Thursday, August 19, 2010

How to can (or not to can) green chilies


I just finished canning a lot of green chilies. It was fun. I wrote a how to or how not to
  • When you order your bountiful basket add the 25lb bag of green chilies for $12.50. Who doesn't need 25lbs of green chilies right? Besides, it's only $12.50. That's a great deal!    
  • Spend the weekend trying to figure out what to do with the chilies. Wonder why in the world you just bought 25lbs of green chilies when you only ever make 1 dish that uses green chilies. 
  • By the beginning of the week the chilies have started to go bad. It really is time to do something with them and you should start right away. (I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with them but I found out you have to roast and peel them first so I started there). 
Image Source here
  • Roast the chilies. We used the grill outside. Be careful not to char them to a crisp. You just want to blister the skins on the outside. Don't let your husband take over, this part is very enjoyable. He may try several times to do the roasting but don't let him. After roasting, place the chilies in a lidded container (with the lid on) and let them steam until ready to peel.

  • Let your 2 year old fall asleep and take a nap at a ridiculously late hour for a nap. 
 
  • Peel the chilies. Remove the stems and seeds.  

  • Give little girl a peach, cucumber, shoes... anything to try and keep her entertained so that you can keep peeling.
  •   Take a break for peeling to can pickles that have been waiting for a few days now.
  •   Continue to peel chilies. Invite grandma, grandpa, and Aunt Jen over to keep kids entertained so that you can keep peeling. Send kids out to the garden to play.

  • Peel chilies late into the night. Have your husband stay up even later to finish peeling after you and the kids have gone to bed. ... Ok enough peeling but this does take a long time. Put the peeled chilies into the fridge to finish tomorrow
  • Next night, de-seed the chilies in the living room while watching a movie. This takes a long time. (note the messy house and Heber's quite book on the floor, also being used as a pillow in a previous picture. We obviously neglect all other duties while trying to get the canning done. If I had more money maybe I would hire someone to come a clean. But probably not really.)

    • Pack chilies into jars, pour boiling water over them, put lids on, and processes in a pressure canner. 13 lbs for 35 min. 

    • Post info on your blog and sigh at your terrible picture taking abilities. Someday I will learn to take decent pictures (or at least get a better camera) and my blog will be full of beautiful pictures. 
    •  
      I froze some chilies to use in salsa once we have ripe tomatoes. I am also going to use some to try and make a green enchilada sauce using some of my green tomatoes. I'll let you know how it turns out. I feel like all of my extra time is spent canning and we haven't even got to all the tomato stuff yet.
      I'm not sure if all of this work was worth it. I guess we will see when I actually come up with some good recipes that use green chilies other then creamy chicken enchiladas. Any ideas? 

    1 comment:

    Jen M said...

    chili's are pretty tasty.I'm not sure about other chili recipe's.. I find a lot of good recipes for lots of different things on cooks.com I'm sure they'll have something there.

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