Had a rough time figure out how to post pictures at first, but that was corrected (see pod porn below).
Stefan_W's Great Big Beefy Pepper Adventure: Grow List
- Thread starter Stefan_W
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Thank you for your insight! I have heard that the unripened bhuts don't taste very good though, so do you find that the green powder from them is bitter?
Ok, time to get to it. This is the leftovers from this week that have not been used yet, after using close to a hundred pods on assorted things since Monday. It is officially time to get up off of my butt and start making salsa and sauce!
Teaser: I'm saving the yellow brandywine for a ghost pepper sauce.
Teaser: I'm saving the yellow brandywine for a ghost pepper sauce.
As I was pulling garlic this morning I realized that the only time my peppers are not combined with garlic is when I pop a pod into my mouth straight off the vine. This is a shout out to garlic, which is one of the best things in the world go grow in terms of health and taste. I simply can't understand putting in tons of effort to growing great peppers and then buying crappy supermarket garlic imported from china, which is nearly tasteless in comparison. /rant.
Anyway, this is this morning's garlic that is pulled and getting ready to be set aside to cure for a little while.
Anyway, this is this morning's garlic that is pulled and getting ready to be set aside to cure for a little while.
This evening I made up five batches of hot sauce, which filled 6 larger jars and 8 small jars. The small jars are to give away to friends and co-workers. The six larger jars will last me till next weekend when it is time to do it all over again.
I used up 200 peppers over the course of this three day weekend, and I fell way behind. I'm going to have to start drying and freezing shortly, because they will only keep in a bowl for so long. I will be making up my first attempt at a ghost pepper sauce or salsa either tomorrow or the day after.
I used up 200 peppers over the course of this three day weekend, and I fell way behind. I'm going to have to start drying and freezing shortly, because they will only keep in a bowl for so long. I will be making up my first attempt at a ghost pepper sauce or salsa either tomorrow or the day after.
I picked my plants clean last night, and when I came home it was a sea of red again. Here is some assorted pod porn, on the vine.
A ginormous bhut pod.
The picture could be better, but lots of red on the other bhut plant with a few ready to be picked.
I have been picking minimum 6 kung paos a day off of this plant, and today it will be two or three times that number.
And a couple of random tomato shots to show I'm not one dimensional.
These beefsteaks are as big as softballs!
So all is well as all hell breaks loose in the garden
A ginormous bhut pod.
The picture could be better, but lots of red on the other bhut plant with a few ready to be picked.
I have been picking minimum 6 kung paos a day off of this plant, and today it will be two or three times that number.
And a couple of random tomato shots to show I'm not one dimensional.
These beefsteaks are as big as softballs!
So all is well as all hell breaks loose in the garden
They are a medium heat, and I love the taste of them. Out of all of the peppers in my garden I like eating these straight up the best. My plan is to make pepper jelly with them so I am saving them up at the moment, but they are absolutely amazing cooked into rice.
Ok, tonight was the night that I finally made an attempt at ghost pepper salsa.
This picture shows the main ingredients, which is a ghost pepper, yellow brandywine tomatoes, onion, garlic and cilantro. I also added some white pepper, vinegar and a touch of salt. In the end I decided to cut back to one ghost pepper from my original idea of two, mostly because I only had two ripe yellow brandywines.
This is the first ghost pepper from my garden that I picked over a week ago now. I cut off the end to eat a bit. Very tasty, and obviously hot.
And into the pot they all go!
I went for different colours, and I think the effect was quite nice. I'm a sucker for bright vibrant colours in food, partly because it looks good and partly because naturally colourful food is almost always healthy.
The salsa is still simmering but I have already had a few tastes as a sample. It ended up a bit watery because I added a lot of vinegar to help preserve it, which I will have to adjust in future batches. Even simmering down it will stay too watery for my liking. In retrospect it was a mistake to cut back to only one ghost pepper. He is doing a great job heating it up, but it is only very very hot instead of nuclear. This may change as it simmers, because I am noticing that it takes quite a while for the heat to spread around the pot. This is different from other types of peppers I've made salsa with. Aside from needing a bit more heat the taste is a 8.5/10. The cilantro is bold in most salsas but it just can't compete with the ghost pepper and it is lost in this mix.
A bit of tweaking is needed to bring this salsa up to the level I want, but it looks like I will have close to a hundred ghost pods by the end of the year so I have lots of room for experimenting.
This picture shows the main ingredients, which is a ghost pepper, yellow brandywine tomatoes, onion, garlic and cilantro. I also added some white pepper, vinegar and a touch of salt. In the end I decided to cut back to one ghost pepper from my original idea of two, mostly because I only had two ripe yellow brandywines.
This is the first ghost pepper from my garden that I picked over a week ago now. I cut off the end to eat a bit. Very tasty, and obviously hot.
And into the pot they all go!
I went for different colours, and I think the effect was quite nice. I'm a sucker for bright vibrant colours in food, partly because it looks good and partly because naturally colourful food is almost always healthy.
