THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 14, 1994 TAG: 9408120225
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
If your vegetable garden is like mine, about the only thing we can be sure of come harvest time is the hot peppers.
I always buy two or three varieties in the spring, mainly because I think the little peppers are colorful and cute. I don't do much to help them along, but it seems their fiery nature gives them the gumption to grow right on through drought, rain and neglect.
But what to do with all of them now? I'm overwhelmed with hot peppers, and the harvest's just beginning.
I decided to go right to the source, the Virginia Beach Pepper Lovers Club.
I knew the Pepper Lovers would be way out of my league when it came to the variety of peppers they raise and eat. But Bruce McLaughlin, founder, past president and now Chief Executive Habanero of the club, assured me peppers can generally be treated alike.
Most methods of preserving or cooking them apply across the boards. The difference comes in the quantity that you use. A club motto is: ``One man's pain is another man's pleasure.''
McLaughlin heats up everything he eats with a little extra pepper. He even takes his own peppers to restaurants with him to give some zing to his entrees.
His first rule in harvesting peppers is to let them turn red on the vine. He likes all his peppers red, including jalapenos, which I had always thought of as green.
``The longer they're on the vine, the more nutrients they have and the hotter they get,'' McLaughlin said.
He picks his peppers red, but still fresh, and chops them up in the blender or food processor. Then he puts a cup or two of the chopped peppers in a plastic, zip-lock bag, flattens the bag, seals it and stores it in the freezer.
McLaughlin also preserves cayennes by stringing them with a needle and thread and hanging them up to dry. He prefers drying them in the house where the air conditioning is on, rather than in the garage or shed, because of our humid weather.
While visiting with McLaughlin, I bought a copy of the ``Pepper Lovers Club Cookbook.'' The newly published book is full of recipes using peppers of all varieties. I sensed from talking to McLaughlin that many of the recipes would be too hot for me to handle, but as he said, I could always reduce the amount of peppers in any given recipe.
``You can always add more peppers,'' he said. ``but you can't take them out.''
The cookbook also has a few more preservation ideas. Like Peter Piper, you can always pickle your peppers. The cookbook suggests using cider or sherry vinegar and combining herbs with the peppers. For example, use habaneros with fresh tarragon or jalapenos with cilantro.
Oils are another way of preserving peppers, the cookbook says. You can make your oil as fiery as the oils used in hot Chinese dishes or as mild as you like, depending on the amount and types of peppers you use.
The cookbook also includes recipes for hot pepper jellies. Jellies, oils and vinegars all would make great holiday gifts and so would a string of dried cayennes.
If you don't grow peppers, but this makes you want some fresh ones, they often are available in the produce department of local grocery stores. Also, some of the roadside vegetable stands sell locally grown hot peppers. For example, Baybreeze Farms sells cayennes and habaneros.
Cindy Barnes of Baybreeze Farms often packs surplus peppers into jars and covers them with cider vinegar. Sometimes the jars of peppers sell better than the peppers themselves, she said.
When buying fresh peppers, the Pepper Lovers Cookbook advises looking for peppers with shiny, unblemished skin. They should be heavy for their size with a fresh, clean smell.
Before you shop, you should know that peppers are ranked on a heat scale that begins with 0 and ends at 10. Sweet banana and common bell peppers rate a zero while the habaneros rate a fiery 10. In between you'll find the familiar jalapenos and cayennes at five and eight, respectively.
This year, just for the fun of it, I'm growing Thai peppers. I had no idea how hot they were until I read in the cookbook that the tiny peppers rate at a great big nine on the heat scale. Now I'm scared to try them.
Thai peppers must have a lot of bounce to the ounce because they are very skinny and short - a little over an inch long. Hot or not, they add a certain style to my garden, growing upside down and poking their little pointed ends up to the sky.
The ``Pepper Lovers Cookbook'' costs $14.95 and you can get one by mailing a check with your name, address and phone number to Pepper Lovers Club, P.O. Box 5043, Virginia Beach, Va., 23455-0043. If you live in Virginia Beach, they will deliver the book to you, free of charge. If you don't, add $2 for shipping and handling ($3, outside the United States). All proceeds go to the Virginia Beach Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
P.S. ENJOY MUSIC, LEMONADE AND COOKIES at 2 p.m. today at the Lynnhaven House, 4401 Wishart Road. The concert is free with admission to the historic house.
GYOTAKU: THE ART OF FISHING PRINTING, a workshop for adults, will be offered from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday. Participants should bring their own T-shirts or other fabric items to print on. The fee is $15 for museum members and $20 for non-members. Call 437-4949 for registration information. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow@infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Bruce McLaughlin, founder of the Beach Pepper Lovers Club, heats up
everything he eats with a little extra pepper, like these Thais.
Photo by
by CNB