Inspired by a comment from Rob of
One Straw Revolution, Kelly decided to try running his dried out chile peppers through our old coffee grinder. It was quite a feat to clean all the coffee dust from the inside of the thing, but once we got that done, the grinder proved to be the quickest and most thorough way to chop up the chiles.
Kelly jammed the grinder full of peppers, gave it a couple zaps, and
viola—crushed red peppers.
Now I live in fear of microscopic pepper dust finding its way into my food.
9 comments:
It's so hard to really clean coffee grinders...we run a little bit of white rice through it between spices and coffee. That way my coffee doesn't taste like coriander/cumin, and the spices don't taste like espresso. The rice bits are easier to clean up as well!
Katie at GardenPunks
I run oatmeal through my grinder. I hadn't thought to try rice.
I usually put my peppers into a plastic bag and run the rolling pin over them. Or crush them in my hand and scratch my nose or eyes afterwards. Good times.
I saw a recipe for chocolate brownies not too long ago that had cayenne as its secret (tasty) ingredient. Who knows - maybe you'll start a whole new coffee sensation!
Katie & Robin, good ideas! We never heard of using either of those. What makes things somewhat easier is that we have a new coffee grinder that will remain just for coffee. This old guy will be the new spice grinder and, except for the hot stuff, we're not as worried about spices cross-contaminating. We will definitely try using rice or oatmeal to clean it out, though.
Steven, I don't go anywhere near the spicy stuff--my eyes and mouth burned just from hanging out in the kitchen while hot sauce was being made. Kelly handles all the hot stuff, and from my observations it seems like he prefers to smear hot pepper residue in more private areas. Good times, indeed.
Farmgirl, just the thought of eating spicy brownies makes my eyes water and my mouth burn. I don't want to even think about what would happen if I accidentally had a cup of tobasco coffee. Unpleasant!
It worked! It really worked!!
I think up crazy stuff all the time, I will add this to the 15% that actually turn out half decent!
Hey Rob, It most certainly did work. However, I'm glad that we didn't use the Bullet. Just the little bit that we put through the coffee grinder got me sneezing in fits. I couldn't imagine what a big batch would have done.
I may try Steven's method next time. And yes,the rolling pin, not the hands and the rubbing. I had to shower the last time I touched the stuff and didn't wash my hands right away. I'll tell you what though, these flakes are incredible. I've been putting them on everything. They've got a great heat and an intense flavor to match.
Ok, Kelly, you've got me beat!! :) I was wondering meg, since you seem to be as intolerant to the hot peppers as my hubby, are there any mild peppers you grow or like? I'm looking for something that I could grow that Eric would enjoy, and yet still have some heat for me. Any suggestions?
Farm Mom, I have no advice for you on the peppers. The only peppers I can do are bell peppers--and some of ours got cross-pollinated with the hot peppers this year, and I couldn't even do them. However, I can do non-pepper hot stuff, like horseradish and wasabi. Our solution is to omit all spicy stuff from cooking, and Kelly glops on hot sauce or dried peppers later.
If Eric can put up with a little spiciness, check out the hotness ratings in some seed catalogues. I think Totally Tomatoes (which also sells other stuff) has a pretty good system that ranks hotness, and so does Seed Savers. Good luck!
Post a Comment