Poblano Peppers – My First Ever !
Recently, I received a wonderful gift of poblano
peppers. Since they are so expensive,
I’ve never purchased fresh ones before.
After doing a bit of research, I was ready to prep them.
Generally, poblanos are charred to remove the skins before
cooking. I figured if I’ve never done
this before, then other people might be in the same situation, too.
The first problem I faced was with how to char so
many peppers. I had visions of a sweltering kitchen as I fiddled around with a
couple of peppers at a time. Then I remembered our gas grill. I had Mike drag
it out of the shed and set it up on a sturdy table in the yard. That worked just fine.
- Use your gas grill outside.
- My husband Joe used to char bell peppers before making spaghetti sauce. He did it by laying a few on the burner of the gas stove and turning them with tongs until they were blackened.
- you can also put them on a broiler pan and char them in the broiler
- Do not try to bake them in the oven. The skins will not char and they will only get mushy and overcooked.
Beginning to char
Keep at it!
Sweat them
What a mess !
When I tried to scrape the skin off my first pepper, it was a real mess. I used several paper towels, but I realized this was becoming an expensive proposition. Besides, it wasn’t doing a good job of removing that charred skin.
Water bath
Running Water
It took me a while to figure out an “assembly line” method
of handling so many peppers. I used the
pot to catch most of the charred skin scraps, but found they came cleaner under
running water.
- colander with cooled peppers
- running water to scrub them clean
- pan of water to hold cleaned peppers
Seeds were a problem
Many of the loose seeds floated free and were easily rinsed
off.
Drain the peppers
Drying the peppers
Watch for my next blog called Processing Poblano Peppers
for instructions on slicing and dehydrating them.
THANK YOU! your sentence "I figured if I’ve never done this before, then other people might be in the same situation, too." Made me smile! there must be oodles of us! well i have tried it exactly once (for a pesto) but it was a disaster! This is such a great explanation, including things that didn't work! fotos are great too!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. Yes, even after all these years I learn new things almost daily! And surely, I can't be the only one who doesn't know.
Deletethey say necessity is the mother if invention.. True, but thanks to the internet, sometimes I let other people invent the wheel.