Stickman's 2012 Gochu Pepper Glog

Well, here we go... Started about 35 Korean Gochu Peppers and a few Korean salad peppers, jalapenos and orange habs. All are mostly up today but the habs. I started them early last week in my heated grow tent down in my cellar on top of a grow mat, but didn't have the thermostat quite dialed in. When I left it it was 70 degrees f. in the tent. When I checked again the next morning it was 85 degrees, and I was afraid I'd cooked the seeds, so I moved them onto my kitchen windowsill on the grow mat and awaited developments. Looking much better now. I'll give the Habs until the weekend to pop, then move the flat down to the grow tent.

 

[stickman]

Yea Rick I will try to put together a group thing and we can figure it out from there. The ristras and the prep for the poppers is amazing. You need to try that with some rocoto or manzano peppers.

Sure Fernando...
It might be next year though since I have to grow them first. I don't know of anybody within a hundred miles who does, so I'll have to do it myself.
Have a great weekend guy!

 

[stc3248]

Those look fantastic! I knew there would be a new and different twist to your poppers. How'd they go down?

 

[stickman]

Those look fantastic! I knew there would be a new and different twist to your poppers. How'd they go down?

Hi Shane
I was in a mood for improvisation so I made up both fillings on the spot. They both came out excellent. Never tried tofu and neufchatel cheese stuffed poppers before... maybe it's a first. I did half that way and for the other half, I was in the mood for something Italian too... hence the cured ham, basil, Frigitello peppers and parmagiana cheese. It reminded me a lot of the jars of ham stuffed, pickled cherry peppers I used to get at the Italian sandwich shops in my area when I was a teenager. Their standard dressing on a cold cut grinder was a squirt of good olive oil and a few shakes of good Italian herb seasoning. To this day I prefer it to mayonnaise... preferably with some sliced black olives.

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hi Balázs
Thanks for the kind words... means a lot coming from a master grower! Jalapenos are only moderately spicy when green, but at least you don't have to wait 4 months for ripe peppers. They're a good warm-up for the main event in the late summer/early autumn. If you let them get red-ripe they have more bite, and a bit of sweetness too. The flesh is too thick to sun-dry, but they smoke-dry very well, and you have Chipotles when you're done.

Hi Rick,
Master grower...thanks, but I am n00b compared to Chile heads on this forum. I have been reading this forum since two years, but still, there are new and interesting things to learn every day. I have never eaten ripe Jalapeno, only the green, pickled ones, and they were tasty. I have seen fresh ones only once in an exotic food store, where it was like 2 dollars for 4 pieces... Another thing I do like about this forum, the barbecue equipments shown and the smoking. Once I will have my own house with some garden, besides of the peppers/veggies, I am going to build/buy a smoker. Last year we had a garden party with my colleagues, and the Mexican wife of one of them told us that Mexicans prefer using Serrano peppers for making Chipotles, rather than Jalapenos. Do you know anything about it? I guess it is similar to the Chinese food in Europe: they are not spycing the food in the way they do it normally, cause probably our sensitive European stomach would not like it
Balázs

 

[stickman]

Hi Rick,
Master grower...thanks, but I am n00b compared to Chile heads on this forum. I have been reading this forum since two years, but still, there are new and interesting things to learn every day. I have never eaten ripe Jalapeno, only the green, pickled ones, and they were tasty. I have seen fresh ones only once in an exotic food store, where it was like 2 dollars for 4 pieces... Another thing I do like about this forum, the barbecue equipments shown and the smoking. Once I will have my own house with some garden, besides of the peppers/veggies, I am going to build/buy a smoker. Last year we had a garden party with my colleagues, and the Mexican wife of one of them told us that Mexicans prefer using Serrano peppers for making Chipotles, rather than Jalapenos. Do you know anything about it? I guess it is similar to the Chinese food in Europe: they are not spycing the food in the way they do it normally, cause probably our sensitive European stomach would not like it
Balázs

Hi Balázs
I've heard that Chipotle is a generic term for smoked chiles in Mexico, and people smoke-dry whatever varieties they like to eat. Hey, it's a great way to preserve and flavor chiles that you want to store without using electricity (freezing) or a heat source (canning)... well you do need some heat to make warm smoke, but not as much. Jalapenos have flesh that's so thick and juicy that it's tough to sun-dry them quickly enough to avoid them getting moldy, so smoke-drying is a great way to speed up the process.
Good to know that the Alma Paprika tastes best pickled rather than dried or fresh. I like pickled peppers, so maybe I'll try growing them down the road a piece. Cheers

 

[PaulG]

Rick, you never cease to amaze me - great food (You must clone
yourself and send us all copies. Yum!) and great pepper pics!
Your plants seem to be going into overdrive, my friend!


Your glog is always a source of great information about preparing
peppersand great dishes. Thanks for taking the time to educate
the world about 'gochu'!

 

[stickman]

Rick, you never cease to amaze me - great food (You must clone
yourself and send us all copies. Yum!) and great pepper pics!
Your plants seem to be going into overdrive, my friend!


Your glog is always a source of great information about preparing
peppersand great dishes. Thanks for taking the time to educate
the world about 'gochu'!

Thanks Paul
We all do what we can! And I do love world foods... There's lots to learn here and I love that too. Cheers!

 

[stickman]

Time for another report of the dawn patrol... Ripening proceeds apace. The Andy hybrid and Kim-Chi gochus are ripening in greater numbers.

Kim-Chi gochus

Andy Gochus

We had some rain and wind last night and I lost a big branch off of the Poblano. The good news is that it was only one branch and most of the chiles on it were pretty big. Guess I was meant to have a Poblano harvest after all and I'll still have Anchos for later.

