I'm going to have to make sure I plant plenty of jalapeno peppers this year. I'm nearly out of chipotles! A few years ago Roger and I had a HUGE bumper crop of peppers- that all seemed to turn red at the same time. What to do, what to do? We smoked them, of course, and made our own chipotle peppers. I've currently got a few left that I keep stored in the freezer. They are smoked and dried but I still keep them in the freezer to keep them fresher longer. They are a grand addition to chili or just about anything else that you want to have that smoky heat. YUM! Sometimes I crush it and sometimes I don't.
This time I tossed it in whole
As you can see, it's chili on the menu for dinner tonight. I was going to have this be a local meal tonight using beans that we grew but, of course, guess who forgot to soak the beans!? So I turned to the old stand-by of canned beans from the pantry. But what's this? An omen?
Hard to read but it says Best by Dec 2012
Every can of beans I had in the pantry said best by Dec 2012. Hmmm, if I were a believer in the Mayan Long Calendar hubbub about the end of the world on Dec 21, 2012 I may be worried. Otherwise, I guess it means that I've still got time to eat my beans. And if the world does end, I'll leave it with a full pantry (minus a few cans of beans)
Yum! Great idea, smoking & drying the peppers. We pickled most of ours last summer and used them in my canned red & green salsas.
ReplyDeleteI've been busy planting my jalapeno seeds for the seedlings I grow, so I guess it's time to start thinking about using them again this year!
Yum! My poblanos and chipotles were a bust last year, but at least I still have a few gallons of jalapenos in the freezer, think I'll plant less of those this year LOL
ReplyDeletewhat a great idea for the peppers! and that is pretty scary that those cans will remain good for that long! i really need to do better with my garden this year
ReplyDeletekris
Can you share how to smoke the jalapenos? I had a bumper crop of tiny red ones and I didn't know how to do it-or I guess I could have checked on google! I'm going to try to do Sharon's challenge this year too-I've been thinking about it for a long time-it will motivate my kids.....
ReplyDeleteIt's been two years since we smoked these and I'd have to look up how to do it again. The one thing I remember is that we had to keep the temperature really low and actually had trouble keeping it low enough. You don't want to have the heat too high or it cooks the peppers before they get a nice smokey taste to them. I ended up finishing them off in the dehydrator to fully dry them for storage.
ReplyDeleteI'd really like to figure out how to can some in sauce. Maybe a research project for this year.
Judy
Love chipotle. We need to grow it from seed this year. Haha, I love the "omen" of the Mayan calendar you mentioned...well, you'll have at least had to eat the beans before they got stale by then!
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