Conference turris::cooks

I'm sure it depends how you want to use them. In my experience they don't freeze
well, and they seem to be hard to dry.

We (my wife is the chef - I'm just the scribe :-) usually store chilies by
packing them in air tight (preserving) jars in either fish sauce or vinegar
(since we tend to use them in recipes that use fish sauce and vinegar as
ingredients). Stored like this, and kept cool (refrigerator, not freezer) they
keep about 6 months, though usually we have used them long before that.

A side benefit is that you can use the chilis in vinegar or fish sauce as a 
table condiment...

/. Ian .\

    I have been told by people out here in the southwest (Arizona) that
    they roast Anaheim peppers and freeze them in ziploc bags. They should
    remain fresh for 6+ months this way. I dunno if this would apply to
    yours but it's worth a try with a few of them.
    
    Keith
    

    I want to can (jar?) some jalapanos.  I'm looking for two recipes.
    
    1 - the pickle/vinegar type recipe, giving a result that you can
        use on taco salads, subs, etc.
    2 - a hot pepper jelly to use with sharp cheese and crackers
    
    Does anyone have either of these?
    
    --Louise

Using a one pound size preserving jar...

Chop chilis into thin roundels, and seive in a coarse mesh seive to remove excess
seeds.

a) fill to about 1" below rim with finely sliced chili "roundels", and juice of
one lime and fill to brim with fish sauce in which "a little" (about 1 teaspoon) 
sugar has been dissolved. (or use soy sauce if you prefer). A little msg can 
also be added to match commercial products.

or

b) fill to about 1" below brim with finely sliced chili "roundels" and fill to 
brim with distilled (white) vinegar.

After a few days remove any floating seeds and top up fluid level.

Keep in a fridge, and don't use until 10 days old.

/. Ian .\

    I've had the most success preserving hot peppers by drying them.
    
    Wear gloves. Then open the pepper and remove the seeds. Leave it in
    a window until thoroughly dry. I then grind it into powder.
    
    I grow little thai peppers at home. These are real easy to preserve.
    I simply bring the plant in and let it die. The peppers dry quite
    nicely right on the plant.
    
    I've had no success preserving them in oil. Vinegar works OK, but
    nothing I've tried preserves the taste of 'fresh'...
    
    Edd

You can also store them in a jar full of gin in the refrigerator.  Use the gin
later to make Cajun martinis.

--PSW

>You can also store them in a jar full of gin in the refrigerator.  Use the gin
>later to make Cajun martinis.

I, on the other hand, prefer using a good vodka.  I wash/dry the peppers and
drop them into vodka.  Refigerate.  Use peppers in cooking or as a snack,
straight up (if you are brave), and use the vodka for marinades and in
drinks with snappy tom tomato juice - jet propelled bloody mary is the
name for the drink...I also drop a handful of whole peppercorns into the
vodka with the peppers.  Quite an eye-opener.  Don't use the vodka for at 
least 2 weeks after adding the peppers.

    
    Red Chili IMO is best preserved (unless already dry) by freezing.
    
    1st: wash them off & take off the stems (leave the seeds in them)
    
    2nd: fill your blender half full or so with the red chili's and half 
    	 full with water.  Blend completely, fill with water and blend
    	 some more.  (usually about 5 minutes of blending the 1st time and
    	 a minute or so the 2nd time)
    
    NOTE: Never add spices to your chili when freezing !!!!!!!
    
    3rd: put contents of blender into ziplock and freeze.
    
    When your ready to make red chili just unthaw and go about your red
    chili receipe.
    
    send me mail if you have any questions, I'v done red chili this way for
    quite awhile now and never had any problems.
    
    Deb Guara
    

    BUT I want to *pickle* jalapanos cut up into nice little rings
    so I can put them decoratively on top of tacos or casseroles or
    pizza or subs or whatever.
    
    I'd like something a little more than just a plain vinegar
    and jalapanos recipe.  I've tried pickles with just vinegar and
    they taste like, well, VINEGAR.  There must be something else
    in the jalapanos I have bought.  Sugar?  Spices? (it's probably
    MSG or something equally healthless).
    
