When I had a bumper crop, a few years ago, I carefully cleaned them of seeds and ribs and chopped them up fine and packed them in small packs - about 1/4 cup each and froze them. They were great added to all sorts of things, and just added a sparkle of spiciness. I enjoyed them for most of the next year.

nancyjane,
If you like the flavor but not the full heat, I've been growing a "half strength" jalapeno called "Fooled You" for a few years because I'm a wimp when it comes to heat. :) You can find the seeds online.

I make gallons of this stuff. We keep it in a dollar store squeeze bottle made for ketchup/mustard, and DH uses it on everything. A friend of ours pretty much begs me for it (he got a gallon for Christmas). It's sort of like green tabasco...mild if you take out the ribs and seeds.

Recipe is from jalapenocafe.com. My changes for canning are in ().

Green Dragon Sauce

20 Jalapenos, stems removed, cut in lengthwise slices(2 1/2 cups)
1 onion, chopped
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, sliced (I use more)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil (I use just a drizzle)
2 cups water (1 1/2 c.)
1 cup white vinegar (1 1/2 c.)

Combine the jalapenos, onion, garlic, salt and oil in a non-reactive saucepan over high heat. Saute' for 3 minutes. Add the water and continue to cook for about 20 minutes. Stir often. Remove from heat and allow to steep until mixture has cooled.

Place mixture in food processor and puree until smooth. With the processor running, pour the vinegar through the feed tube in a steady stream. Pour into sterilized pint jar and seal. Let age at least 2 weeks before using. Can be stored in the refrigerator up to 6 months.

(To can: Pour into clean hot jars [no need to sterilize jars if waterbathed for at least 10 min.] and process in boiling waterbath for 10 min. @ 0-1000 ft., 15 min. @ 1001-6000 ft. and 20 min. above 6000 ft.)

oooooo, katiec... that Green Dragon Sauce looks awesome. Thanks for the recipe! I will try it sometime. How much does it make with your canning changes? (I just like more vinegar. lol!)

NancyJane_Gardener: when I have too many jalapeno peppers I always like to pickle them. I just use the simple recipe in the old Ball canning book.

I dry hot peppers and I dice habaneros and freeze them in small portions, just enough for a batch of Habanero Gold jelly.

Carol/Readinglady gave me this recipe and I made them last year, Elery loved the darned things. I need to make him some more, he ate them ALL.

BREAD AND BUTTER JALAPENOS (makes about 7 pints)

4 lbs. jalapeno peppers
2 lbs. onions
3 C. vinegar
2 C. sugar
2 T. mustard seed
2 t. tumeric
2 t. celery seed
1 t. ginger

Wash and cut onions and jalapenos into thin slices. (Shortcut: food processor) I'd suggest wearing gloves to protect your hands from the capsaicin in the peppers.

Cold pack jalapenos into jars. (I keep all my jalapenos/peppers in a large bowl with a lid on it until the brine is almost ready, and then pack them into the jars.)

Place remaining ingredients into a large saucepot and bring to a boil. **JR Slick said he makes a recipe-and-a-half of the brine because he always seems to need more than the original recipe, and I have found that to be true, so I do the same.**

Pour hot brine over pepper/onion mix in jars, leaving 1/4" headspace.

Remove air bubbles. Adjust 2-piece caps.

Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Yield: About 7 pints.

Annie

Thanks all! I don't have a ton, just one plant this year, but I think the green dragon sauce is what I'm going to try!
Sounds perfect! DH can squeeze it on whatever he wants and I can drip it on some stuff! Nancy

Katie, I'll be making that sauce, thanks!

Annie, I just bought a jar of B&B jalapenos. We ate the entire jar in 3 days, they were yummy. I'll be copying and pasting that recipe too.

I wash, dry, and freeze them whole in ziplock baggies. They slice well while still frozen. I don't even de-stem them. No problem with them lasting a couple years in the freezer that way. If frozen dry you can pick them back out of the ziplock as you need them.

Jalpenos will turn red if you leave them on the plant longer. To me they get sweeter not hotter. I had some this year that were bell pepper sweet and I ate them right off the plant.

I gave a quart baggie stuffed full of frozen jalapenos to my BIL and he made poppers out of them. He said having been frozen did not affect his poppers as he bakes them anyway.

I make a soup out cabbage, onions, ham, and a couple jalapenos... thin, low-cal, high fiber, and most of all tastey. Sometimes a drop of liquid hickory smoke and squirt of catsup. I let it simmer all day when the weather is cool enough... after a few hours the broth turns brown and gets sweet like french onion soup.

