What to do with a bunch of chillies?

[Serpentine]

My housemates planted a little bird's eye chili plant in our garden, and it's taken off. I just picked a bunch of them because they were starting to shrivel on the tree, but now I'm not sure what to do with them...
They're very small (~1cm long), quite hot, and I have about of cup's worth of them. Too many to just throw into a stir fry or whatever, and I'm afraid they'll rot before they're used. So what should I do with them? A paste, dry them, what?

[Kelb_Panthera]

Use as many as you care to over the next couple of days for various things, then pickle the rest.

I've got some peppers that were picked months ago in vinegar in a mason jar in my kitchen right now. Pour a little of that over some cooked field peas.... mmmmm......

You could also grind them into a paste and mix that with some flavor enhancers and/or preservatives to make some hot-sauce.

You could dehydrate them and grind them into a chili powder to sprinkle over things.

You could just munch on them for the burning rush you get from it.

[Nightgaun7]

Dry them out, I think, or as Kelb said make a paste. Add some fried garlic, lemongrass, basil...

[Kelb_Panthera]

Dry them out, I think, or as Kelb said make a paste. Add some fried garlic, lemongrass, basil...

You're talking curry paste. That's a good option too.

......... I need to get some curry paste.

[banthesun]

If you've got room in the freezer you could make something with a ton of leftovers. In my family we cook up massive pots of chilli beans to last us for months. That deosn't actually include that many chillis though, so it mightn't be too helpful.

Alternatively, you could cook some of those dishes that are pretty much 50% chilli. :smalltongue:

[valadil]

Have you considered chili?

One of the new things I've been trying in my chili is blending all the herbs and spices in advance rather than just chopping them and tossing them in with the meat. You get a smoother texture and the heat is more consistent throughout. One of the nice things about this approach is you can blend your chillies and whatnot in advance and freeze them, then thaw out the mixture when you're ready for chili.

[Proud Tortoise]

Practical joke potential is pretty amazing.

[EmeraldRose]

Bird's Eye peppers? Put 'em in some vinegar and stick them in your fridge. Instant hot sauce! My Mammaw used to grow them in her yard and we'd have pepper sauce all the time in the summers.

It was some GOOD stuff!

[JustPlayItLoud]

First thing you need to do is learn how to spell it. Chili is that mushy bean and meat crap in a pot. Peppers are chiles. New Mexico may be the only place that spells it that way, but we grow the best so we get to make the rules.

Chile nitpicking aside, I would advise you to either dry them for cooking or make yourself some custom hot sauce. Little peppers like that don't have much value beyond adding spice and a little bit of flavor to things. They're too small and too hot to eat as part of a meal, so the best thing to do is preserve them in a way that makes it easier for them to fulfill their purpose of adding spice. Just be aware that drying them will make them hotter due to the reduced water to capsaicin ratio.

[Serpentine]

Chilli is correct in Australia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_pepper)

Is there anything else to do to make a chilli paste? Do you just moosh up the chillies, or do you add water or oil or what? And what're the best ways to preserve them, if I don't wanna paste or sauce them?

[Socksy]

See who can eat the most in one go.
Alternatively, play Russian roulette with a spinner, a chilli, some chocolates, and something to individually wrap them in.
Or blend them up and put them in a cup for beer pong/a shotglass and play the above roulette game with different (non-toxic, unless you're an idiot) liquids.

[Coidzor]

Salsa, hot sauce, infusing vodka with them, and saving the seeds from some of them for another plant come to mind.

[Malimar]

I make hot sauce. I used to use a recipe, I eventually just started dumping the stuff together without measuring, I've long since lost the recipe; you can probably find some online if you want specific amounts.

Basically: Blend chilies, vinegar, and salt in a blender. Decant into hot sauce bottles. Done.

You can get fancy; I sometimes add garlic, onions, lime juice, or other stuff.

[Kneenibble]

They are easy to dry, which is what I always do with a bumper crop of peppers. You can pretty much just put them on a plate, so long as they aren't touching each other, and leave them to do their thing. Then you can break them up into flakes or a powder.

