Last Friday, before I headed out for the weekend, I halved and seeded the Aleppos I got from TrentL's farm.
After sitting on the dining room table Saturday and Sunday, I put them in the dehydrator Sunday evening. My intention was to pull them before I went to bed Sunday evening, but I didn't, and they dried until they were toasty crisp.
Salt curing isn't taking place on this batch.
The two trays of peppers ended up about a quarter of their original volume.
KitchenAid makes a grinder attachment for the power port on their stand mixers, which I have, so I hooked it up, using the larger of the two round hole dies. Here's the initial set up.
After grinding about a quarter of the peppers, the auger jammed and after some unsuccessful tapping and hammering, I decided to take it into the downstairs shop and put it in one of the vices to get the retention nut off.
Clearing the jam and flaking the brick it caused took about a half hour. A mortar and pestle looked to be a better fit for the process, so I dug it out of the back of the pantry and set to breaking down the remaining peppers. It seemed like it should take a lot more time than it actually did. In the future, I'll just do it this way, as the product coming out of the grinder wasn't the nice big flake I wanted.
After adding about a teaspoon (a flatware teaspoon, not a measuring spoon) of flake kosher salt and the same of olive oil, I'm done! The two pounds of peppers made about a half cup of flakes. This stuff smells amazing!
It's still a bit hotter than I'd like, but it's so flavorful, the heat that is there won't be an issue, at least for me. Grilled zucchini is on the menu tonight, so you can bet I'll be using the Aleppo. I'll report back after dinner.....