I'm always delighted when someone gifts me something they made or grew. It's one of the best things about the work that I do. A few visitors to this site have sent me gifts in the mail – artisanal palm sugar and a cookbook arrived this summer and late last week, I received a priority mail delivery of a bag of gorgeous homegrown chile peppers (photo above). They came from Annette in Elk Grove, California. We’ve been corresponding for a good year now about how she grows chiles in her yard. Lucky for me, she decided to share them some! She emailed a photo of her bumper crop (do note that she’s got what looks like a dragon fruit plant on the left there) and followed up with a zip-top bag of chiles in the mail. Look how she's used chiles as a beautiful border plant in that garden bed!
I immediately used four of the chiles in a stir-fry of eggplant and felt the heat long afterwards. Annette, you grow mighty potent peppers! I’ve frozen them for the time being but when I get back home (I’m traveling to Australia to talk at the Sydney International Food Festival), I’ll be using the chiles for batches of killer homemade chile garlic sauce and Thai-style Sriracha sauce.
Right now is when red hot chiles are coming to farmer’s markets so keep your eyes open. Last week at the San Francisco Ferry Building, McEvoy Ranch turned my head with their gorgeous display of red chiles. The Oaxacan was delightfully sweet-hot.
Get the chiles while you can. Freeze them or preserve them in homemade chile sauces!
Recipes
- Chile garlic sauce (tuong ot toi)
- Thai-style Sriracha sauce (tuong ot Sriracha)
Esme says
Hello I was looking at your class schedule-I am envious you are teaming up with Mr. Nguyen from the Red Lantern-I love his cookbook and just made his pork dumpling soup this week. I am so happy the weather cooled off slightly in So. Cal. so that I was yearning soup.
Your moon cake molds are beautiful
Andrea Nguyen says
Yes, we're having a lovely time here in Sydney. I'll pass your note on to Luke Nguyen! Thanks for the kind words.
Natashya says
What a glorious bounty of peppers!
Andrea Nguyen says
Quite a harvest that Annette had this year. I got just a small fraction.
jai says
I've never seen red chiles that small. They say, the smaller they are the hotter they are. Wish I could get some here in Texas.
Andrea, What do you think about Gourmet magazine being shuttered? I'm shocked.
thuy says
I am quite jealous. Everyone in Florida and Texas, that I know, are having issues with their chili pepper plant not offering up and fruit. The chilis look soooo good.
Andrea Nguyen says
Jai -- These are about 1 1/4 inches long, 1/3 inch wide.
Re: Gourmet -- I didn't think that Conde Naste would shut down the magazine. It's a pity but their ad sales were down and Bon Appetit has a 1.4mil circulation whereas Gourmet had 940K circulation and costs more to operate. Good professional food writers out of work is very sad.
stainless steel toaster ovens says
Those chillis look delicious. I grow my own chillis here in spain, i will gladly send you some samples of quality. Not a lot of people can tell the difference between a good and bad chilli.
Loan Dinh says
Oh wow...I didn't realize you wrote an article about the chili peppers I sent you. I feel so honored. I am planning to make Banh Mi Xiu Mai tomorrow. As I was googling to see if I can find any Banh Mi Xiu Mai recipe so that I can compare to mine. I happened to read your BMXM recipe and the next thing I saw was my garden...I've been harvested lots of peppers but there isn't any in my fridge. I shared most of them to friends and families. There's still lots of them in the garden and they are not yet ready to harvest.
The dragon fruit plant you see is Thanh Long plant. I cut just a few small branches from my mom's plant (she lives in S.Cal) and stuck into the soil pots. As for now, they're growing very well. Hopefully, they survive through this coming winter.
Anyway, have a wonderful time in Sydney. I have always had a passion for cooking and eating...I wish I can attend even just one cooking event 🙂
Andrea Nguyen says
Thanks Loan for this message and the chiles! Enjoy the banh mi.
grossesse says
Hello
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marlon says
Those chillis look delicious. I grow my own chillis here in spain, i will gladly send you some samples of quality.