BANANA PEPPERS

In my search for what to do with all the banana peppers we are harvesting, I have turned to the internet.  The following recipes/ideas I found by clicking on ask.com and typing in 'what do I do with banana peppers.' I just copied and pasted a few of the ideas/recipes that I thought we might use at our house.  I am not taking credit for any of these I am simply posting them on my blog to say look what I found to try.

A Southern favorite:

FRIED BANANA PEPPERS

Banana peppers, sliced in half and seeded
1 c. milk
1/4 c. flour
1 1/4 lb. cracker meal, unseasoned
1 1/4 tbsp. red pepper
Oil for deep frying

Cut peppers in half; soak in milk and flour. Combine cracker meal, flour and red pepper to make breading mixture. Remove peppers from milk and roll in breading. Deep fry at 350 degrees until golden brown.

　

　

1. Finely chop the pickled banana peppers and use them in turkey burgers or meatloaf

　
2. slit up the side and pull out seeds using the back of an Asian soup spoon. Stuff with goat cheese and chorizo or a good blue cheese, cover in egg bath and panko and deep fry.
 Serve with a sweet and sour.... oh so good

　
3. Brown bulk sausage and drain thoroughly. Either melt a soft cheese product or make a quick white sauce and add your favorite cheese to it. Mix the cheese (or cheese sauce) into the sausage. Slice the top of the banana pepper off and make a slit down one side, seed the pepper. Spoon the sausage and cheese mixture into the pepper. Cover the entire pepper with store-bought canned crescent rolls to seal them up ( Large peppers may take up to 3 crescents, but with this , the more the better). Bake according to the crescent roll can. These are simply delicious. I usually make 6-8 peppers and refrigerate the leftovers. A friend of mine gave me the recipe, but she uses hamburger instead. If you freeze your peppers whole, you can thaw them out and fix this any time of the year.

　
I tried this with goat cheese and puff pastry. It was really good! Thanks for the idea!
I basically did as instructed but because I’m a real home cook (and not a chef) I improvised with what I had. I used one pound ground beef and one pound Italian sausage. For the cheese sauce I made the white sauce (rue: butter, flour and milk) and then mixed in about ½ pound or so of Monterey Jack Cheese. Oh Yum….then I mixed it with drained meat and stuffed the filling in the peppers and stated and so forth in the above post.

I doubted the tenderness of the peppers to cook in the crescent rolls for only 8-12 minuets (It seemed as though it took about 15 minuets to start to brown out crescents) but the Pepper wasn’t hard and crunchy, it was nice and tender….so good. I had left over filling and later in the week I used some of our red bell peppers and quarter them long ways like a boat, filled, wrapped and baked…Still Delish! We served ours with Spanish rice and guacamole…then ate the leftover chilies as a snack during a movie…I have to say…These are Addicting! 4. Cut the tops off, and take the seeds out. Put in a zip-lock bag, add salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Close the bag, and coat the peppers with the salt, pepper and oil, by shaking the bag. Remove peppers from zip-lock. Grill on a medium-high grill (with the cover shut), for 2-3 minutes on each side. Take off grill, add slices of good feta cheese, and gently place back on grill for a few minutes without turning, to melt the cheese. These have been a favorite of ours this summer, either as an app., or side.


　5. It wouldn't be a problem with me. I eat them raw just clean them and eat them with salt. I'll eat 3 or 4 day if I have them in the house

　

　

Cheesy Grilled Banana Peppers

Mild banana peppers, creamy Gouda cheese, a bit of bacon for a smoky richness, and tomatoes to offer a bit of freshness. Grill them to add another layer of flavor to the dish.

Serve these as an appetizer or unexpected side dish at your next barbecue!

Uses panko, or Japanese breadcrumbs in this recipe. You can substitute whatever breadcrumbs you have on hand.

15 Minutes to Prepare and Cook

Ingredients
4 banana peppers, fresh
2 slices bacon
1 tomato, diced
3 oz smoked Gouda cheese, diced
1 T parsley or cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

Directions
Preheat the grill to medium heat. Wash and cut the stems off the peppers. Using a fork or vegetable peeler, scoop out the seeds.

Cook bacon until brown but not crisp; drain and crumble. Combine all remaining ingredients and stuff them into the peppers. Wrap each pepper in a piece of aluminum foil, taking care to cover the tops tightly.

Place foil packets on the grill so they stand upright, keeping the filling inside the peppers. Cook with grill lid closed for 10 minutes.

Number of Servings: 4

　

6. For a quick snack we like to split in half, wash and clean the stuff with cream cheese or pimento cheese. Great to take to work for lunch, too.

　

7. tried to freeze some last year in air sealed bags and when I thawed them they were soggy and lost their "crunch". Do you have to blanch them first?

The best way I've found for freezing peppers is to cut them into pieces and lay them on a cookie sheet in the freezer. they freeze evenly and completely, then after frozen, move to a ziplock freezer bag.

Thanks, I'll try that way as I'm about to get way more than I can eat. Last time I just put them in there whole, but ended up throwing them out since they weren't crispy like peppers.

　

8. I really like this Hot Pepper Butter. It is a good condiment on lots of things. Or mixed into hot dips.

Hot Pepper Butter

36-40 hot banana peppers
1 quart vinegar
1 quart prepared mustard
6 cups sugar
1 cup flour
water

Chop peppers VERY finely or process in food processor.
Cook peppers, vinegar, mustard & sugar in a large pot & cook until pepper is translucent).
Make a paste of flour and cold water and add that to mixture in pot, stirring
constantly. Cook until thick and smooth. Pour into hot jars, seal,
boiling water bath fifteen minutes

　

9. I threw some on the grill the other day with other vegetables. We really liked them grilled.

　

　
     Today is kind of a lazy day for me I am having a heck of a time getting moving today; at least in the line of cooking.  I just feel a bit burned out, but I know I need to keep going.  I have the weekend off so I am hoping that I will feel more in the mood to cook for the week or at least process what is likely to coming from the garden by then.  I just counted my banana peppers in the fridge I have 16.  Since I am planning to use a lot of the jalapeno and apple jelly I have created this harvest in christmas gift baskets, I am thinking of making the above hot peper butter, I don't find our banana peppers very hot but I will follow the recipe to the letter and see what happens.  I should have close to the required 36 peppers by Saturday.  I am also going to include the bottled hell I made the other day and probably some pickles and relish.  I was thinking last night while I was at the sandwich shop breaking down boxes for the trash that we have many strong appropriate sized boxes for these gifts.  Given the fact that I am kind of finanacially challenged, perhaps I could start getting my baskets purchased and start loading them up and bringing home boxes and getting everything addressed then at Christmas, all I have to do is drive them to the post office.  I wonder if I can possibly be that organized.

   I am also thinking seriously that I will try number 3 above... I have everything on hand except the monterey jack cheese and this involves actual cooking like I miss as a chef instead of all this canning I have been doing.  I would really like to make something we can eat now like a meal out of these things. 
    Speaking of a meal, there is sweet corn in the fridge that I guess i need to get cooked today.  I am honestly craving a tomato sandwich and grilled cheese for lunch.  I am thinking of inventing the grilled cheese/tomato sandwich and I know it is just more carbs but am thinking of making the sweet corn too since don is at work and we are not likely to have a meal together for some time. 
     Don brought home peaches from a friends farm the other day. at this time they are still just hanging out in our fridge expiring.  I had one this morning and they are very juicy so we are talking about making a nice peach cobbler.  I am going online now to find that recipe.