Home At Last! with Patty Gironda

I mentioned in an earlier post that I once paid dearly for a small box of dried green chiles that I believe were jalepenos or possibly poblanos. It's been so long since I have been able to find them that I finally decided to dry them myself. If you scroll down you can see the fresh poblanos that I bought for my experiment. What I love about drying the chiles myself is that there is absolutely no waste. The final product is pictured in the upper right corner and closely matches the volume sold for $12. I used two poblanos to fill my jar. The cost was under $3. The method I chose couldn't have been easier. I sat the cleaned and dried chiles on paper towels and turned them every day for a week. After that I simply strung them with kitchen twine and hung them in my pantry for another two weeks. The results were excellent; I not only have the flesh of the pablanos to add to my Mexican dishes but I have the seeds-which I hope to sprout and plant in the spring.

Years ago I was able to walk into one of the popular kitchen stores and buy small boxes of dried green peppers pieces! Not the seeds! They were either poblanos or jalepenos. As usual, the stores get you hooked on a product and stop carrying it! For years, now, I have been hunting for something to replace one of my favorite additives in the pantry. Frustrated, I decided to dry my own. This picture was taken ten days after bringing them from the store. Now, I imagine that it would be a lot faster with a dehydrator but I don't have room for another piece of equipment. My methods are primitive but I know the results will be worth it. I might try placing them on racks inside my warming oven. It only heats up to about 100 degrees which could easily produce great results. I will report back to you, later!