Hot pepper recipes?? Freezing peppers?

[mldflygirl]

I was given a bunch of home grown peppers from a friend, and don't know how to use them all! The peppers are serranos, jalepenos, and a smallish yellow pepper I don't remember the name of (looks & smells like a Hungarian wax, if you're familiar with those, except smaller).

I love to cook, love international food, & have no problem with spicey food. But generally everything I make only uses between 1-4 peppers per recipe. The friend that gave them to me makes very gourmet/time-involved recipes, so she was no help. There aren't enough peppers (and I don't have the time) to can them.

I thought of freezing them, but only want to do that as a last resort. I don't have much extra space in my freezer. Anyone know how well they'd freeze or what would be the best way to freeze them?

Any other suggestions?

[boolady]

I know it's not really soup weather, but I have a very simple recipe for Thai Chicken Noodle Soup that I love that uses (I think) 2 serranos in the recipe. They get pretty mild because you seed them and put them in the broth as the soup is cooking. If you want the recipe, I'll post it. Other than that, I usually only use jalapenos in salsa or guacamole.

I can't be much help with the freezing issue, though I'd love to hear if anyone has a good idea for it...

[mldflygirl]

I'd love to get the soup recipe from you. Don't know if I'll use it right now, but I'm always up for new Thai recipes!

[juliasmom05]

Peppers freeze really well. You can freeze raw, blanched or roasted peppers. Just cut them up and freeze them on a cookie sheet for an hour or so and them put them in a ziploc bag to store.

Marci

Mom to Julia 4/05

[BaileyBea]

I grew up in New Mexico and they are known for their Green Chile Peppers. August 19th is the date for our big pepper roasting party. We go through over 40lbs of chile peppers per year. WOW!

Here's some simple instructions for roasting and freezing.:

1) With a fork, poke holes into your peppers whole (note: wash them but do not cut them open).
2) Roast your whole peppers on an outdoor or indoor grill. Turn them when their skins get charged a bit to the other side till all sides of the peppers are roasted.
3) Let roasted peppers sit in cookie sheet lined w/Aluminum Wrap for several minutes, This alows to the peppers to deflate a bit and sit it its juices. You peppers should be soft and limp.
4) After peppers cool you can do two things. Either take the roasted peppers and put them into freezer bags or peel the skins off the roasted peppers and freeze the unskinned peppers in freezer bags.

Note: We take the extra time and freeze the unskinned peppers in freezer bags. It's just easier this way when you need them for receipes etc..

Good luck.

[mldflygirl]

Thanks for the info! Think I'll be freezing some "fresh" and the rest roasted!