Pepper Day At Almost Heaven South

As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, Monday was tomato day and before storing, I used them as a backdrop for Tuesday’s  pepper day.

When you look at them, the green or small yellow ones are unripe, the red ones are ripe, and the olive green ones are in the process of turning.  Across the front from left to right are Pepperoncini, a Yellow Bell with Jalapenos (chile) behind, Giant Marconi (swt), and Big Bertha (swt - that ripe one is huge).  In the back row, the first few are some type of thin wall horn pepper (swt), then Sante Fe (chile), California Wonder (swt bell), and a mix of Big Early Bell and Bonnie Green Bell (both swt and very big).  This is my best mid summer crop ever and I'm surprised based upon our early hot weather, so I can only assume it was because we were still having cool nights.

Here’s what will happen to the ones we keep and preserve.  Unless specified otherwise, the frozen ones will be seeded, julienned, frozen on a jelly roll pan, and stored in vacuum bags.

Pepperoncini – pickled in a gallon jug and stored in the fridge

Yellow Bell  - frozen

Jalapeno – frozen whole – I have plenty sliced and pickled

Marconi – frozen

Big Bertha – frozen

Thin wall horn – sliced and fried in olive oil for lunch

Sante Fe – Frozen hole and in half pieces

Cal Wonder – Stuffed for dinner

Big Early & Bonnie Green – frozen

The Sante Fe’s are like a big Jalapeno and will be used to cook with and in salsa.  Since the Pepperoncini’s are new to me, I didn’t know what else to do but pickle them and here they are headed for the fridge.  I could have canned them and kept on a shelf, but didn’t want to cook them.  So I poked a hole in each one and added it to the jar along with 4 cloves of garlic.  Then I poured in the boiling brine mixture of:

6 cups water
6 cups white vinegar
2 Tbsp canning salt

I added 4 cups of the brine, let them set a while then pushed down with a potato masher to force the air out of them and added more peppers, mashed, added more for a total of three additions.  Then I reboiled the brine and filled the jar to the top, came back twice more to mash down.  Here they are ready to store.

We love pepper sandwiches and Bev asked today why we didn’t have one everyday – good question.  Our sandwich consist of thin walled peppers (they fry better), good bread, such as ciabatta, and mayonnaise – nothing else.  I cut the peppers lengthwise into 2 or three pieces in such a way as to provide maximum pan contact and start them over low heat, skin side down with a lid on the pan so they’ll soften faster.  When they brown a little, I flip them and push them down to flatten as best I can them I flip them two more times.  I like to have them pretty soft, but not mushy, with some brown on at least one side – but being careful not to burn them.  

Apply mayo to both sides of the bread and add the peppers to one side.

Add the top, cut in half for Bev and me and dig in.

I might could have added more peppers but it would have been hard to eat and keep together.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Breakfast Mac & Cheese

Larry