Red Jalapenos?

Has anyone waited to harvest their jalapenos until they turn red? I read that they are sweeter and the heat is a touch milder. My green ones are ready to be picked but I thought about waiting. Any comments would be welcomed.

The flavor is a bit different. The reds are a little sweeter, and by removing the ribs and seeds, a bit milder. and they are prettier on Nachos, but somehow that probably won't make much difference....grin

Moon is right as usual.

Moons always right...I bow down at the feet of the Garden Goddess....LOL

Wonder if she is as good looking as she is smart. Be something to have it all. What say you Trina??

Probably...but Moon is not the type it seems who would flaunt that...seems very down to earth and well grounded

So, what do I do? Just wait until they turn red on the vine then pick them?

Depends on if you want them hotter or sweeter, I pick them both ways, some green to make my dad salsa, because he likes the heat, and some after they turn red for the salsa here because my kids don't like that much heat....Now for the greens I do NOT seed them because that is where most of the heat comes from, but the red ones I DO remove the seeds

If you enjoy experimenting with jalapenos of any color...just slice up one or two and put them in with your pickles - any brand - and after a week or two you'll see how great a spicy pickle can be.

Hey pirl, that's a grest idea. This is the first year I tried to grow them so any recipes would be very welcomed.

They can turn a ho-hum grilled cheese into a great sandwich.

Blush...thanks guys.

Davdon...Try Pirl's idea with bread and butter pickles and with kosher dills...dynamite. also, try cutting the pepper in half lengthwise, and placing a thin strip of your favorite cheese into the pepper and running them under the broiler for a minute or two, yummy. Also seed and rib the red peppers and add thin slivers of them to stir fry.

Get a small bottle of olive oil and add slivers of the pepper to the oil. seal it up and give it a couple weeks and you have a lovely spicy oil to use in cooking and salads. Do the same with red or white wine vinegar and you have a gourmet quality pepper vinegar for use on greens, salads or marinades for chickem pork of beef.

In other words....enjoy and use your imagination to spice up any meal.

Has anyone ground them up (red or green) and added them to vanilla ice cream? I'm yearning to try it.

My grandson eats Tabasco Chipotle with vanilla ice cream and loves it. Seed and rib one and put it in the food processor or blender with a spoon or two of ice cream to puree it and add a tiny bit to a scoop of ice cream and give it a try. The recommended home first aid treatment for capsicum burn to the eyes or mucous membranes is milk, so I don't think you can go wrong....grin

It's worth a try.

Jalapenos don't make a pepper sauce that is hot enough for me. Put a drop or two of cooking oil to make it hotter. Jo likes to find a pretty, clear bottle and fill it with the red peppers. Looks pretty on the table. Me, I like to take a couple of jalapenos and a few green onions and stir fry them for a while, then add a little cheddar cheese and a few eggs and scrabble them together. I also like the peppers sliced on a peanut butter sandwich.

Try some Bhut Jolika someday. Hotter than Habeneros!

Jalapenos are hot enough for me. I like the taste of a pepper without it being overpowered by heat. All these recipes are making me hungry. Keep them coming. Could you stuff them with Italian sausage and chopped onion and put them in an egg wash and bread them with maybe Italian bread crumbs then bake them? I have a couple of Hungarian peppers from a leftover dinner. Do you think it would work on those?

This message was edited Sep 1, 2009 11:52 AM

Pirl, one of our favorite cookbooks is Hotter Than Hell by Jane Butel (HPBooks). A good selection of recipes and ingredient info for under $20. It includes hot and spicy dishes from around the world.

Yep. You sure can. You just have to figure out how to keep the breading on them as they have a slick exterior.You may wind up making that casserole style by layering the peppers, sliced in half, on the bottom, with the other ingredients on top, topped with bread crumbs.

I didn't think of that. I think it's time to experiment. What's the worst that can happen? I wonder if I took something and roughed up the surface like one of those sponges with a rough side.

It is worth a try, just don't get any juice in your eyes....grin. You could try a strip of bacon or proscuitto wrapped around the pepper first. Use a toothpick to hold it in place.

I better go outside before you folks tempt me into eating something.

Hey Pirl, moon and Kassy are both good at making people very hungry!

:You haven't lived until you've eaten jalapeno poppers with cheddar cheese. If I could make those things it would be on lol. And can't have salsa without jalapenos, got a great recipe that I fix every couple of years and can it up for Christmas gifts to friends and relatives with a bag of tortillos

I have an old family recipe (not my family) for salsa, from Mitch Fitzgerald who used to be quite active on DG and we just love it.

hey Pirl, welcome to DG. yes you can do so much with salsa. I put it in spagetti,meatloaf at times , soups its a great winter dish to spice up any meal.

Thanks for the welcome but I've been here at DG for over five years now!

Saw a recipe one cold day in winter for lamb shanks with chipotles and it called for an entire can. Not being familiar I just added one of them - OMG! My daughter and SIL love spicy things and grow all kinds of spicy peppers.

Last year a DG person, David_Paul, sent me some Bhut Jolikas. They're so hot you can just lay them on top of eggs and the heat gets transferred mighty fast. He had a bowl of them on the dining room table and wasn't present when his 89 year old mom saw them and decided to have one as a snack. Powerful stuff! She asked him if he knew they were hot! He was shocked she could take that kind of heat.

LOL, got her arteries pumping I'm sure

I have a German lady friend that sniffs cyanene pepper up her nose every day for high blood pressure, swears it works. Shes tougher than I am

I'm half German and wouldn't consider sniffing one nostril worth of cayenne!

me nither some of the things people do. Have been known to suck salt water up my nose for sinus infection and stuffiness, it works.

gonna jump out of here pirl don't want to clog up Davedons tread with a lot of my nonsense. Nice talking to you can't believe we haven't talked before as I can be a bucket mouth at times lol Dave hope ya get lots of comebacks on your red Jalapenos and I don't have a clue what a chipotle is moon, if ya can't put it between a bisquit us mountain folk won't have it lol.

Ask and ye shall receive...grin a chipotle is a smoked jalapeno...here is a link with more info than you could possibly want or need.....lol. Just call me Moon, Queen of the links....and no, I am not a golfer.....grin

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-chipotle-pepper.htm

Thanks moon, think I would like the spice version of this neat pepper. Now when someone ask I'll be armed and ready

Of course you could add ground up chipotle, jalapeno or Bhut Jolika to rum and give it to a (not so) friend - it's called a Rum Runner.

That would put em on the should I say "runs" for sure lol

Oh Pirl, you haven't lived until you have done tabasco tequila shots....Arriba, viva tu madre!

You are too welcome Flowers...grin You can smoke jalapenos at home on the bar-be.

I think I'll skip it but hope that takes place in a house with a lot of bathrooms.

Does tequila upset your tummy? grin