Hot peppers

Jalapenos

I like hot peppers of various types.  Over time, it seems that my taste buds have become less sensitive.  I remember when jalapenos used to send me over the edge.  Not so much any more.  As a bit of a pepper junkie, I decided that we need tons of peppers to satisfy my cravings.  In the excitement of late winter/early spring seed-starting, we planted hot peppers in sufficient number to feed my entire family for a year.  We planted jalapenos, hungarian wax, cayennes and habaneros.

Canned, pickled jalapenos

I have been drying pepper rings, I have canned peppers by themselves, I have thrown peppers in salsa, pickles, spaghetti sauce, and on everything I eat fresh.  Still, we have millions and millions of peppers.  I had to resort to something extreme and strange to use up some jalapenos.

Drying jalapenos

I made jalapeno jelly last night.  I am not exactly sure how you eat this though I have heard it is good on anything with creamcheese. The recipe is pretty simple so it’s worth a try:

Jalapeno jelly
Jalapeno Jelly
3/4 pound stemmed & de-seeded jalapenos
2 cups vinegar
6 cups sugar
2 pouches of liquid pectin
I de-seeded the peppers for the first batch of jelly but got tired of that so I ground seends and all for the second batch. Anyhow, puree the jalapenos until they are nearly unrecognizable. Boil them with sugar and vinegar for 10 minutes. Make sure you stir constantly and have a big enough pan as this mixture swells a lot and really smokes-and-smells-up-your-house-and-your-wife-has-to-scurry-around-to-deactivate-the-smoke-alarms-since-the-kids-are-sleeping when (I mean if) you boil it over (so I’ve heard). After the 10 minute boil, remove from heat, add pectin and boil again for 1 minute. Powdered pectin does not work very well so do yourself a favor and just use liquid pectin. Ladle into half-pint jars and water bath can for 10 minutes.  You can add green or red food coloring, by the way.  I prefer not to add coloring but you can color it if you’d like.

11 thoughts on “Hot peppers

  1. Jalapenos…yummm! I planted some this year and I’m very dissapointed that they are not a single bit hot.

    Yes, I’m back from my camping trip! It was wonderful. I didn’t have a chance to blog about it yet. Lots to catch up at work and at home. Will blog about it soon with lots of pictures.

    p/s: We finally went to the shooting range yesterday and I got to shoot some guns and I had a blast! I shot 9mm for a little bit and then we went to shoot clay. I used a 20ga shotgun.

  2. The jelly is good but pretty hot so if you are not a pepper fan, this would not be for you. On the other hand, if you like jalapenos or hotter stuff, you’ll like the jelly. It’s a strange hot/sweet mix and fairly confusing oin your mouth. I talked with My mom some last night and she reaffirmed that it is best when mixed with cream cheese and then put on bagels or crackers, etc.

    It’s pretty easy to make so it’s worth a try i fyou are curious.

    YD, congrats on the shooting! I love shooting too…it’s high on my favs list! I hope you’re hooked now!

  3. I like making jellies of all kinds. Maybe I’ll try this one. I have had it with cream cheese and it is a burst of flavor in the mouth!

    What liquid did you can the peppers in? That looks good!

  4. Hey Don,
    I don’t remember the exact recipe now but it was mostly vinegar I think. We haven’t eaten any of them yet as we have plenty of fresh. I think we got the recipe from the Ball canning book if you have it. Let me know if you want more details…

  5. I made some last year when we had an overabundance of peppers. You can make it hotter or milder by including more or less seeds. It is TEH BOMB on a toasted bagel or home made bread with cream cheese. TEH BOMB, I tell you!

    (“The” misspelled for emphasis)

  6. Hey, I just tackled my first go at canning last week. My parents canned everything, but my garden has never been big enough to both with it.

    Anyway—the jalapeno jelly loves cream cheese so much that they got married last Christmas. I kid, but if you’ve tried it by now, you know how wonderful they go together.
    .-= ceecee´s last blog ..Let Them Eat Cake, Part II =-.

  7. We made hot sauce (a la Tabasco) with our habaneros last year. You also need carrots. It’s quite yummy in buffalo wing sauce.

  8. Hey, ah……if you’re overrun…..I’m happy to take 3-4 habs. I have 4 left in the freezer…that will do 8 batches of salsa for us. 🙂

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