Hot pepper mash (courtesy of ehowwiki)

Steps

1.See the tips and warnings. If you ignore them, you might regret it.

2.Select a glass jar or a pottery crock that holds at least a gallon. You will not want to get it more than 1/2 to 3/4 full of mash because fermentation bubbles will make the mash rise up and overflow the jar.

One pound of peppers will produce a little less than a pint of pepper mash. So you will need 5 pounds to fill your gallon jar half full. If you don't process the peppers immediately, refrigerate them.

3.Select the largest, plumpest fully ripe peppers from the garden or market. Red or orange habanero peppers which have ripened fully on the bush will start rotting within a couple of days after picking them, so use them immediately. Fully ripe peppers have a delicious sweetness to them, in spite of any heat. If you bite into one, you will feel a rush of sweetness, then the heat will hit you and you might regret taking such a big bite. The sugars that give the peppers a sweet taste will help fermentation.

4.Choose whether to leave the seeds in or remove them. Contrary to popular opinion, the seeds don't contribute much to the heat of the peppers. The real heat comes from the connecting veins that attach the seeds inside the peppers to the pepper walls. You can always use the seeds for planting more peppers.

5.If you intend to save the seeds for planting, DON'T SAVE the seeds from puny, stunted peppers. Save those from the biggest fattest peppers for planting. That way you will have more fat peppers in your harvest.

6.Wash the peppers and dry them with a towel or paper towel before processing them. DO NOT wash them before refrigerating them. Water makes them decompose faster.

7.If you plan to save the seeds, use a sharp paring knife to slice into each pepper and pry it open with your fingers, then scrape the seeds out, one pepper at a time. Try to leave the veins in the peppers. Set the seeds aside in a small bowl so you can lay them out on a paper towel to dry when you finish.

8.Remove and discard the stems.

9.You may, instead of using a blender below, push the peppers, with or without seeds, through a juice extractor. This will extract the seeds and a goodly amount of the pulp. Cycle it through the juicer several times to get out as much pulp as possible. Use the output of the juicer in the fermentation process. You may also juice the other vegetables discussed below.

10.If you use a juice extractor, it might ruin any seeds so you cannot use them for planting. But, you may spread the pulp on paper towels and dry it in a food dryer or in the oven with the light on and door ajar (110 degrees F) for a day or two. You may then pulverize it in your blender at high speed (Vitamix will do this nicely), and put the resulting dust in a salt or pepper shaker. With this you can dust pizza, salads, and other foods, or even candies. Since it has no salt in it, it will not adversely affect the taste (except for the heat).

11.Weigh your peppers. If you started with 5 pounds, you should have 4.5 or more pounds (a little over 2 kilograms) remaining.

12.Calculate 3.3% of that weight. To simplify, add 1 Tablespoon of salt per pint of mash. If you have 2.1 kilograms, multiply times .033 and you get 69.3 grams, the weight of the salt you will need. a Tablespoon of salt weighs 15 grams and a teaspoon 5 grams. 69.3/15 = 4.62 Tablespoons. So, you need four and a half Tablespoons of salt for 2100 grams of mash. Note that some people use far more salt than this - 6% to 10% by weight. Use a level to slightly rounded tablespoon of salt per pound of mash.

13.Process the peppers in a blender two pounds at a time. Pour one Tablespoon sea salt per pound of peppers in a blender and process them on high speed till they become puree (mash), no more than a minute at the absolute most, typically only 15 to 30 seconds in a VitaMix, my favorite blender. DO NOT OVER-PROCESS. You don't want to produce so much heat that you kill the bacteria you need for fermentation, naturally in the peppers.


14.You may add other vegetables, herbs, and spices into the blender and puree it along with the peppers mash, so long as you maintain the salt ratio to weight of vegetable matter. These will dramatically affect the taste of the finished product, so a purist pepper sauce lover should consider making the pepper mash first, and then with a portion of it, blend in other vegetable matter for further fermentation. Examples of additional veggies: carrot (sweet and maintains color), onion, garlic, horseradish, ginger, Chinese cabbage, apple.

15.Pour the mash into the fermentation jar or crock, ideally no more than 5/8 full (a little over half) to allow for rising of the mash during fermentation. When you finish the blending and pouring into the jar, put a lid on the jar loosely.

16.Set the jar out of direct sunlight and away from freezing temperatures and heat that will elevate the temperature above 110 degrees F. Wait for it to ferment.

17.In one week, the pepper mash will start bubbling vigorously as a result of fermentation in which the bacteria will produce acetic acid and any sugars will produce alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. The gas bubbles will cause the pulp in the mash to rise, leaving the liquid and some solids on the bottom. Once the bubbling starts, stir the mash down with a clean spoon every day. If it seems about to overflow, pour part in another glass jar till bubbling subsides, then mix them back together.

18.In another week or two, the fermentation should stop producing bubbles. Bacteria still lives in the mash.

19.Screw the lid down tightly onto the jar after one month of total time since making the mash, and put the jar in a refrigerator. Keeping it cold and sealed will prevent any mold from growing in it.

