Serrano Chiles

Rascal

I know a lot of you grow your own chiles and I've got a question on serranos. I'm making a salsa which calls for roasting various vegetables including serranos. When I cut them open to remove the seeds, one of them was loaded, akin to a jalapeno, while the other was completely void of any. Is this something that happens from time to time? Thanks!!

Zippylip

I have not seen that, they are usually loaded, but I wouldn't worry about it either (as long as there isn't some little varmint liv'n & din'n in there ), are we gonna see some pictures of the finished salsa?

Rascal

Thanks! No, I didn't see the remains of any wigglies in there! 8 - ) The recipe came from The Essence Of Emeril show and while the taste is pretty good, it looks more like tomato soup than salsa. I like a hearty salsa with a little heat and a lot of crunch!~

Austin Smoker

Like Zippy, everytime I've slice into one of these lovlies, it's PACKED with the heat (seeds and white ribs). Of course, that doesn't mean you don't have one with a little genetic anomoly involved.

BTW - Serranos are my absolute favorite for pico de gallo in addition to a great salsa ingredient. Rough chop on onion, tomato, serrano along with finely chopped cilantro and a little lime juice...mmm.

If you're putting it on fish, add a little mango or pineapple - SWEET and HEAT!!

Rascal

Sounds great! Thank you!!

Dimple's Mom

I have a recipe that calls for a serrano chile and I can't find any anywhere. I have looked locally as well as further away when I've been 'in town.'

What color are they anyway? What would be a good substitute?

Thanks!

Zippylip

Mom, they grow green at first, then they turn a little brownish on their way to flaming red, see picture below. Heatwise, they are somewhere between a jalepeno & a cayanne, but as my favorite pepper, there really is no substitute:

Dimple's Mom

Thanks, Zippy. I had a feeling they were red. All the stores (that don't carry them) have told me they were green. But I had my doubts. So far I have subbed in jalepenos for the flavor and red bells for the color. I do have a vendor at our local farmers market who brings back from eastern Washington and thinks she can get serranos for me in a couple weeks, so I'm looking foward to trying them.

Since they are hard to get (for me here), think I can chop up a bunch and freeze them for use over the winter?

Zippylip

You could do that, or you could preserve them, the Zippy method is simple, chop'm & submerge'm in vinegar for a couple days, drain well, then add olive oil. The jar below will heat up my morning omeletes all through the winter (I do a couple jars a year for this purpose). These are cayannes. Below the picture is the Scoville Scale which is handy to have for comparison purposes (see the real one at Wikipedia Scoville...). By the looks of it, you may want to try an Aneheim, they are pretty common in stores from what I have seen:





Scoville scale Scoville rating Type of pepper
15,000,000–16,000,000 Pure capsaicin[5]
8,600,000-9,100,000 Various capsaicinoids, such as homocapsaicin, homodihydrocapsaicin, and nordihydrocapsaicin
2,000,000–5,300,000 Standard U.S. Grade pepper spray[6], FN 303 irritant ammunition
855,000–1,041,427 Naga Jolokia [7][8][9][10]
350,000–580,000 Red Savina Habanero[11][12]
100,000–350,000 Habanero chili,[13] Scotch Bonnet Pepper [13]
100,000–350,000 Datil pepper, Capsicum chinense
100,000–200,000 Rocoto, Jamaican Hot Pepper [6], African Birdseye
50,000–100,000 Thai Pepper, Malagueta Pepper, Chiltepin Pepper, Pequin Pepper
30,000–50,000 Cayenne Pepper, Ají pepper [13], Tabasco pepper, some Chipotle peppers
10,000–23,000 Serrano Pepper, some Chipotle peppers
4,500–5,000 New Mexican varieties of Anaheim pepper,[14] Hungarian Wax Pepper[15]
2,500–8,000 Jalapeño Pepper, Guajillo pepper
1,500–2,500 Rocotillo Pepper
1,000–1,500 Poblano Pepper
500–2,500 Anaheim pepper [16]
100–500 Pimento[6], Pepperoncini
0 No heat, Bell pepper [6]

Dimple's Mom

So the serrano is fairly hot! I wonder what regular ground chile spice is made from, do you know?

Now, as regards that jar of peppers you have in the photo - do you fill it to the top with peppers, then fill it to the top with oil? How much oil is in there?

Do you process it in a water bath? Just store on the shelf? Or do you store in the refrigerator?

I am just getting together with a group of women interested in canning and food preserving. They will be interested to know this!

And I can put up a couple jars of the more interesting peppers. All the stores here sell are the bells (which I admit to loving) and jalapenos. Peppers are hard to grow here in Western Washington. It never gets hot enough long enough. We're still waiting for summer to arrive - anyone know when it'll get here?

Zippylip

Ground chile spice could be made from a variety of peppers, you have to look at the label. Regarding the jar, I cram as many in as I can & push them down with my meat-grinder smasher thing, then fill till overflowing with vinegar & screw on a plastic lid. Check back an hour later & top off. No water-bath/heat preserving is done with this method, it is the vinegar that does the preserving. After draining (do not rinse), top off with olive oil to the top of the jar as well. I keep'm at room temp & they last until next growing season. I preseve tomatoes as well but they are done in a pressure canner with the metal lid sealed jars. That's too bad you can't grow peppers, I live outside Philadelphia & these things grow like weeds (see my post a couple below here under ABT Omelete, the second photo post).

Dimple's Mom

Once you open a jar to start using them, do you then refrigerate or are they okay on a shelf still?

Tell me how you do tomatoes (another vegie that doesn't grow well here). Our tomatoes in the stores are inedible. I only buy tomatoes a couple weeks out of the year when they are in season at the farmer's market. Right now they're pretty good. I wouldn't mind canning some so I don't have to buy canned tomatoes at the store during the year for sauces and stuff.

Zippylip

I leave them on the shelf even after opening, refrigeration turns the oil cloudy & unappetizing to look at (not that there is anything wrong with them). Regarding my tomatoes, I grind'm in this:



I pour the sauce into mason jars, add 1 teaspoon of salt, then put on a sealable metal lid & separate screw-top band, & put 14 of them in this for 15 minutes at 10 pounds pressure (about 240 degrees):



The result is this:



The final destination is often this: