When we purchased both our Grenada and Aji Dulce seasoning peppers we were told to store them in the freezer to preserve their life span. When we needed a bit of flavoring for a dish, we could just pull out a chili, mince it up and fold it into the dish at hand.
Since I am not patient, I was not willing to wait for the chili to thaw so I could mince it. Instead, I used our microplane to zest the flesh of the chilies and keep the frozen interior and seeds for the bin. What is exciting
about zesting frozen chilies is the fine consistent texture which we can fold into marinated fish preparations or use to finish a sauce. In this instance we have zested the Aji Dulce on top of minced Kona Kampachi.
Similarly, if you look at our gingerbread bisque preparation the Benton's ham is also zested. We have frozen smoked foie gras and guacamole so that they could be easily zested as a final accompaniment to dishes. The zested ham is our first foray into frozen and zested meats. Though, we have been able to zest dried chorizo as it is quite firm and zests beautifully.