    --Louise

>    I'd like something a little more than just a plain vinegar
>    and jalapanos recipe.  I've tried pickles with just vinegar and
>    they taste like, well, VINEGAR.  There must be something else
>    in the jalapanos I have bought.  Sugar?  Spices? (it's probably
>    MSG or something equally healthless).
    
actually, salt and some water is probably what you are noticing.  The
jalapenos have enough "oomph" to flavor the vinegar quite strongly...
especially if you don't split them and remove the seeds.  I would suggest
one trick if the normal vinegar doesn't do it for you...try Japanese
rice wine vinegar - maybe the "seasoned" variety (mostly or all salt
add according to the labels I've read).  It is milder and might allow
more of the pepper to step through.

If you are looking to have nice slices of pepper, I wouldn't pickle them
at all, simply don't use jalapeno's but serrenos (spelling?) - their
skin is thinner but they are approx. equivalent to jalapenos in kick.
simply wash, dry and freeze.  When you use them, slice frozen and then
allow to defrost.  pat dry with paper towel and voilla - you got chile
rounds with which to decorate food.....and scorch the tongue.  Is it
just me or do these things seem hotter after frozen and defrosted?

    re .11 They are spelled serranos and I don't know where you've tried
           them but in my experiences they have quite a bit more of a 
           kick than jalapenos. In addition they're usually much smaller
           and wouldn't make very impressive slices. 
    
           Keith
    

>>    re .11 They are spelled serranos and I don't know where you've tried
>>           them but in my experiences they have quite a bit more of a 
>>           kick than jalapenos. In addition they're usually much smaller
>>           and wouldn't make very impressive slices. 
    
OOPS!  Well, my mother's home-grown jalapenos aren't gentle by nature..
and her serranos are about the same.  In fact, the "chile encyclopedia"
she has (a pamphlet put out by NMSU - in Las Cruces, NM) lists them as
about the same "heat".  You may have experienced differences due to
the growing conditions of the different peppers.  They respond quite
well to differences in water and soil type.    

    re -.1 I thought I remember seeing serranos as being a few ticks higher
           on the torture scale. I remember biting into one of these once
           and kinda regretting it, something I've been able to do with
           holly penos without too much pain. I have noticed that the ones
           I get here in Arizona are generally hotter than what the markets
           had in MA. Freshness counts I guess.
    
           Keith
    

    
    Anyone know where you can buy New Mexico chili powder in the Central
    Mass/Maynard area ?  Or, alternatively, any good mail order sources
    with a wide variety of chili powders ?  
    
    Thanks, Larry

>    Anyone know where you can buy New Mexico chili powder in the Central
>    Mass/Maynard area ?  Or, alternatively, any good mail order sources
>    with a wide variety of chili powders ?  
    
if your local library carries the Frugal Gourmet cookbooks, you can find
an address of a vendor for chiles, powders, etc. from New. Mexico.  It was
in his second or third cookbook (not "Cooks with Wine").

alternately, call the Albuquerque, N.M. chamber of commerce and ask for some
information - they should be happy to oblige...

OR, finally, you can subscribe to New Mexico Magazine (don't have the publisher
address on this, but a little scouting around a good library should help)..
they have ads for everything New Mexican in the back....

Good luck in finding real chile in Mass - I used to live there and it was grim.

               <<< RUSURE::NOTES1:[NOTES$LIBRARY]CHILI.NOTE;1 >>>
                                  -< Chili! >-
================================================================================
Note 111.2                    chili powder source?                       2 of 11
UPWARD::SANDERSB "Resist much, Obey little"          33 lines  28-JUN-1990 20:50
                              -< Get a Molcajete >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        To grind chile that fine you really need a grain mill.  Of course
        you could do it the original way with a molcajete.
        
        (A molcajete consists of two stones.  The bottom is a bit hollow
        or concave and the one you use in your hands fits into the bottom
        stone tightly.  One puts chile, corn, maze, etc. in there and
        grinds away.  I kept telling my (now ex-)wife that I was going to
        get her one.)
        
        You can get pure ground red chile from -
        
                Chili Patch U.S.A.      (for mail order)
                204 San Felipe N.W.     P.O. Box 3894
                Old Town                Abluquerque, NM 87190
                Albuquerque, NM 87104
                505-24C-HILI
        
       
                The Chili Pepper Emporium
                328 San Felipe NW
                Old Town
                Albuquerque, NM 87104
                505-242-7538
                800-766-4568
        
        
        For Fresh and dried whole chiles -
        
                Old Southwest Trading Company
                P.O. Box 7545
                Albuquerque, NM 87194
                505-831-5144

    I pick up some of each of the Idylwilde peppers you made note of.
    
