Everyone, Have you ever frozen your harvest of green peppers but upon defrosting them many months later the taste is not as good as fresh picked? The taste is sometimes on the bitter side with an after taste that's hard to describe but not so great.
Well, here's a tip that will make those peppers taste so much better after being frozen for many months. I've done this with Jalapeno peppers that were frozen in September and eaten in May of the following year (8 months frozen). I just discovered this technique and thought I'd share it.
Harvest & Freezing the Peppers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.) First and most important is to pick the peppers when they are still young enough where the seeds are still white. Don't let them stay on the plant too long where the seeds get dark in color because the peppers become more bitter in taste.2.) After harvesting, immediately wash the peppers under cold tap water and store them in plastic freezer bags. Mark the bags with date harvested for future reference. Freeze them immediately!
Thawing and Preparing the Peppers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.) Take a few peppers from the freezer and rinse them under warm tap water for a minute or so to have them thaw out slightly to where they can be cut with a knife.2.) Cut off the tops and slice each pepper in half. Then use a knife to remove the seeds and any of the white ribs. The seeds should be white in color. If they are dark in color it just means that they were on the plant a bit too long and might be a little on the bitter side.
3.) Rinse the peppers under cold tap water to flush out any remaining seeds. Then place them on a small portion of a grill you can hold in your hands while safely holding over the burner of your GAS stove. The peppers should be placed on the grill with the skins on the top side.4.) Set the flame to medium-high and hold the grill of peppers directly over the flame just about 1 inch from the flame. Cook the peppers quickly and just to the point where you see them sweating on the skins and to the point where the edges are just starting to burn. It only takes a minute or so to cook them.
5.) Turn off the flame and immediately hold grill of peppers under cold tap water to cool them down.6.) Eat the cooled peppers immediately or store them in the refrigerator for a while if you prefer to eat them cold.
7.) Enjoy the peppers. You should notice that the taste is now very close to fresh picked without that bitter or odd after taste usually associated with frozen peppers.Enjoy! I usually do this with Jalapenos, Sweet Banana Peppers, and Cheyenne Peppers. I typically have them as a snack with slices of cheddar cheese and pepperoni.
Try it and let me know how this worked for you and what peppers you used.
PS: I've tried the same process above except I microwaved them to heat them up but they tasted horrible. I also tried frying them which is better than the microwave but still not as good as the flame grilling. Only flame grilling seems to work but I'm not sure why.
Enjoy!
---pete---