with a mix of cheeses (ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan is a good combo) or ground meat, and then roast them until soft. You could also slice and pickle them with vinegar, water, salt, dill, garlic and you’re good to go.
The other peppers are simply too hot for that. So instead I’d suggest you to either smoke them or make a pepper sauce out of them; there are lots of good recipes on the internet for that, this one for example is rather simple and it tastes really well with some modifications, although I’d probably also add 1/4 onion and some dill to it.
I just ate grilled swordfish with a white hot sauce.
Make the sauce by adding minced habeneros to sandwich pal horseradish sauce. Adds a nose hit to the hit of the spicy pepper.
Put them in a jar with distilled water and 2-5% non-iodized salt. Let them ferment a few weeks, then blend it up for some tasty hot sauce.
OK here’s a question: I got a ghost pepper plant and so far it’s grown exactly one pepper, straight out the top of the plant, and it was sweet. Not a hint of spice. Any idea why?
I just made fried rice …. The only vegetable I had was jalapeños, plus I opened a new jar of hot sesame oil
All in the mixer and then into the oven.