You can put a small jalapeno plant in a pot and it will live in your window all year long. I have fresh jalpeno when there is snow and bitter cold outside. Peppers self pollinate. If you have cats they will almost certainly eat leaves off your pepper plant.. peppers are a tough plant and will survive being half eaten (purr!) I like pepper so I also keep cayenne and habenera as house plants.

: )
lyra

I've made Readinglady's B&B pickles for 2 years now, and can confirm that they are awesome. My husband loves them in sandwiches and on hamburgers. He and his buddies eat them right out of the jar with a cold beer.

I sliced them thicker last year and they really retained a lot of heat. The previous year, when I sliced them thin, they were not as hot.

I agree with Lyra that the jalapenos are better if they are allowed to ripen and turn red. They cost a lot more in the market at that stage, but the flavor is better. I make a sauce that is similar to the green dragon, but I use more salt and more vinegar and less water.

It is important to remove the white ribs, as these will increase the heat and not add other flavor. I remove all the seeds because I don't like the texture.

I make a raw sauce that some people may think is not safe, but I have not had trouble with it. I use ripe japapenos, garlic, salt, and vinegar and combine everything in the blender. I put in enough salt to help preserve it, and I have not had it go bad when stored for several months. It never occurred to me to cook it, and it is easy to make small batches.

Lars

Another vote for canning. I make small jars of mixed canned peppers (red and green jalepenos, yellow hungarians and red italian cherry). I remove seeds and ribs which makes them less hot. They are great as an appetizer over cream cheese on crackers. Also good on nachos, and as a topping for other S. American type dishes. Easy to can, I have a one jar at a time recipe if you like, which I could post. That way I can up just as much as I have coming on.

Another vote for letting them get red. It will help the heat a lot. Plus sticking the whole peppers in a baggie to freeze. Or, put on some gloves and halve the peppers and go ahead and remove the seeds and ribs. Then freeze them. Since they're still dry you can take out half a pepper to add to a recipe. If they're red, all the better.

I don't like heat but I can eat a jalapeno if it's stuffed with enough cheese. Poppers also freeze really well.

Lpinkmountain,

I would really like the single jar recipe, please share and thanks!

I try to use rubber gloves when handling: cutting, peeling etc. the peppers. I also use a separate cutting board. I just gave about 15 jalape�os to my sushi guy and he turned them into a sauce - actually a salsa - of which the ingredients are secret. I think he roasted, peeled, sliced thinly and made a mixture of a little eel sauce (very thick sweet teriyaki) and ponzu. And/or maybe the ponzu sauce that goes over striped bass (a little hot and smoky).

I dry them and keep them sealed and pop them whole into pasta sauce or Chinese stir fry at the beginning with garlic and ginger. I roughly chop (seeds removed) and throw them into balsamic vinaigrette.

Pickled hot pepper strips, from "Summer in a Jar" by Andrea Chesman

Can do pints or half pints. I do half pints.

Remove the stems, seeds and ribs from the peppers if you like them less hot.

In a non-aluminum saucepan, heat 1 cup white vinegar and 1/2 cup water for each pint of peppers. Use distilled water if you can, to avoid purple garlic.

Into each hot, sterilized jar, place 1 garlic clove (peeled), 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp. pickling salt, and 2 cups hot pepper strips, leaving about 1/2 inch head space. (Use 1 cup peppers for the half pint jars).
Fill with hot brine, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Remove any air bubbles that get trapped inside the jar. Seal, process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Let cool undisturbed for 12 hours and then check the seals. Store in a cool dry place. They should probably "age" for a couple weeks to develop their flavor. I use a mix of red, yellow and green peppers. This makes a nice gift.

Not big into HEAT, but was gonna make chili so bought bag of jalapenos at Produce Junction... a no-frills fruit/veggie place, sorta bulk items, great prices. Had to buy a POUND of them... probably 15-20, but only $2-3. Used maybe ONE, and just knew the rest would go to waste before I used them up. Have an inexpensive dehydrater. Just cut stems off, split length-wise and dried till crispy. Then zizzed in spice grinder. Did the same thing with a messa lemon zest... multi-purposed an apple peeler/corer to remove in LONG ribbons. I air dried that till crispy and zizzed. Made an interesting lemon pepper blend with no salt.

For the lame and uninformed...how do you dry a jalapeno for later use?

Also I bought 2 banana peppers at the farm stand (light green and marked as "mild") and wondered how you would suggest I use them to their best advantage? Recipes online show them stuffed with sausage or deep fried and those don't appeal.

I grow the banana peppers to add yellow color to my pickled peppers. Also good in any kind of relishes you make. Can use in salads and stir fry. I also put them on sandwiches. Good in fajitas if you don't like a lot of heat.

Oh my! You guys are GREAT!!!!! I just found this site a couple of weeks ago, and have been reading as much as a shared computer and a job will let me!
SO much info!
Thanks! Nancy