Any one who follows my blog will know I’m a big chilli lover. It’s in just about everything I eat. I even have it on my eggs at breakfast time! It doesn’t have to be super hot, but I need to know its there. So with the amount of chilli I eat I always need to have them on hand at any given time. So naturally I grow them at home. One healthy tree can produce so much fruit that it’s almost impossible for me to eat them all. So I need to come up with all sorts of crafty ideas to use them up. Some I will freeze, others I make into hot sauces and the list goes on. But the one thing I love doing the most is turning them into chilli flakes. Its so easy to do and they last for just about ever! So in todays post I’m going to show you how my chillies go from the fresh fruit on the tree to dried out chilli flakes.
Lets get started? Lets!
Step 1. This is so easy, just pick the chillies from the tree then wash and dry them.
Now there are many ways to dry out your chillis, in a oven, or a dehydrator, you can string them up and so on. But the most basic and easy way is the good old fashioned way we are going to do today.
Step 2. Lay the chillies out in a single layer in a large strainer or wire rack so that air can move freely around the chillies and leave to dry in a warm sunny spot. If you leave them to dry inside make sure the room is well ventilated. I like to give them a shake around ever now and then as so they all dry out evenly. The drying process will vary depending on the weather conditions. But they should be ready in a week or so, but do leave them to they are fully dehydrated.
I find only smaller chillies lend them self to drying much more then larger ones, so leave them for eating fresh or making hot sauces
Step 3. Now that your chillies are fully dehydrated remove the stems and discard (I just throw them back in the garden) and place the chillies into a food processor. Now give the chillies a good wiz to you reach your desired flake size. Be sure to keep your face well away from the food processor as any fumes will surely burn your eyes.
That’s it peoples, you just made your very own chilli flakes. How easy was that? To store the chilli flake place them in an air tight jar and use them when ever you want!
How to make chilli flakes from scratch