Chile Pequins

[Bigrock]

Capt Jack brought up a wonderful subject in the Kings Inn thread...chile pequins!

Get your own plants if you can. Mine came as weeds in some texas native nursery stock years ago. Check your native plant nursery's for plants. They are long lived perennials if protected from severe freezes. I'm in a northern zone 7 setting that is fairly arid and they have done well on the south side of my house for close to 15 years. If you have free range chickens you wont have peppers. They LOVE'EM!

I "dip" them like one would with Skoal...place between cheek and gum. Suck on them awhile and you'll get the slightest of of heat. Then start bringing them up and "bruising" them between your teeth. Don't bite too hard or you'll end up crying for several hours that Bigrock set you up.

Make great "pizza" pepper when dried.

Drop 15-20 in a bottle of Stoli and then lose the bottle in the freezer for a month.

Carry just a few on your campouts to spice up the camp food.

[texnomad]

grind them up and sprinkle them around your house foundation and even rabid skunks will stay away.

[CaptJack]

[Yaklash]

Once they start growing, they will drop peppers (impossible to pick them all) and you'll get enough volunteers to share with the entire block.

My favorite way to enjoy the flavor without too much pain (learned from framers in the 80s) is take a big bite of a barbacoa or chorizo and egg taco, then pop one in your mouth and chew it with the bite of food. Great flavor, a good amount of fire, but not really much pain.....until the next day of course.

Also, I have heard of people (and one company quite famously) making jelly out of them. Like jalapeno jelly, but more kick I would guess. Not much of a way to seed them tiny things, so I would guess the recipe involves straining the cooking liquid of seeds and solids before adding the pectin.

I nominate Bigrock for making some sample batches and getting the recipe out.

[karstopo]

When I was 6-7 maybe, my dad took me to his office and there was a Chile pequin bush on the side of his building. While he did something inside, I was attracted to the candy like peppers and picked a bunch. I didn't eat them, but somehow I got the fire of the pepper on my lips and eyes. Talk about burn...

[CaptJack]

i went by Fiesta looking for Pequin chili peppers
they had them fresh - but green - not red = ripe
they had them dried like raisins
and they had them dried and powdered
this isn't the container they came it...
but WOW!!! are they good in a tartar sauce

[krfish]

I soak them in vinegar for a year or so in a mason jar. Use it in my BBQ mop, and it adds just the right amount of kick.