The salsa is still simmering but I have already had a few tastes as a sample. It ended up a bit watery because I added a lot of vinegar to help preserve it, which I will have to adjust in future batches. Even simmering down it will stay too watery for my liking. In retrospect it was a mistake to cut back to only one ghost pepper. He is doing a great job heating it up, but it is only very very hot instead of nuclear. This may change as it simmers, because I am noticing that it takes quite a while for the heat to spread around the pot. This is different from other types of peppers I've made salsa with. Aside from needing a bit more heat the taste is a 8.5/10. The cilantro is bold in most salsas but it just can't compete with the ghost pepper and it is lost in this mix.
A bit of tweaking is needed to bring this salsa up to the level I want, but it looks like I will have close to a hundred ghost pods by the end of the year so I have lots of room for experimenting.
I swear my peppers are multiplying in the bowl. I used up a few peppers since my last update, and I also gave a whack of them away leaving this as my harvest from this past week. I plan to string a bunch of the cayennes for grinding into powders later, and freeze a pile of them to use for sauce through the winter. There are about 50 or so atomic starfish in the pile, which means it is time to make some pepper jelly with them! Photos to come as it is all happening.
The two bhuts on the left come from the plant that I did not trim in the spring, and the rest are from a plant that was pruned to remove leaves taht were in bad shape. I also gave away a bunch from the pruned pile. I guess I'll be pruning like crazy next spring!
The two bhuts on the left come from the plant that I did not trim in the spring, and the rest are from a plant that was pruned to remove leaves taht were in bad shape. I also gave away a bunch from the pruned pile. I guess I'll be pruning like crazy next spring!
Thank you very much! It is definitely time for drying and powders now that I have hundreds of cayennes.
The yellow brandywines taste different from other brandywines. The tomato taste is more mild, and has a citrus/pineapple undertone which I actually did not appreciate the first time I tried it. But then the aftertaste was so pleasant and cleansing that I was hooked. I now like to use them with things that are very strong, when I don't want a competition of flavours if that makes sense.
It was a very busy day. I cleaned and seeded 50 atomic starfish and a few jalapenos to make into a pepper jelly tomorrow. I also made salsa to help deal with the dozens of tomatoes that are kicking around.
Salsa ready for freezing. 25-30 beefsteak/brandywine tomatoes, 5 heads of garlic, a big bunch of cilantro, 2 whole purple onions, a dozen yellow wax peppers (ripened half and half between red and orange), a dozen sweet cayenne peppers. My stock pot was about 3/4 of the way full, which makes this the biggest batch of salsa I've ever made.
This is what it looks like up close and personal. It is very flavourful, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.
I'm behind in reading some of the other glogs due to getting busy this evening, and I'll get caught up early this week.
Salsa ready for freezing. 25-30 beefsteak/brandywine tomatoes, 5 heads of garlic, a big bunch of cilantro, 2 whole purple onions, a dozen yellow wax peppers (ripened half and half between red and orange), a dozen sweet cayenne peppers. My stock pot was about 3/4 of the way full, which makes this the biggest batch of salsa I've ever made.
This is what it looks like up close and personal. It is very flavourful, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.
I'm behind in reading some of the other glogs due to getting busy this evening, and I'll get caught up early this week.
When I was checking on my bhuts today I noticed two pods, one on each plant, were damaged. Has anyone seen this type of damage? It runs along the stem like an abbrasion on the pod on the right, and it is a hunk missing shaped like a crack so you can see through to the inside of the pod on the left.
I cut into the pods to see if they were damaged on the inside, but everything seemed fine. Better than fine, as the pool of capsaicin forming on the cutting board shows.
So I decided to cut out the seeds and freeze them. I made the mistake of doing this without gloves because I figured they would be ruined and tossed in the garbage, which would mean I did not have to touch them. My hands are on fire at the moment. Definitely no self love tonight.
I cut into the pods to see if they were damaged on the inside, but everything seemed fine. Better than fine, as the pool of capsaicin forming on the cutting board shows.
So I decided to cut out the seeds and freeze them. I made the mistake of doing this without gloves because I figured they would be ruined and tossed in the garbage, which would mean I did not have to touch them. My hands are on fire at the moment. Definitely no self love tonight.
My wife made this pepper jelly with 50 atomic starfish peppers and 5 red jalapeno peppers. The peppers are already shown in a picture above so I did not snap a "before" shot.
There was a bit of sampling jelly leftover, and man was it delicious! I have no problem saying, without any exaggeration, that this is absolutely the best pepper jelly I have ever had! I highly recommend atomic starfish peppers if you are into making jelly, because it is like they are made for this purpose.
My wife is often hit and miss with the hot peppers, and wonders aloud why I grow some of the superhots. But after making this, as we were sitting on the couch and sampling, she looked over at me and said "ok, I want to make ghost pepper jelly next." It was like falling in love all over again
There was a bit of sampling jelly leftover, and man was it delicious! I have no problem saying, without any exaggeration, that this is absolutely the best pepper jelly I have ever had! I highly recommend atomic starfish peppers if you are into making jelly, because it is like they are made for this purpose.
My wife is often hit and miss with the hot peppers, and wonders aloud why I grow some of the superhots. But after making this, as we were sitting on the couch and sampling, she looked over at me and said "ok, I want to make ghost pepper jelly next." It was like falling in love all over again