Roasting Peppers
- cknight52
- HazeMcElhenny
- huck555
- sckaroly
- Vickiemc
- Vickiemc
- Kirk
- sckaroly
- Vickiemc
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» HazeMcElhenny - excellent and informative
roasted peppers are long a favorite of mine and you can do them right over an open gas flame or directly on the element if you have an electric stove. this is helpful if it's too cold to go outside to grill but i do miss the deep charcoal flavor that way.thank you much for the intriguing recipe ideas also.
till again
-haze
-- posted by HazeMcElhenny
» huck555 - Roasting "Lots" of Peppers
My wife says I'm a pepper god. I'm far from it. I don't know my varities very well. But we grow about 50 plants every year and grow our favorites; Rellanos, Anaheims, Rio Grandes, and then we try some new ones every year. Anyway we end up with tons of peppers and we put almost all of them up for winter use. I've learned something new each time. Here's my current routine.I grade peppers as I harvest. Older, gnarly, thin skin go into one basket for drying. Smooth, thick, heavy go for roasting. Think of going for thick fillets. The longer you wait between picking and roasting, the thinner and dryer they get. First I remove seeds. I try and remove the thin white ribbing as best I can. For rellanos and anaheims I actually slice up one side (like cleaning a fish) and try to preserve the head for making chillie rellanos. For others I just seed the best I can, cut tops off and go for the filet idea. Do as many as you want to roast first.
I then set up a station "Outside." Two small tables, Air tight containers, bowl of canola oil, brush, my grill, long tongs, chopping block, a big plastic bucket, a chair and on the weekends a martini. A large box of throw away vinyl gloves is essential. Pepper juice is serious stuff. Discard and replace often.
Now here comes a trick I learned working at the Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, that roasts a couple hundred peppers a night. You need a propane torch. I just discovered one at Home Depot with a hand wand and a 4 foot hose. It's "perfect." Don't forget the striker to light it. Now the idea is to roast fast. The longer they sit on the grill the drier and thinner they get. My grill has two burners so I grill on one side and torch, warm and smoke on the cooler side. Brush oil on enough peppers to cover one half the grill. I think hot and fast is best. Get them as completely darkened as possible then one by one move them to the side and hit the lighter spots with the torch until fully black but not cremated. I try and close the lid as often as possible to get the smoking but don't over cook. Then I rotate the batch to a airtight containers for steaming and softening. After a couple of rounds of roasting and an accumulation of steaming peppers. I take a short break sip my martini and prepare for skinning. I sit at a table with the bucket between my legs and a chopping board. With a good knife I start scrapping the peppers. Use the tip and heel of blade for different areas. Here is where I do a second grading. A. Whole rellanos and anahiems with tops intact, B. smaller flat filets and C. pieces. Don't be too picky, just get through it. The aroma that fills the neighborhood creates havoc and envy. I finish the scrapping take another sip and relax. The job is essentially done. Then I just hose down the area. Before too long I wrap each piece in plastic wrap. The rellanos wrapped flat, the filets I wrap flat then roll them up like little cigars and place them all in labeled freezer bags. The great joy comes in deep winter when you have friends over and you grill up some burgers with a fresh slab of smoked pepper. Or fresh salsa and soups. I know I'm a little nuts but the per ounce price of these peppers in my mind is greater than gold. So are my friendships.
-- posted by huck555
» sckaroly - Re: excellent and informative
In response to message posted by HazeMcElhenny:I love to roast. It's a great way to develop bold flavors in food. I recently started using a cast iron skillet (Maybe we need a new topic -- Cast Iron Chef -- we could have Cast Iron Chef French, Cast Iron Chef American ... been watching too much TV).
Just heat up the skillet over medium heat and roast whole garlic cloves and whole chilies. No oil. Just heat. Turn often amd roast until tender and brown/black shops appear. Then mince or puree and throw them into your favorite salsa (with roasted tomatoes, of course).
-- posted by sckaroly
» Vickiemc - Re: Re: excellent and informative
In response to message posted by sckaroly:I've been using the same technique for years! It's the quickest and most effecient way I know to roast a garlic clove, toast whole spices or singe large hunks of onion or even roast peppers.
My only complaint is that my one cast iron pan is too small (8") for any large endeavors.
Vickie
-- posted by Vickiemc
» Kirk - Why remove the skins?
I BBQ often on my gas Weber just for mein the summer, this keeps the heat outside.
I often do a steak
slice a red onion
and
slice a red or green pepper
and just put them all on the grill giving me a balanced meal with little work. Sometimes I even toss on an ear or corn rather than an onion.
The skin tastes fine to me and I imagine it has vitamins that are good for ya.
-- posted by Kirk
» sckaroly - Re: Great Idea
In response to message posted by cknight52:I just saw something on Alton Brown's Good Eats. He placed hot peppers into a steamer basket and placed the basket over the burner. When they had browned, he placed the basket in the sink and placed a clear glass bowl upside down over the peppers to let them steam.
The show, which aired yesterday, is #EA1D01: "Chile's Angles." It airs again on Wednesday, 10-31 at 1 p.m. (EST?).
-- posted by sckaroly
» Vickiemc - Great Idea and Skins
Wow, that guy has good ideas! Love the steamer basket over the gas burner idea! I'll have to try that glass bowl trick too.As for the skins on the chiles, once they turn black, they get quite stiff and brittle. The chile turns nice and soft, but the papper skin breaks into a million pieces. I don't really like the taste of the skin either.
I suppose if you don't burn the skin, only roast it a bit, it would be fine for eating.
Just my opinion....
Vickie - Culinary Vixen
-- posted by Vickiemc
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