Photo: Dried Chili Peppers

Rows of dried chili peppers hang outside a store on the way to Guadalest in the Province of Alicante in the Comunidad Valenciana in Spain, Europe.

Dried chili peppers are displayed outside a shop on the road to the town of Guadalest in the Province of Alicante in the Comunidad Valenciana, Spain and are ready for sale. Each bunch of chili peppers hangs from a string and as people pull into the store, they are one of the first things they see.There are a variety of methods that chili peppers can be dried but these ones sold at the store were dried the old fashioned way. Heavy thread or fishing line was threaded through the center of each pepper, stacking on top of each other until the line is full and then tying them off.The chili peppers are then hung in a well ventilated area where they will dry naturally. This could take as long as a month for the chili peppers to be dried, but then they are ready for sale and hung outside the store. Some people will use a dehydrator or oven as another means of drying out peppers.Many people use chili peppers for soups, stews or as seasonings for a variety of recipes. ... continue below the picture...

... If you are not using them in some sort of liquid, you must soften them up with warm water before cooking with them. To save time, you can by them already dried like the ones for sale at this store enroute to Guadalest, Spain.Dried chilly peppers hanging outside a store along the road to the town of Guadalest, Costa Blanca, Province of Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain, Europe.