A simple way to preserve chilli

Chilli peppers come in a wide variety of shapes and colours. They are becoming increasingly popular and are used more and more often. Many people grow their own, whilst others have their regular suppliers or shops where they buy chillies. But what do you do if the harvest is more bountiful than expected, or if you’ve bought too many?

In fact, there are several ways to preserve chillies. They are very easy to preserve so that you can use them at a later date.

In this short post, I’ll explain how you can easily preserve your chillies.

If you are interested in making your own chili-oil, be excited for the next posting.

1. Drying chillies (without a dehydrator)

Everyone is familiar with dried chillies. You can buy them in almost any supermarket, either as flakes or whole dried chillies. Yet they never taste quite as good as when you’ve dried them yourself. With a dehydrator, this is very easy and requires very little effort. However, most of us don’t have a dehydrator at home. So what can you do to dry the chillies yourself anyway? It’s actually really easy to do in your own oven.

Implementation:

1. Wash the chillies.

2. Cut thick-walled chillies in half lengthways. Thin-walled chillies can be left whole.

3. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the chillies on top.

4. Set the oven to 60–70°C (fan) and place the chillies inside.

5. The oven door should be left slightly ajar to allow the moist air to escape. If the door does not stay open on its own, you can wedge a wooden cooking spoon in the door

6. The drying process takes between 8–10 hours. Once the chillies are no longer flexible, they are ready

7. Once dried, store the chillies in an airtight container or blend them into chilli flakes or chilli powder.

2. Freezing chillies

Chillies can be frozen whole or chopped into small pieces. However, I would recommend cutting the chillies into small rings first. To make them easier to portion out, I would recommend freezing them chopped into small pieces. Make sure you use fresh, undamaged chillies for this method of preservation.

Implementation:

1. Wash the chillies thoroughly and pat them dry

2. Cut them into small rings

3. Place the pieces in a small container or a freezer bag. Make sure the containers are airtight.

4. To begin with, make sure they aren’t lying completely on top of one another, but rather side by side, so that they don’t freeze too tightly together and you can portion them out more easily later on

5. Frozen chillies will keep for up to a year in the freezer compartment or freezer.

6. You can use the chillies straight from the freezer without having to defrost them first.

In the next post, you’ll find out how to make a simple and delicious chilli oil using your own chilli peppers.