Earlier this year, I planted some habanero peppers, more or less on a whim. I would’ve rather done jalapenos, which are more manageable in heat and thus easier to use, but the garden store didn’t have any in stock. Now I’ve got habs slowly ripening–there was one early on, several weeks ago, and I just picked three more. I haven’t got any idea what to do with them just yet, but I’d hate to see them go to waste.
Someone’s suggested doing a refrigerator pickle with them. My only concern with this is whether I could just pop them in as they ripen–they’re not coming up in one big crop, and I’m only getting a few at a time, definitely not enough to fill a jar. To folks more familiar, does this sound plausible?
Alternatively, other ideas for what to do with them would be welcome. Good salsa recipes, jamaican stuff, whatever.
Freeze them. I had the same problem with my habaneros last year. Since they are so hot, you aren’t going to use them except finely chopped, so texture degradation isn’t an issue. I just rinsed them off, popped them into a plastic bag and froze them.
Yeah - you can freeze habeneros with no problem at all. As for what to do in the meantime… Here’s a very quick and basic salsa recipe I do when the mood strikes me when going through the grocery store:
Base:
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 white onion, finely minced (the finer, the better)
2 28 oz. cans of diced tomatoes, drained (if you have fresh tomatoes available, do it, but drain them)
*Depending on how much heat you want, this is all negotiable. If you deseed everything, you can add a TON of peppers of both varieties. If you really want a lot of heat, deseed things less.
Mix everything together. As written, this is a really chunky salsa. Feel free to take scoops out, and really mince the hell out of it. If you have a food processor, do small batches at cup at a time until you reach a consistency you like. I like things chunky, but will still really mash the heck out of a cup or two.
Additions:
1/2 lime, squeezed
small can of corn kernels (drained, possibly chopped a bit)
1/4 to 1/2 half finely diced mango
Any of the above make a great easy addition to the salsa. The lime is great all the time, but I wouldn’t add both corn and mango at the same time.
Basically, make a pico de gallo. For your peppers, use finely diced roasted habaneros. For your citrus, use sour/Seville orange juice if you can find it. If not, the general recommendation is an equal mix of lemon, lime, and orange. I personally find a mix of lime and grapefruit is a closer approximation to the flavor of Seville oranges.
If you need proportions, here’s Rick Bayless’s recipe. I do not use radishes, and the sour orange juice for the lime juice is key for me, too.
This is my favorite salsa (and it’s great on chips, too) when made correctly.
For the real heat fiends, there’s also a Mayan salsa called kut, which is just very finely chopped roasted habanero, lime juice, and salt. Delicious, with the roasted habaneros being the key to the flavor. No roasting, no point in making this salsa.
Also, jerk paste is a good way to use up your habaneros. Here’s my recipe, cut and pasted from another site. I like this really spicy, so I recommend 8-12 peppers, but one or two will do for flavor.
Pulykamell’s jerk paste
8-12 Scotch bonnets or habanero peppers
3 tablespoons freshly ground allspice
2 tablespoons fresh thyme (or half the amount dried)
8 cloves garlic
1 red onion
1/2 cup chopped green onions (green and white part)
1/2 C dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1/4 C lime juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
You can also throw in about 2 inches of fresh, grated ginger
Blend all ingredients together in a food processor to make a coarse paste. You can add a little lime juice or water if it seems too thick, but you want this to be a paste.
Apply to meat (pork chops, pork loin, chicken) and let infuse for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, before grilling or smoking. I thin out a little of the paste with lime juice as a dipping sauce for the table.
You know Jalapeno poppers? I’ve always been disappointed that they don’t have enough heat. Would Habanero poppers be a possibility? They look easy enough to make!
We’re continuiously harvesting ~30 habaneros a week this year, thanks to our especially hot and humid summer. We’re cutting the extras in half and dehydrating them. They are drying really well–this fall/winter, we’ll be grinding them up as needed for our chili powder needs.
The only downside? While the food dehydrator is running, the atmosphere in the kitchen is not especially pleasant to the nose and eyes.
Blam! That’s perfect - jalepenos just don’t have enough room inside for the cheesy goodness. These’ll be much smaller, but should have much better proportions.
It should be good without the seeds. I ate a whole habanero once, once. It was a bit too much for me, although deseeded and with the cheese, it should be perfect.
Thanks for the advice, guys! The habanero popper idea is interesting enough that they may all wind up going that way, though I’ll have to just fry them in a skillet. And the extras will get frozen.
I make pepper jelly with them. The recipe (buy some SURE-JEL) calls for bell peppers and jalapenos and I substitute habaneros for the bells. It would be too hot for me if I used ONLY habaneros. I’ve gotten rave reviews.
I love habaneros and typically grow a couple of plants of them every year.
My dear bride puts them up as pickles (which works because she does them in pint jars and a typical weeks harvest is just about that much).
In two years the results are amazing. The heat is reduced considerably and the flavor becomes wonderful.
Highly recommended.
