Chillies can be found in so many recipes, check out our recipe section or do your own search on the internet and you will be inundated with options. This is great if you are growing your own chilli plants as you will find you can get very high yields from just a few plants.
Fresh chillies will keep for around 2 weeks in the fridge. Chillies are also great for freezing and drying.
Freezing Chillies
Your chillies can be frozen whole, there is no need to blanch them first. In order to keep them separate it is best to spread them in a single layer on a tray first then transfer to a freezer bag once they are frozen. It is then easy to remove just 1 chilli at a time.
Another option is to finely chop or mince your chillies and freeze in ice cube trays, this is more work initially but you are rewarded when you can simply pop a cube out into whatever you are cooking!
Drying Chillies
Smaller and thin skinned chillies are easier to dry out as larger ones can start to go mouldy before they dry out. There are 2 main options, you can either spread chillies out on some newspaper and leave them somewhere warm and dry or string them up through the stems using a big needle and some strong cotton. Either of these methods will take several weeks to get dried chillies.
Another option is a dehydrator unit, these can be expensive but are also great for drying lots of other items such as fruit, vegetables and herbs and also meat and fish.
