Making Criolla Sella Ground Pepper

We grow Criolla Sella peppers, among many other varieties.  These are from Bolivia and they are a beautiful yellowish-orange when ripened.  We harvest them, dry them and grind them up to make our own pepper for seasoning.  We just made a fresh batch, so we'll show you the process:

These plants survived the winter last year so they're quite large and they fill up with these peppers that average a little over 2 inches in length.

Ripening criolla sella peppers

They are prolific producers and they are loaded with blooms, green peppers and yellow-orange peppers, covering the full range of the life cycle of the pepper.

Criolla Sella bloom

Criolla Sella that's not ripe yet

We harvested the bounty off of two of the plants and brought them inside.

Nice colors

I cut the stems off of them...

Then I place them on a tray and put them in the warmer where they'll dry for several days.

Ready for drying

Once they come out of the drying process, I take a pair of scissors and cut them in half and scrape the seeds out.  If you want a little more heat, you can leave them in.  These peppers aren't as hot as a jalapeno and have what I describe as a 'smoky-hot' flavor.

Dried peppers and seeds removed from most of them

I take the de-seeded criolla sellas and put them in a measuring cup and then I run them through the food processor until they are reduced to a fine powder.

Dried peppers ready to grind into powder

Here is the finished product before I bottle it.  You'll note there are a few seeds left in there.  It is really hard to remove them all.  I could run it through a sieve, but I'm okay with a few seeds. 

Ground pepper

We save our old spice containers and use a funnel to pour the ground pepper into them.

Bottling up the pepper

This stuff is great on anything, especially chili, rice and gravy, or anything else that you want to add some nice flavor to.

Flavorful Criolla Sella Ground Pepper

Let me know if you'd like some seeds from our Criolla Sella plants.  They are heirloom, open pollinated. I've got a bunch of them and would be happy to share.