20.DO NOT COOK the mash. It lives because of the bacteria in it, and it can become starter for other ferments, such as a new batch of peppers or sourdough bread.

21.You may use the mash as soon as fermentation has finished. Spoon it sparingly (because of the heat) onto your food, add a tablespoon to a batch of bread dough to create a delicate pepper aroma and a lovely heat to sandwiches and toast, make a tantalizingly piquant fudge with it, add it to sour mash for brewing beer, or make pepper sauce with it.

22.Don't cook the mash.

23.When making pepper sauce, add 3 ounces of mash with two ounces cider vinegar for a delicious, pure, and hot sauce in a standard 5 ounce hot sauce bottle. Vary the proportions to suit your taste. With the vinegar in it, you do not need to refrigerate it. You need no other ingredients.

Tips

Habanero peppers constitute one of the hottest peppers in the world. They have a delicious flavor if you can take the heat. Exercise caution when handling and when eating them or pepper mash.

You could consider aging the pepper mash in a bourbon cask the way the Avery (Tabasco) pepper folks do. I have not tried this.

Measurements and conversions. 1 teaspoon = 5 grams; 1 Tablespoon = 15 grams; 1 pound = 454 grams; 1 pound of peppers will make 1 pint of mash; use 1 Tablespoon of Salt per pound of processed peppers (mashed or whole).

You may keep your fermentation jar in the refrigerator indefinitely. I have had some aging in my refrigerator for 4 years. It tastes mellow, delicious, and hot as the fire of hell.

Hot Pepper Extract

Ever wonder how to make an extract.  These simple steps work with not just hot peppers, but garlic other peppers or even your favorite herbs.  This method in particular is for extracting the oils from hot peppers.


Prepare first and get supplies
• Rubber gloves
• Two glass jars with tight-fitting lids
• Grain alcohol (ethanol), plain vodka or other organic solvent


Instructions

1.Wear rubber gloves and remove stems from peppers. Wash and dry them.

2.Grind peppers coarsely. A food mill or grinder is helpful.

3.Place ground peppers in a glass jar. Add enough alcohol to cover.   Adjust lid tightly and shake.

4.Refrigerate jar of peppers. Leave in the refrigerator for three or four days. Shake jar occasionally.

5.Position a funnel over the second glass jar. Line funnel with a coffee filter. Pour the pepper mixture from the refrigerated jar into the funnel. Let liquid drain completely.

6.Remove drained pepper mixture from funnel and return to first jar. Pour alcohol over mixture until covered. Replace lid, shake and return jar to refrigerator.
Cap the second jar with the extract in it and store in the refrigerator. (You now have two jars in the fridge.)

7.Leave the jar of pepper mixture in the refrigerator for another three to four days, shaking occasionally.

8.Repeat Step 5, adding the liquid to the second jar of extract.

9.Give the extract a taste test by dipping a toothpick in the liquid, shaking it off and touching it gently to the tongue. Wait a few seconds to see how hot it is. If it is hot enough for you, proceed.

10.Strain the liquid into a glass dish. Cover the dish with cheesecloth and set in a dark place for a few days so that the alcohol can evaporate.

11.Discard pepper mash carefully. Throw jar, lid and filter away.

Growing season underway

Little update:  Started cleaning out the Aquaponics grow bed.  Was going to try to transplant the cherry tomatoes to the dirt garden but that may be more difficult that thought.  The plants are so big and all three are intertwined that I may not be able to pull them without damaging them.  Going to try though.  Nice thing I pulled out the broccoli and the root ball was filled with red worms.  Just after I thought they were all dead or became fish food.

If your wondering why we have worms in the grow bed, well they are an important part of the "natural" process.  They are responsible for converting the fish waste to organic material that is usable for the plants.  We use Red Worms since they are the best composter of waste of all the worms plus they can spend far more time in water than any other worm.

We now have 10 habanero plants in the ground, that is 10 more than last years terrible growing season.  We also planted some Jalapeno's and some New Mexico Chilies, basically a larger hotter cyan pepper.  We also got the Romas going for out Zombie Jac Salsas.  Some new additions we have in the soil are potatoes, broccoli, several varieties of leaf lettuce, radishes (they are already sprouted) beans, peas, cumin, basil, cilantro and a few other herbs.  In the green house we have Thai Chilies, Chard, and more about 20 more habaneros we are still waiting to sprout.

We got out gravel last night for the floor in the greenhouse and hopefully we can get that in and get the floor screwed down soon so I can get some sealer on the floor to protect it from water.  Lucky enough we have had some rain so that will really help.

Some items we are looking for are (if you are looking to get rid of some stuff):
1. Rain Barrel
2. Net pots (3 or 4 in)
3. 2x4 scraps over 30"
4. EPDM liners
5.  Any size untreated lumber for a composting bin

We have a lot of projects on the burner and I really need to start thinking about what we need to do to add Aquaponics in to the greenhouse.