TABASCO PEPPERS - WHAT TO DO WITH THEM. I have a friend who breeds tabasco peppers and he gave me a few seedlings to try. I now have three large bushes full of pretty yellow tabascos, which I assume will turn red soon. I have never seen a recipe that calls for tabasco peppers. Has anyone got an idea about how to use these? I don't know any recipes, but my tabasco plant is now 15 months old! (Really quite a feat in Kentucky) I used them in salsa for a little extra kick without an overwhelming habanero taste (calm down, I use hab's too). I dried a bunch of red tabasco peppers, and a bunch of yellow ones, right before they turned red, then ground them into seasoning. The red tabasco powder tastes like McIllhenny's sauce, only without the vinegar. Use for clam chowder, chili, eggs, whatever. The big surprise, was the yellow tabascos (tabascoes?). They were fantastic!!! The ultimate hash brown / home fries / potato seasoning!!! Really surprised me. A Major difference. Save some of those yellow beauts and dry-n-grind 'em before they turn that awfull red. Scott Sehlhorst _________________________________________________________________ Well, you could always crush, salt, ferment and combine with vinegar and end up with Tabasco (tm) sauce....I even have a (more home-style) recipe: (from _The Pepper Garden_) Take 1 lb of fresh red tabascos (or serranos), chop coarsely. Combine with 2 cups vinegar and 2 tsp salt, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, puree in a blender. Let sit refrigerated for a couple of weeks, then strain into sterilized bottles. Or, better yet, use them fresh in salsa, or dry them and use the pods in stir-frys, etc. You could also grind the dried peppers for an unusual chile powder. Mike Bowers -- mikeb@radonc.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu _________________________________________________________________ I made a really simple chile sauce last summer that now is my favorite seasoning for eggs, vegetables and main dishes. I make it a little thicker than you want (on the order of Pickapeppa or A1) but you could easily add more vinegar and water to resemble Tabasco. What I did was take about 2 pounds of ripened Chile de Arbol peppers and wash and chop off the stems. Then chop them up coarsely and put in a stainless steel saucepan. Cover with a 50-50 mixture of vinegar and water and boil for 3-4 hours, adding more liquid as necessary. Make sure you have adequate ventilation: this combination will absolutely *stop* your respiration if you get more than a few minutes of it. (Oh, I forgot the salt. I usually use Kosher salt (it was suggested in some recipes for chile sauce, so I used it) - usually about a tablespoon in the end result of 1 quart sauce.) After you've boiled it, pour the whole mixture into a food processor or blender and puree. Cook it down to the thickness you want and put it in a bottle. Refrigerate. The de Arbols give it a nice, small (but pungent) amount of heat and I think it tastes better than Tabasco sauce, especially on eggs. It's kept beautifully in my refrigerator. I imagine several other types of peppers would produce a nice sauce like this as well. bergstro@src.honeywell.com (Pete Bergstrom) _________________________________________________________________ CHILE VINEGAR Bring 1 cup of cider vinegar to a boil in a covered saucepan (not aluminum). Pour the vinegar over 3 to 10 fresh whole jalapenos or serranos, slashed deeply in several places. Add 5-10 black peppercorns, 1 clove of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed, and 1/2 tsp salt. Let sit at least a week. Add more chiles if you want it hotter; you can eat the peppers if you wish. _________________________________________________________________ |Drying |Pickling |Freezing |Jellies |Sauces |Smoking| _________________________________________________________________ Mike Bowers -- mikeb@radonc.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu