My new pepper roaster!

I was thinking to much bitter char flavor too.

Aaaaalll right…Hoisting myself up.

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After you roast them ( while they are still hot) put them in a paper bag for at least 15 - 30 minutes. Then rinse them under running tap water and the burned skins will come off. At that point you can choose to remove the seeds if you wish to do that. Pat dry the peppers with paper towels and put them in plastic freezer bags. Try to get as much air out of the bag as possible and the frozen peppers will stay usable for at least a year.

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@Pete1 Thank you!

Here’s Alton Brown roasting peppers on the stove with a steamer insert.

Very cool.

I just bought a $2 pizza screen from amazon to use to puff chapatis and the like (they keep falling through here - doesn’t happen on my stove) - I couldn’t find the cooling rack or I would’ve just put that over the grate (I found it buried in a drawer yesterday, of course).


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This doohickey is used similarly:

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Oooooo! Good ideas! I am researching relleno ideas, which I’ll share on here;

Not a relleno but i’m trying this one too.

If you put them in a paper bag while they are still hot, the steam will pretty much lift the burned peel off the pepper. You can then rinse them under tap water (remove the seeds if you wish) pat them dry with paper towels and freeze them, if you aren’t going to use them immediately.
Letting them cool only makes removing the skins more difficult. Doing it under running water while they are still warm is much easier.

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Nice technique! My procedure is similar, with adjustments to preserve the smoky flavor and juices from roasting that we really enjoy.

I put my roasted peppers into a metal (mixing) bowl topped with a dinner plate and let peppers cool awhile. Trapping the steam loosens the pepper skins, much like the paper bag method does.

After the peppers cool down enough, I open the peppers over another bowl to collect any juices. Then I place each pepper on a cutting board to scrape off the charred skin with a sharp knife and deseed. Sliced peppers, along with their juices, are then ready to use or freeze as you like.

Again, this variation is for fans of a roasty, smoky flavor profile.

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I’ve found a bench scraper to be quite useful when skinning, and de-seeding masses of them.

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I’m not a big fan, but my friend who is from Mexico served them when she had my parents over, and they were simple and delicious.

She skipped the battered frying. They were stuffed with cheese and served with a thin tomato sauce that I could have drunk a jug of. Rice on the side.

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Yeah, that’s what I do, though I haven’t found that letting them cool just to room temperature makes much of a difference. Also, fwiw, I try to avoid actually sticking the peppers under the running water since the skinned peppers will absorb at least some it, though I do peel them in the sink so I can easily rinse the charred skin off my hands (the pepper skins, not my  skin :wink:) as I work. And even though I have a mesh strainer in the sink drain, when I’m doing a lot of peppers, I rinse my hands over a separate strainer to catch the skins - seems to help keep the sink drain flowing freely until I’m done with even a big batch of 'em…

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I try not to rinse, and I’m using bowls as well. Paper bags are getting pretty scarce in my home.

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Good one!

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If you have a charcoal grill you can put the chiles directly on the hot coals- that’s what we do. But I don’t recommend leaving- the process goes pretty fast. It smells so good you won’t want to leave, anyway.

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I’ve done that a lot. They don’t pick up any off flavors from the char.

You were correct in noting that I no longer have my roaster. Somehow it disappeared when we moved. I suspect my wife may have had something to do with its disappearance. As far as the heat of the Hatch chilis is concerned, when I used to order them you could specify the heat you wanted. (Hot or Mild) although even the mild variety had some heat.

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Hot, but usually too late hot. I warn people when they eat them. It won’t be hot, until it gets down the hatch, then the Hatch hatches a dragon egg. Love those. Wow, what a skin on Hatches. Cellophane.

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I used to buy 20-30 lbs of fresh roasted hatches every late August when my favorite store had a roasting roadshow. You’d get your box or so of chiles and they’d be roasted on the spot for you, outside the store. I usually got the HOT :fire:ones, then spent a few hours getting the charred skin off, and de-seeding with the bench scraper. Then into freezer bags, and they’re all ready for use. One year I did it without gloves, my hands were burning for days. Never again.

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How is your pepper roaster working out? I think mine has earned it’s keep, and won’t end up on that other thread.

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Lol - mine is actually pretty small, but works ok for maybe 6-8 poblanos or Hatch’s. The store that had the traveling roaster moved out of town, but last year at least, they did it at 2 Seattle locations, but we missed out. Maybe we can get a box this year, but if so, think I’ll get the less hot peppers, since even the mild ones can pack a punch.

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