The air is fairly dry on the Prairies, and they don't get moldy at all unless they're too close together. Maybe it would be different if your air is humid. If you could find some way to enclose them in a screen, so nibblesome birds didn't steal them, then probably drying them outside in the sun would do the trick.

[Ravens_cry]

They are easy to dry, which is what I always do with a bumper crop of peppers. You can pretty much just put them on a plate, so long as they aren't touching each other, and leave them to do their thing. Then you can break them up into flakes or a powder.

The air is fairly dry on the Prairies, and they don't get moldy at all unless they're too close together. Maybe it would be different if your air is humid. If you could find some way to enclose them in a screen, so nibblesome birds didn't steal them, then probably drying them outside in the sun would do the trick.
Alternatively, set an oven super low and dry them that way.

[Kneenibble]

Ovens can't get a low enough temperature, and you end up cooking out some of the flavour.

[Ravens_cry]

Ovens can't get a low enough temperature, and you end up cooking out some of the flavour.
Perhaps, but if the question is that or nothing, I'd still go for it. Alternatively, you can roast them and get an *increase* in flavour.

[Archonic Energy]

Chilli Vodka.

that is all.
surprise your "friends" next time you have a party

[Karoht]

My housemates planted a little bird's eye chili plant in our garden, and it's taken off. I just picked a bunch of them because they were starting to shrivel on the tree, but now I'm not sure what to do with them...
They're very small (~1cm long), quite hot, and I have about of cup's worth of them. Too many to just throw into a stir fry or whatever, and I'm afraid they'll rot before they're used. So what should I do with them? A paste, dry them, what?
Buy a decent bottle of either Vodka or Tequilla. Not cheap but not expensive.

Take chili's, open bottle, stick a few in bottle. Let the peppers flavor the alcohol. After about 2 months the stuff is basically liquid fire.

Marinade something in said alcohol with lots garlic. Chicken, pork, shrimp. Grill it. Glaze with something sweet.

[Heliomance]

Surprised no-one's suggested just freezing them. They freeze perfectly well, and when you want to use one, just pull it out, slice it, and chuck it in whatever you're cooking.

[Bhu]

Dry some into powder and share with your internet friends :smallbiggrin:

And kitties who are suddenly willing to be internet friends :smallbiggrin:

[Ravens_cry]

Dry some into powder and share with your internet friends :smallbiggrin:

And kitties who are suddenly willing to be internet friends :smallbiggrin:
Naked goth pixies also desire friendship. Spicy, spicy friendship.:smalltongue:

[Serpentine]

Uh... Dunno about your customs, but can't you guys just grow your own? They're ridonculously easy to get going.

[Bhu]

Grow a huge garden full of chilis every year!

But you can never has enough chilis.

Specially if you intend to make your own homemade sriracha.

And of course we was teasing :smalltongue:

[Yanagi]

If I recall correctly bird's eye chili (I'm thinking of the Thai phrik khi nu...little, used whole when dark green) are thin-walled, more hot than flavorful when red, but have a pleasant vegetal flavor when green. Does that sounds about right?

If you think you'll use them in a fairly short time frame...like a three-four days...you could shock them. That is, throw them in boiling water for a minute, them remove them and plunge them into ice water. That will stop them from deteriorating as quickly, but they'll hold their texture and flavor in the fridge enough to be eaten whole. If nothing else, that could give you time to cast about for a recipe to use them use.

Longer term, you've got lots of options, so it's question of what you cook and how often you use the specific type of chili.

You can make a Tabasco-type sauce (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/homemade-red-hot-sauce-recipe.html) (preservation in vinegar), or a fermented one like Sriracha (http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2009/07/homemade-thai-style-sriracha-chile-sauce-recipe-tuong-ot-sriracha.html). Or cook them with oil (and other seasonings) to make a seasoning paste. I use the latter method for my summer sweet and hot peppers--puree them, cook them with a little salt in a neutral oil until basically all the water is gone, then stow them in something with a tight sealing lid in the fridge.

[Mauve Shirt]

Mash some up, spread them over some meats (I advise pork), place the meat in a slow cooker for 6 hours on low with some root vegetables, eat it on a toasted roll!