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.

 

[SocalChilehead]

Yea Rick let me know I will definitely jump in on that with you. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[stickman]

Nice growing. My three serranos are definitely not producing like yours. I will have enough for jelly though.

Nice poddage!!!

Hi Bodeen
Thanks for stopping by! You're no slouch yourself... I've been lurking on the fringes and checking out your pics of poddage and the dishes you've been cooking with them... Good on ya!

Yea Rick let me know I will definitely jump in on that with you. Thanks for the heads up.

Hi Fernando!
Cool, I figure we've got a few months yet before we have to put it together... Gotta deal with this season's harvest and putting the garden to bed for the winter before beginning the planning for next year. Cheers!

 

[stickman]

Hi All
Cooked and canned some spaghetti sauce I made with produce from my garden... Amish Paste plum tomatoes, Basil, Parsley, Sweet Peppers, Frigitello Peppers, Onions, Garlic, Red Wine, Fennel Seed and Sweet Italian Sausage. Had rigitoni with some of the sauce and canned 5 quarts. Thank goodness for immersion blenders!

 

[stc3248]

Mmmmmm....I knew better than to come here hungry. Now I gotta hit the kitchen!

 

[stickman]

Mmmmmm....I knew better than to come here hungry. Now I gotta hit the kitchen!

Hi Shane
Sorry 'bout that... :
Not much new to post on the chiles themselves. They're ripening up nicely. The only news is that as a result of cutting back on the watering this month to speed ripening, some of my pods split after a few heavy rains. the cherry tomatoes have been splitting like crazy. Just minor irritation... I've processed just about 2 quarts of gochu garu, which is my target this year. I'll have at least another quart or so over that to trade with.
Thanks for looking in

 

[stickman]

Making chicken stir-fry tonight with my gochu garu, hoisin sauce, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds, and since I'm out of white wine I'm using a little lemon juice.

 

[stickman]

Hi All
I've hit my target of 2 quarts of dried gochu pepper powder (gochu garu), so I'm all set for kimchi making for the winter. The gochus are still producing, though they're slowing down as the nights get cooler and the days shorter.

 

[Pinoy83]

foods and powders looking good rick,thats a lot of powder

 

[stickman]

foods and powders looking good rick,thats a lot of powder

Thanks Eric
It's not the haul that Shane has, but it should keep me in Kimchi this winter. I made some stir-fried chicken and veggies last night with the same sauce I use for Ojingo Bokkum and it was a big hit. The only modification I made was to use my gochu garu instead of gochujang.

 

[highalt]

Congratulations on reaching your goal with a few weeks left to go in the season!

Last year, I filled half a dozen spice jars, and thought that would be plenty. I'm down to my last one, so I'm hoping to get the dehydrator cranked up soon. I did a lot of blends last year, but I kind of want to do individual powders too this time around, so that I can evaluate the flavors of the different peppers.

 

[PaulG]

Man, Rick, when I see your kitchen pics I feel small and insignificant
I can do okay with the growing end, but I'm a dorque in the kitchen.
Drying and grinding (I got a cheap coffee grinder) will probably tax me to the
point of having an extra beer or glass of wine

Good news. I have a ripening Fatali on the bush - more to come soon, I hope,
and the Naga Morich pods all over the bush are starting to show a little color.
Hope it's not just a disease of some kind

You have done a great job this summer, my friend!

 

[Ausmith]

Rick - looking really good! Looks like you'll have plenty to tide you over through the winter.

 

[stickman]

Congratulations on reaching your goal with a few weeks left to go in the season!

Last year, I filled half a dozen spice jars, and thought that would be plenty. I'm down to my last one, so I'm hoping to get the dehydrator cranked up soon. I did a lot of blends last year, but I kind of want to do individual powders too this time around, so that I can evaluate the flavors of the different peppers.

Thanks Bonnie!
Drying individual varieties sounds like a good idea for isolating the components of your blends. I'm putting together a blend of Anchos, Pasillas and Anaheims for chili, but there won't be as much of it as there will be of the gochu garu... maybe a pint jar by the end of the season. What I have so far has a deep chili powder smell that kind of reminds me of the smell of prunes.

