our peppers are still coming in strong and we just picked a lot of them to prepare for our first frost which usually comes in around this time. although our weather has been warmer than the norm for this time, we could have our first frost anytime in the next few weeks. last year our first frost was mid-october, so we’re getting ready for it!
many of our peppers were ready to be picked: red bell peppers, yellow bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, aji peppers, and cayenne peppers. the spicy peppers have certainly done better than our sweet bell peppers this year, which is fine with us. although we love eating sweet bell peppers in stir fries or in roasted dishes, our spicy peppers are easy to preserve and they are wonderful when added into soups in sauces throughout the winter. we still have a few “cubes” of jalapeño puree in the freezer, and it’s always nice to see that you have a surplus, even if it is just a surplus of 5 spicy ice cubes!
after we picked this batch of peppers, we rinsed them, and decided to process and preserve them separately. we have an awesome little food processor that fits about a cup of ingredients at a time, and it is great for processing little batches without much cleanup.
i began with the least spicy of peppers, realizing that if i began with the cayennes , all of my other batches would be equally spicy! so, jalapeños went in first, being chopped into quarters and tossed into the processor with some olive oil. once all of these peppers were pureed, i packed them into ice cube trays and stuck them in the freezer.
red and green jalapenos
after the jalapeños came the aji peppers, which are a little spicier and interestingly “empty” inside. let me explain… where green and red jalapeños are both very firm and meaty, aji peppers feel very flimsy and when cut open have such an open chamber inside that they resemble a smaller, wrinkly sweet bell peppers. after the aji peppers were processed, they were also added to the ice cube trays (taking up considerably less space than the jalapeños).
delicious aji peppers… introduced to us in peru!
after the aji peppers came the cayennes, and although i did my best, my fingers did start to burn after scooping out these pureed peppers and packing them into the trays. nothing like cayenne pepper juice to make your hands hot!
spicy cayennes
we filled up a little less than 2 ice cube trays, and oh, what a sight! the lovely green jalapeños (with some red flakes from the fully ripened red jalapeños), the carrot-orange aji peppers, and the bright red cayenne peppers make for lovely, colorful ice cubes. for now, if you include the other spicy peppers we’ve preserved so far, we’ve got a healthy store of spice for soups and sauce this winter!
jalapenos and aji peppers about to be turned into spicy ice cubes!
.:.