    It seems that just about all of the peppers I've bought there are
    much milder than expected.  The Fresnos we only mildly spicy (though
    quite tastey), the serranos were not nearly as hot at I've come to
    expect, and the Bonnets (I spend weeks in Jamicia eating in little
    thached hut resturants to get my fill of these) were almost heatless.
    
    Maybe the taste buds are moving to a higher plane.
    
    -kevin
    

>    Maybe the taste buds are moving to a higher plane.
    
or, more probably, the growers simply gave the plants too much water....it
can make a big difference.  In N.M. the climate is so hot, and the growers
simply don't water until the plants are quite droopy (rainy season is after
the harvest there - all 6 inches or so a year)...and the chiles are sooooo
much better.  My mother grows her own and they would take paint off a car...
at 5 feet distance.  Mom loves them.  Her taste buds were ruined years ago..
all that New Mexico killer enchilada sauce...

		Homesick for some TexMex food with a KICK!!!

					D

    I don't water my habenero plants until they look "exhausted". Within
    30 minutes of a drink they perk right up!
    
    ...I've got no problem with "not enough heat".
    
    Edd

I've got some WONDERFUL ground NM chiles.  My question is how much to use.  
Several recipes I have says to simmer # NM chilis and puree.  Anyone got an 
idea of quantity already ground?  My tolerance is pretty low, while my 
husband says the hotter the better.  With this difference, I'd like a starting
point.

There ARE some benefits to having family in NM. :^)

Jennifer

    To make chili gravey, I recall a ratio of 1 oz dried/cup of water. 
    Don't think the alread ground will make the same gravey like
    consistency
    
    It obviously depends on what type of chiles you have ground.  A nice
    standard issue SW chilie might equate 1,2,3,4,5 alarm to 1,2,3,4,5
    tablespoons.
    
    -gringo
    

RE: .20

There's another kind of chile pepper (I can't remember the name offhand) that
THE THRILL OF THE GRILL says looks almost exactly like the Scotch Bonnet
(aka Habanero).  It is very flavorful, but not at all hot, unlike the Scotch
Bonnet.  Maybe you encountered a mislabeled batch of these babies.

--PSW

re: how much ground red chile to use

oboy, well, test drives are the only way...so, to a pound of meat (for a batch
of chile, say), I'd start with 2 teaspoons.  Mix just enough vinegar into
the chile powder to make a paste, and then add it to the well-browned and
well-drained meat.  stir well, add other ingredients, and simmer for approx.
30 minutes.  At that point, you can take a taste - it will be approx. 2/3
as hot as it can get after two days chill in the fridge and a re-heat.  If
it is too mild, add another teaspoon or so...same drill and re-taste.

Why would you be using vinegar?  I've been making a paste
with water, am I missing something?

>Why would you be using vinegar?  I've been making a paste
>with water, am I missing something?

Mrs. Belldanado taught me to use vinegar (apple cider vinegar preferrably)...
and it seems to "bring up the heat" faster (she said so anyway) so I can
adjust my chile powder quantities while preparing the chile....better
than delivering a lethal mixture to innocent dinner guests.  Seriously, I
always do it the way I was taught, and had never considered using anything
else.  I bet beer, wine, or wiskey is also used by someone somewhere who
SWEARS it is the only way to do it.  If you like your recipe, then don't
change it.   8^}

The hot ingredient is an oil, even when the pepper is powdered.  Perhaps the
acid in the vinegar is better at getting the oil into suspensions in the liquid.
That might account for "bringing up the heat" faster.

    
    Finally found a great source for hot peppers and sauces in Ma. 
    
    At Faneuil Hall in Boston,  there's a small place called Le Saucier.
    
    It's located on the North side of the central building (the one that
    has all of the food concessions in it.)
    
    They have a few different chilis from New Mexico, and even sell 
    ristras.  For the fiery afficionado, this is well worth a visit
    to next time you're in the area.  Good tex-mex restaurant right 
    across from it in the North Market too, I believe it's called 
    Zuma's Tex-Mex.
    
    Regards, Larry
    

    Le Saucier has a mail order catalog:
    
    35 Eldridge Rd Suite 209
    Boston, MA 02130
    (617) 323-5015
    
    I'm sure a letter or phone call would get you on the mailing list.
    
    They actually had habaneros in the store!!!!