Man, Rick, when I see your kitchen pics I feel small and insignificant
I can do okay with the growing end, but I'm a dorque in the kitchen.
Drying and grinding (I got a cheap coffee grinder) will probably tax me to the
point of having an extra beer or glass of wine

Good news. I have a ripening Fatali on the bush - more to come soon, I hope,
and the Naga Morich pods all over the bush are starting to show a little color.
Hope it's not just a disease of some kind

You have done a great job this summer, my friend!

Hi Paul
Thanks for the kind words, but you can't be that hopeless in the kitchen... my Dad truly was though. He could fry eggs and make toast, but if he tried to make anything more involved he ended up burning it. He even burned jello and spaghetti. Looking back now, I wonder if it was a result of his Multiple Sclerosis...
I'm using a cheap coffee grinder to grind my powders too. The gochu garu is mild enough that I don't have to wear goggles and an improvised respirator like Shane, but I've gotten a few whiffs of fine powder when I took off the top and had to sneeze...
Congrats are in order for nursing your chiles along to harvest in the face of inclement weather and family crisis. I'm looking forward to seeing your evaluation of the chiles you grew as they ripen up.

Rick - looking really good! Looks like you'll have plenty to tide you over through the winter.

Thanks Clayton
Your "Twisted Ankle" hot sauce looks very good too. Will it be enough to tide you over 'til next year?
Cheers All

 

[RocketMan]

Rick, atleast with your dad you could tell that you didn;t want to eat the burned stuff. My dad he could cook and was very Avant-garde in his cooking. I remember when he brought home the Official Jello Cookbook. We were all thinking All Right, we're going to get some great jello with fruits and whipped cream! Nope, he proceeded to make a Tuna fish and Lime Jello thing. We all, mom inluded, took one sniff and went to the kitchen to make sandwiches. ​

True Story, and one that I would truly like to forget. ​

 

[stickman]

Rick, atleast with your dad you could tell that you didn;t want to eat the burned stuff. My dad he could cook and was very Avant-garde in his cooking. I remember when he brought home the Official Jello Cookbook. We were all thinking All Right, we're going to get some great jello with fruits and whipped cream! Nope, he proceeded to make a Tuna fish and Lime Jello thing. We all, mom inluded, took one sniff and went to the kitchen to make sandwiches. ​

True Story, and one that I would truly like to forget. ​

Ouch Bill!
No wonder you learned to cook... it was in self-defense!

 

[stickman]

Finally got caught up on drying peppers. Only had 2 trays of gochus to dry, plus one of pasillas (and an ancho) and one of the orange habaneros.

I wore latex gloves while cutting them up and deseeding them, but the hand I handled the peppers with is still burning!

 

[highalt]

Use nitrile gloves instead of latex, and you should be okay.

 

[stickman]

Use nitrile gloves instead of latex, and you should be okay.

Thanks for the advice Bonnie, it seemed to help a little but wasn't proof against the capsaicin getting into the skin. I processed another load of chiles for the dehydrator this morning, and the hand I held the pepper halves with while deseeding them with a spoon is burning again this morning. Hey, I can live with it... and a side benefit is that as long as I handle chiles I'm not likely to get arthritis in my hands...

 

[stc3248]

Yup...I had the same issue 'till Bonnie suggested the Nitrile. I had some nitrile before, but had run out and bought the latex because they were cheaper the next round. NEVER AGAIN! Nice pulls once again Rick!

 

[stickman]

Yup...I had the same issue 'till Bonnie suggested the Nitrile. I had some nitrile before, but had run out and bought the latex because they were cheaper the next round. NEVER AGAIN! Nice pulls once again Rick!

Thanks Shane
I'd be willing to bet anything you'd care to name that you'll come home to a pull that would satisfy a platoon if not a company...

Poblanos, serranos and jalapenos are all getting red-ripe. I've made a couple of cases of the peach-serrano jam with the ripe serranos. I'll be drying and powdering the anchos and pasillas for chile powder, and smoking and drying the jalapenos for powder as well.

Serranos

Poblanos ripening into Anchos

Jalapenos

I'd make some of Katrina's recipe for smoked Jalapeno-Apple sauce but I just won't have enough red-ripe jalapenos. Powder'll be nice for the winter though...
Have a great weekend all!