food Need ideas for using frozen chiles

filmost

filmost

So I have some frozen rocoto (peruvian), aji limo, and aji amarillo that I defrosted last night. Wanna use them for lunch. Any ideas? I am at work so was thinking of slicing them up and tossing them in whatever lunch I can buy near by. Meat sauce pasta perhaps?
 
Wouldn't hurt one bit. I haven't personally experienced this as I've yet to freeze peppers, but others have said that frozen peppers, upon defrosting, tend to be rather mushy, so dehydrating them, or adding them after being mashed up into a sauce or puree would be a good idea :)
 
I had some yesterday, while they feel mushy to the touch, the is actually quite a bit of crunch left.

Only tools available to me are a knife and cutting board. So perhaps I'll mince the chillies up and add to my pasta.
 
Mincing is a good option with frozen pods because of the texture. I usually dry mine now, but when I froze some a couple years ago, I most often put them into saucy-type of stuff. Spaghetti sauce, chile, etc. Also good in mixed-up stuff like stir-fry, stew, and the like.
 
Yeah noticed that today. The texture is a tad off. While still quite crunchy, the skin was a bit tough. I think I will bring the rest of these home and blend them into a sauce.
 
++ to what the others have said.  
 
The texture just isn't there like fresh chile, so sauces, etc is the way to go.  You might notice a bit more difference of the flesh and skin than you noticed before.  On frozen chiles the skin is still quite firm and the flesh is all mush.  Often it seems to me like the skin is sharp little pieces.  This can be dealt with by mincing super-fine or cooking the frozen chiles in a sauce so the skin actually gets cooked and breaks down like the rest of the pod.    
 
 
You can also dry the frozen chiles, and make powder or whatever, if room is needed in the freezer.  ;).  
 
salsalady said:
Often it seems to me like the skin is sharp little pieces. 
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That is exactly what it was, except the rocoto which was still very fleshy, thought definitely not as flavorful as claimed to be. But I assume that is because it was frozen, and because it probably was not picked ripe.
 
I may try my hand at making a sauce. Gotta mcguiver an airlock first though.
 
airlocks are for fermented sauces, lots of tips on those in the Fermenting 101 thread.  Sauces don't have to be fermented, but if you like the flavor profile of fermented sauces the definitely go for it.  
 
Lots of basic sauces can be made from frozen chiles and a few fresh veggies.  If you want to make a simple cooked sauce, just add the ingredients, cook it, blender the snot out of it and pack it.  (well, there might be a little more to it than that, depending on where you want to go with the sauce flavorwise.  :) )  If you haven't already, check out Fermenting 101 and Making Hot Sauce 101, both stickied in the Making hot Sauce forum.  
 
Have Fun!!!
 
Why freeze at all? I concur with the others that peppers loose their texture after being thawed. I've been drying mine in the oven after harvest: cut in half lengthwise then put on a tray on the lowest possible temperature setting for a couple hours. Of course, nothing beats the cruch and sting of a fresh pepper :)
 
So I would go with a casserole or meat sauce where the texture is mostly homogenous. Especially if they a very spicy then ofen the only clue they are in there is the flavour. :dance:
 
Why Freeze at all?
Some folks don't have the time or capacity to dehydrate, even with an oven, let alone a dehydrator.  If I know the chile will be destined for a cooked sauce, I much prefer freezing as it does help break down the cell walls of the chile which makes it faster to cook down to a smooth sauce.    
 
Freezing is a great option for quickly getting the pods saved.  I freeze and later dehydrate depending on the situation.  I've had to freeze some pods just because the dehydrator was FULL_FULL_FULL and there was no way I was going to get those POUNDS and POUNDS of jalapenos dried.  So I froze them and then dried them later when I had time.
 
I have about 30 pounds of fataliis that I froze in season just because I couldn't decide what to do...now...I wanna go play with the fataliis!   
 
Neither frozen or dried can hold a candle to a fresh pods.  But in the dead of winter, when there is narry a fresh pod hotter than a serrano to be found in all the kingdom (or at least 100miles)  I'm happy to have a frozen or dried fatalii, superhot RedChile blend or similar to play with.  
 
 
Can't say the rest of the family is quite as happy as I am...:)...But WHATEVER!!!  If I'm cooking, they can deal with it!  :lol:
 
Thanks salsalady, I will check them out. If I don't need to ferment then that makes things easier. I suppose I will start with a saucy salsa dip and see where it takes me.
 
filmost said:
That is exactly what it was, except the rocoto which was still very fleshy, thought definitely not as flavorful as claimed to be. But I assume that is because it was frozen, and because it probably was not picked ripe.
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Correct - I've found there to be a huge flavor difference between ripe and unripe rocotos. I always bring my rocoto plants into the house when the cold weather hits in order to let any green pods ripen. I won't even bother eating a green one.  
 
geeme said:
 
Correct - I've found there to be a huge flavor difference between ripe and unripe rocotos. I always bring my rocoto plants into the house when the cold weather hits in order to let any green pods ripen. I won't even bother eating a green one.  
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Do you notice a flavor difference between plant ripened vs indoor ripened rocotos? The frozen ones I have are red, but I assume they were picked before they ripened and then packaged up.
 
I've never had a ripe rocoto that was not ripened on the plant, so have no answer for you. Ripe red rocotos have a flavor that is amazingly tomatoe-like, yet different at the same time. If yours don't give you a strong impression of tomatoe, then I'd tend to agree with your assessment.
 
So I finally took those frozen peppers home, hope to maybe get something going this weekend.

If I were to do a cooked sauce vs a fermented sauce, how long would it last refrigerated?
 
cooked sauce with a "bit" of acidity (vinegar, lemon, lime whatever) will last weeks-months-years.....
 
 
If you just blend up some fresh ingredients without cooking them, think of them as a blendered salad.  If you chopped up a bunch of chiles, some onion, bit of garlic (all fresh vegetables) how long do you think they would last in your refer?  3-4 days? 
 
A cooked sauce with a bit of acid will last as long a fermented sauce.  Both would potentially have a similar low pH, and would have the same longevity based on that low pH. 
 
How long it takes to get to that low pH?  With a cooked sauce....30 minutes.  With a fermented sauce...7 to 90 days depending on your preference.
 
Both sauces are great choices, it's up to you how long you want to deal with the sauce.  Wait for the ferment, or cook it up now.  The tastes are sooooo different between the two styles of sauces, there's no way to say one is a better choice.  It's totally up to you which taste you like and want to do.     
 
Haha, well it looks like i have a lot of experimenting and learning ahead then! Thanks for the recipe list btw!
 
I am thinking the frozen pods, thawed and finely chopped, might make a good mix-in for bread, since they will dry out a bit while baking, anyway.
 
geeme said:
I am thinking the frozen pods, thawed and finely chopped, might make a good mix-in for bread, since they will dry out a bit while baking, anyway.
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One of my favorite uses for frozen pods is chopped into corn bread with a bit of jack cheese.  Yum!
 
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