This is today's involuntary harvest...

 

[HabaneroHead]

Wind sucks... What are you going to do with the Poblanos?

 

[stickman]

Wind sucks... What are you going to do with the Poblanos?

Hi Balázs
I'm going to roast and peel them, then I suspect I'll do big chiles rellenos because I still have some of the popper stuffing left. When life hands you lemons I guess you just have to make lemonade...

 

[stc3248]

Half full kinda guy...I like it! Great stuffers for sure. That little wind storm pushed you right into having to post some more foodie pics later! Nice pull! Those poblanos are champs! That plant will probably set twice that number in new pods due to the loss of that limb.

 

[roper2008]

Looking good rick. I looked at that korean seed link you posted. It seems a lot of asian seed companies
have mostly hybrids. That's too bad because you can't save the seeds. .....I want to grow more asian
varieties next year.
Those poppers look good, especially the ones on the left.

 

[stickman]

Looking good rick. I looked at that korean seed link you posted. It seems a lot of asian seed companies
have mostly hybrids. That's too bad because you can't save the seeds. .....I want to grow more asian
varieties next year.
Those poppers look good, especially the ones on the left.

Hi Linda
I don't mind growing hybrids. I have so many chiles in such a small space that if I saved the seeds they'd all probably be crosses anyway. I'm most interested in results, and the hybrids make great gochu powders. The seeds are really cheap, the plants grow and produce vigorously... from where I stand it's a win-win situation. How's your grow going this summer? Have you cooked anything good with your chiles? Thanks for the Habanero jelly recipe you posted... I'm definitely going to make some when mine ripen. Cheers

 

[SocalChilehead]

Great accidental harvest I think mother nature was telling to make another awesome Rick dish that would get all of us hungry all over again. Like you said it was only one branch so no biggie especially if their is more still hanging on.

 

[roper2008]

Let us know how the jelly comes out. I have never tried it. I like to make jalapeno pepper jelly. It makes
a great sweet & sour dip. Recipe I make calls for 6 cups sugar, but I use 5...
I always grow some hybrids, so if you need anyone else for that group purchase, I'm in.
I haven't really cooked anything with my peppers except adding a few kung pao to my chinese
stir-fry. Below is a picture of my kalamansi plant that I found at the farmers market. I put some
cumari peppers, little bit of onion, salt, mashed it all together in a mortar, then added the juice
of a few kalamansi's. It tasted really good. I bet it would be great on some fish.

Kalamansi--very small limes, but very juicy and tasty little citrus.

 

[PaulG]

When life hands you lemons I guess you just have to make lemonade...

Rick, great minds run in the same gutter.
That is exactly what I was going to say

Shane is right, you will have to stake the
heck out of the rest of that plant pretty quick!
That was a lot of peppers on one branch.

 

[stickman]

Great accidental harvest I think mother nature was telling to make another awesome Rick dish that would get all of us hungry all over again. Like you said it was only one branch so no biggie especially if their is more still hanging on.

Hi Fernando
you're right... gotta just keep on keepin' on. Still the other upper branch and a couple smaller side branches.

Half full kinda guy...I like it! Great stuffers for sure. That little wind storm pushed you right into having to post some more foodie pics later! Nice pull! Those poblanos are champs! That plant will probably set twice that number in new pods due to the loss of that limb.

Hi Shane
We'll see... even if I lose it entirely I have plenty of backup in the other chiles, and I'll have a good shot of homegrown Poblanos. I took my second pull of Anaheims out to my Mom's and gave them to my sister. Anaheims and Poblanos are her favorites. We roasted them on my Mom's outside fireplace and she'll make something with them there.

 

[stickman]

Well, I used up the rest of the stuffing for poppers with the windfall poblanos and some strips of bacon. Roasted and peeled the chiles...

Stuffed and grilled them...

The finished product!

I noticed that some of the Poblanos had more of a kick than I'm used to from them... It must be the hot, dry weather we've been having that ramps up capsaicin production.

Let us know how the jelly comes out. I have never tried it. I like to make jalapeno pepper jelly. It makes
a great sweet & sour dip. Recipe I make calls for 6 cups sugar, but I use 5...
I always grow some hybrids, so if you need anyone else for that group purchase, I'm in.
I haven't really cooked anything with my peppers except adding a few kung pao to my chinese
stir-fry. Below is a picture of my kalamansi plant that I found at the farmers market. I put some
cumari peppers, little bit of onion, salt, mashed it all together in a mortar, then added the juice
of a few kalamansi's. It tasted really good. I bet it would be great on some fish.

Hi Linda
When I make the jelly I'll definitely get back to you on how it came out. It looks like it may be fairly soon because I went out to look at the chiles around sundown and I have a habanero turning orange.
It looks like you have quite a setup out your way too. It must be nice to have your own citrus trees for salsa and sauces. Do you have them planted outside, or do you have them in a greenhouse or solarium?

 

[stickman]

Monday morning report of the dawn patrol... Orange Habaneros are starting to ripen. Just one now... but it looks like I'll have a decent harvest barring misfortune.

 

[stc3248]

Those PoblanoPoppers look amazing! Wow! Their flavor is my favorite for Rellenos...but they don't typically have the heat to pull it off just right. If you found some with a slight kick to them you're in business my friend! You're in the business of harvesting Orange Habs daily now my friend! With two plants you will never be in short supply. It'll almost seem as though for every pod you pic one evening the plant replaces them with two full sized pods the next morning.