Plentiful Pepper Preparation
27Saturday 01 November, 2014 by Uncle Spike
I am often asked about what the hell we do with all the fruit and veg that we grow. Well, I finally remembered to crank up the old camera on the day we recently tackled some of our peppers. So here goes, your guided tour of how exciting (not) my life can be 🙂
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Step one
Get out there and raid the veg patch four times a season and pick a few bucket loads of fresh peppers. Mine are pretty mixed, and of no specific variety, having used locally grown seeds of indeterminate heritage – but they all taste yummy, so who cares, right?
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Step two
Give ’em a good shower… We don’t use any pesticides, fungicides or fertilisers apart from “poo” of the goat, chicken and perhaps moo-cow variety, so it’s just a quick rinse, that’s all. I then sort them into big or small… this will become clearer later on as they get different treatment:
Big : Steps 3-4 = chop ‘n’ freeze
Small : Steps 5-9 = cook ’em whole
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Step three
The larger, less pretty, or downright ugly peppers are chopped into small chunks. I dont worry about de-seeding; it’s all healthy stuff, and I’ll use them throughout the year for all sorts of dishes (e.g. in casseroles, a stir-fry, curries etc).
Oh, and having Granny Spike and her bestie staying with us a couple of weeks was well-timed – you see, arm a couple of octogenarians with sharp knives and set them loose for a couple of hours makes short work of such a task 🙂
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Step four
Then it’s time to bag ’em and freeze ’em.
I don’t blanche them or take any other action at all; just bag them up and throw them straight in the freezer. They defrost as fresh as ever well over a year later. In the winter, when making a decent Spikey Curry, all I do is bash open a bag and throw half of the them in, frozen, and that’s as much worrying as one needs.
The only advice I have: don’t scratch your eyes or go to the loo during this job – they don’t half sting, if you get my drift!
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Step five
Fire up the gas under a decent size deep pan, or wok. Add an unhealthy amount of olive oil – yes I know, it helps when we have barrels of the stuff from our own trees.
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Step six
Throw in a few handfuls of smaller peppers (up to 12-13cm long, or 5″).
You can add some crushed garlic or spices right about now (which is brilliant by the way), but I usually don’t, so the peppers have more varied uses later on – your call.
Heat on a hot flame, stirring every minute or so. Keep the windows open as the air can get a bit sharp if you happen upon a hot batch of peppers 🙂
Keep the heat going for 5-6 minutes until there are signs of being partially cooked (colour change etc).
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Step seven
Add a half glass of water straight into the pan to make a lovely sizzling cloud in your kitchen. Stir all that around and continue to cook like that for another 5 minutes, stirring every now and then.
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Step eight
Once the colour of the peppers deepen, they are done.
Drain them off in a colander and let them cool off. Or as I do, immediately start the next batch – repeating this process maybe 10-15 times 🙂
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Step nine
And then, later on, I bag these up too, whilst usually scoffing a few handfuls as they are simply gorgeous when they are that fresh (i.e. picked off the plants only 1-2 hours previously).
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Step ten
Find a spare drawer in one of the freezers and stuff the lot in there. Remove and use as you like over winter – simple as that!
The chopped ones can be used however you like, straight from the freezer.
The smaller ones that have been cooked are used cold, often served with some of the pasta-type homemade tomato and garlic sauce that was featured in a previous post.
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[…] you’ve already seen how we freeze our peppers, either chopped or cooked whole in an earlier post. However, drying them is also quite a normal […]
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Your commentary transforms the whole process into a very entertaining read. I used to enjoy canning and preserving, but sadly, I’ve almost completely given up over the last few seasons. You’ve inspired me for next summer.
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And you can sing along whilst you do it, even better 🙂
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Beautiful! and I really do mean that … I enjoyed the whole process!
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Cool, aim to please…
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I loved this post! I like learning about new cultures and food…and how to prepare them. Thank you!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/?s=The+Adventures+of+Fuzzy+and+Boomer&submit=Search
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
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Glad you enjoyed it Linda… as I recall, weren’t you one of those who requested some posts from my kitchen?
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Haven’t had these in a long time! Now, you got my tummy wumbling! I make mine with onions. I didn’t know these can be frozen. Will try to freeze some next time. Thank you!
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WOWWWWWWW!Give me some!I adore peppers in all colors,all forms,all foods!
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Hmm… might not travel well… could send some dried over? email me, lol
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O! I love it ‘Granny Spike and her bestie’ and ‘Arm a couple of octogenarians with sharp knives and set them loose’ what a vision! thanks I enjoyed it all!
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Can we come over for dinner? Really, this homemade food is wonderful looking and I’m sure is delicious too. Bon appetit!
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Any time… most of what we eat these days is either home-grown, or locally grown and freshly prepared.
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Look at all that wonderful produce! It’s snowing here so all those colors are a beautiful sight.
On another note I think we have exactly the same counter top! 🙂 Is it granite?
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Yes, 1cm granite, as opposed to the 2cm marble. It’s all locally quarried in Turkey – pretty standard here, lol
Snow, wow… been picking olives every day in t-shirt n shorts (sorry) 🙂
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Standard there perhaps we pay a pretty penny for it here. I swear it’s the exact same colors as ours. 🙂
Picking olives you say. We are picking up our snow shovels.
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Never had snow here… we had 3mm ice on a puddle last year, does that count as winter???
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Definitely not! 🙂
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fabulous! i looked through all the shots, thinking “do not rub eyes, before washing hands!’ i have way too many lemons, key limes and all things citrus to use, so i admire the time spent by you on this preparation.
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Our cupboards and freezers are stacked full of our own produce, or things we’ve prepared… so different to my old life
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I’ve had to go pee whilst chopping hot peppers, Never Again! I am amazed at the amount of veg you grow and your barrels of Olive oil! I’m so jealous! Can I come live with you?? shh… Don’t tell my husband I asked! lol….
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Excellent use of the peppers, great way to store them for future use!
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Wow! Excellent. I love peppers 🙂
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Great minds think alike…I made my candied jalapeños yesterday. Are your peppers the sweet kind or the hot kind?
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Mixed, but most of the ones shown were mild and tasty
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Hot tongue Hot stomach woof
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Most of these are mild as a cucumber Fred
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