Shae's Hot Pepper Mix

This is a staple in my house.  It came about because several years ago, I had a large (and I mean really large) garden.  I love to make things grow, and my family loved peppers.  So I planted peppers.  I grew cayennes, jalapenos, habaneros, and sweet bananas.  I had no idea how many peppers I would harvest that summer!  So I had mountains of peppers coming in and I had ran out of things to do with them. 

Let me be clear- I can't eat hot food. I seem to always end up with men who like spicy food, though!  So, I made salsa, pickled peppers and put peppers in everything and still had them coming out my ears.  Then it dawned on me.  I could use a little of them in a LOT of things.  It would add flavor and as much or as little heat as I wanted to add.  Perfect!  I dug out the dehydrator that my dad had given me several years earlier. 

One has to be careful when handling spicy varieties of peppers, especially if they have sensitive skin, like me.  So, I was regularly donning gloves and picking the peppers, and then slicing them and putting them (including the seeds) in the dehydrator until they were completely dry.  I decided that I wanted more flavor and less heat in the mix, so I found peppers on sale at the local Kroger, and bought up several pounds of some of the ones I didn't have growing.  Including some bell peppers. 

After I would get a good amount of peppers dried, I would dump a bunch of them in the food processor and pulse them down to a fine powder.  It's important to get the mix down to a powder so that it blends in to what ever you are cooking with it well.  I use this regularly in chili, pot roasts, on chicken and a whole lot of other things.  My dad enjoys it on his eggs.  It's great to add to all kinds of dishes, so be brave, and be creative. 

To replicate this yourself, you don't have to own a dehydrator or a garden.  I dehydrator does use a lot less energy and can be put up until you use it for something else.  Also, when you see the peppers on sale at the market, get two big bags full of all kinds.  Use more habaneros and jalapenos for a spicier mix, and more of the milder peppers like pablanos and anaheims for more flavor and less heat.  I have also discovered that you don't have to slice them a lot before you dry them.  The only thing you really need to do is remove the stem.  I usually just use a sharp knife and slice it right off and put the pepper straight in whole.  If you don't own a dehydrator, just use a cookie sheet and your oven set to the lowest setting.  You want to dry the peppers, not bake them.  If you live in a more arid climate, you may be able to string them and hang them outside.  My experience with that in East Tennessee is that the peppers just rot and make a mess because it's too humid here.

After you have dried the peppers and are preparing to grind them down to powder in the food processor, I suggest you get a dust mask from the tool box and put it on.  Some of the peppers will aerosolize and it really sucks to breathe that in.  Plus it will set your nostrils aflame!  Store your mix in an airtight container and enjoy it on a variety of dishes!

Tips on preparing peppers that I learned the hard way: wear latex gloves when handling and cutting them.  It is not fun to rub your eyes or nose after you have cut up a bushel of habaneros.  I was serious about the dust mask when pulsing down the peppers, this is the first step in making pepper spray.  Make sure you have good ventilation when you do this.