Preserving Your Chillies - Freezing

chillies, use, them

OK. You've managed to grow a successful crop of chillies for yourself but now you have a problem. Well, not really a problem; more a challenge.

What can I do to preserve my chillies so that I can use them all year round? Fortunately people have been faced with this problem for thousands of years. As a result there are a number of solutions that you can use. Some of them ancient, some of them quite modern.

This ezine article will examine, in detail, the process of dehydrating chillies with an electric dehydrator.

However, before you start, there are a few basics that we need to cover to help you get the most out of your garden and the harvested fruit.

1) It is universally agreed that the best approach to harvesting your chillies is what is known as a 'staggered harvest'. No - you don't have to be drunk. What it means is that you harvest the chillies a number of times throughout the growing season. This will ensure you maximize the production from your plants. If the chillies are left on, the plant believes it has achieved it's reproductive goals and few new fruit will be produced. Staggered harvesting ensures that the plant 'keeps on trying' for the full length of the growing season.

2) Unless you are specifically after green chillies, the best approach is to harvest ripe fruit with tight, shiny skins that are firm to the touch. Fruit that are ready should come off the plant easily. If you need to use any force it's probably best to leave it a few days before trying again.

3) Give the fruit a wash and have a second look to weed out any fruit that have black spots as these will usually rot and/or go moldy.

'Freezing chillies - how hard can it be ?', you ask.

Don't get me wrong, it is as simple as you think it is. However, there are a couple of traps for young players that I would like to go over. Just to guarantee that you are not disappointed with your results 6 months later.

You can use any type of chilli here; red or green, thick or thin.

Point 1 - before you freeze, think about how you generally use your chillies. If you usually de-stem and split them open to remove the seeds and pith, then do it NOW as it's always an inconvenient time when you want to use them later on.

Point 2 - if you always use your chillies chopped finely then do that now. You can then put them into ice-cube trays (maybe add a little water), freeze them, then tip them into freezer bags ready for use whenever you want.

Point 3 - always double, or even triple bag your chillies before freezing. What the hell do I mean? Double bag means you have one bag inside another - and so forth. Why ? Two reasons;

* it stops your chillies getting freezer burn (oxidized)

* it stops the chilli leaching out and affecting other foods that it is in contact with in the freezer.

Point 4 - If you've triple bagged your chillies, you'll get at least a year of storage, possibly more in a deep freezer.

Point 5 - Just keep in mind that this process does not impart any other flavours to the chillies whereas smoking your chillies and our process for drying green chillies does. It all depends on what you are after. That's it. You're all set. This really is the easiest way of preserving your chillies.

Now to use your frozen chillies. You can either thaw them out or simply throw them in while still frozen.