I lived in Colorado for thirty years and got myself hooked on chili rellinois and other dishes made using poblano peppers. It became necessary for me to learn how to roast and clean my own peppers. Of course there are many ways to do this but I use so many peppers that I have special equipment to help me accomplish the task. I just picked 58 pounds of poblano peppers which I am in the process of roasting and cleaning. I will then vacuum pack them, and freeze them to be used in many wonderful recipes throughout the next year. I thought that some of you would enjoy seeing how I do it. I have a small pepper roaster which will roast 8-10 pounds or peppers in 3-4 minutes however you can roast small numbers of them on a cookie sheet in the oven or 1-2 at a time over an open flame. The latter methods are just much slower and labor intensive.
A small capacity pepper roaster.
Juse a few of my 58 pounds of poblanos
8-10 lbs of peppers in the roaster. Notice lit burners at bottom.
After the roast
I remove them from the roaster and place them in a plastic bag
or in this case a plastic tub so I can cover them and let them
sweat for about 20-30 minutes. This loosens the shiny film
coating on the peppers which you want to remove.
Removing the film coating. I simply rub them with my fingers
while running cold water on them until I have them clean.
I then lay them out on a towel to dry a bit while I continue washing
and cleaning more peppers.
These peppers have had the stems removed. You can see the
stems in a pile to the left. I use a knife to go in to the top of the
pepper and slice a circle around the stem. This leaves a nice
hole that I can stuff cheese sticks or meat into. Be sure that
you remove as much of the veins and seeds as possible. I lay
a dish towel on top of them and get them as dry as possible
before vacuum packing them.
I vacuum pack them sorted by size and number. I usually put
5-6 in each. Smaller ones or those that sort of tear up while
cleaning I pack together and mark them for puree which can be
used to flavor salsa and other dishes.
I wound up with about 400 peppers which I use in many wonderful dishes. Sometimes I slice them open and roast slabs on my grill and place them on hamburgers. There are many casseroles that you can make using poblanos. I open them up and make a layer on a 9x13 pyrex dish, then a layer of ground meat, a layer of cheese, another layer of poblanos, and so on. It's easy to make and can be a one dish meal. Wow, I'm really hooked on these things. Poblano chicken recipes are easy too. The puree can be used to flavor many sauces. The aroma you smell while roasting these is addicting itself. Questions are welcome. Poblanos at Walmart cost appx. $2.85 per pound. These cost me about .75 cents per pound.
A small capacity pepper roaster.
Juse a few of my 58 pounds of poblanos
8-10 lbs of peppers in the roaster. Notice lit burners at bottom.
After the roast
I remove them from the roaster and place them in a plastic bag
or in this case a plastic tub so I can cover them and let them
sweat for about 20-30 minutes. This loosens the shiny film
coating on the peppers which you want to remove.
Removing the film coating. I simply rub them with my fingers
while running cold water on them until I have them clean.
I then lay them out on a towel to dry a bit while I continue washing
and cleaning more peppers.
These peppers have had the stems removed. You can see the
stems in a pile to the left. I use a knife to go in to the top of the
pepper and slice a circle around the stem. This leaves a nice
hole that I can stuff cheese sticks or meat into. Be sure that
you remove as much of the veins and seeds as possible. I lay
a dish towel on top of them and get them as dry as possible
before vacuum packing them.
I vacuum pack them sorted by size and number. I usually put
5-6 in each. Smaller ones or those that sort of tear up while
cleaning I pack together and mark them for puree which can be
used to flavor salsa and other dishes.
I wound up with about 400 peppers which I use in many wonderful dishes. Sometimes I slice them open and roast slabs on my grill and place them on hamburgers. There are many casseroles that you can make using poblanos. I open them up and make a layer on a 9x13 pyrex dish, then a layer of ground meat, a layer of cheese, another layer of poblanos, and so on. It's easy to make and can be a one dish meal. Wow, I'm really hooked on these things. Poblano chicken recipes are easy too. The puree can be used to flavor many sauces. The aroma you smell while roasting these is addicting itself. Questions are welcome. Poblanos at Walmart cost appx. $2.85 per pound. These cost me about .75 cents per pound.
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