Cookaholics Bulletin Board

While picking out annuals this year, DH noticed that the nursery was selling what they were calling ghost chili plants. So we are now growing ghost chilis in the backyard. I thought it would be fun, except when I googled them to see what they look like when they are ripe, I discovered that they are allegedly the hottest chili on the planet. (So far they look like inch long Thai birds eye chilis that are a pale yellow green). So I'm at a loss now about what to do with them. The original plan had been to use them like serranos (in salsa and fajita marinades and the like). Now I'm thinking that might kill us.

Anyone have any suggestions about what to do with them???

Make hot chili jam and give it to people you don't like.

Have your garden exorcised?

Use them for getting rid of rabbits?

Seriously, that is really what I use them for, dried and crumbled. I have grown them, as well as other "superhots", and they are really too hot to use in a dish, if you are going to use enough for flavor. And you know that has to be hot for me to say that! I made some hot oil, with about 1/5 the amount of peppers to oil that I usually use when making it, and the stuff was so hot that it had to be used by the drop, and it was easy to get too much. I ended up tossing about 90% of it. It also tasted burnt, compared to the Thai peppers I usually use.

Here is one of several photos of the same plant, to show you how large they can get, and what the peppers should look like. They actually do better in pots, I think because the soil is warmer. That one in the photos was only in a 3 gal bucket!


BTW, I have one this year that is supposedly hotter - a 7-pot jonah - which is 1.2 million SUs, supposedly. The plant is LOADED, and you can see the shape of the peppers is very similar. I only grew this out of curiosity, and to give to some co-workers.

Dave,

Mine don't quite look like yours. They are small and shaped like Thai bird's eye chilies only fatter and bigger overall. I'm hoping that this might mean that they won't be as hot.

But if they are, I have been thinking about turning them into oil and spraying them on my perennials once the leaves drop in the hope that this will keep the mice from eating them. I have lost lilacs, day lilies, russian sage, and spriea every year to mice (they get under the snow in the winter, camp out, eat my plants and leave me nothing but holes full of poop by the time the snow melts). They strip the bark or just eat the whole plant outright, including roots in the case of my day lilies. I was thinking I'd simmer the chilies in oil, strain, and use a Misto to spray the plants. Unless there's a better way....

Here's what mine look like (only yellow, not red):

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/chili-peppers.jpg

Those do look more like a Thai Bird pepper than a ghost pepper - too smooth to be a typical ghost pepper, or any of those superhots I've seen. Have you sampled one yet, or at least cut one open, to see what they smell like? The ghost peppers have that habanero aroma, but it's muted, compared to a good habanero variety.

No, they're still yellow so I'm assuming they're not ripe yet. If they turn red, I'll pick one and look. I'm hoping they've been mislabeled, as it's a large plant with a lot of chilies and I'd like to be able to use them.

Here they are ripening:

Mine look nothing like that. They are starting to turn a dark purple colour in spots. I think they're mystery chiles.

Yours sound like Chinese multicolor, which have purple, yellow, orange, and red peppers. Until they get red they are quite bitter, and even somewhat bitter after ripening, and are about 1-1 1/4" x 1/2".

So when are you gonna pop one, and tell us what it tastes like?