Until recently, I had no idea what to call certain hot, green, dreidel-shaped peppers in my garden. They weren’t even supposed to be there, according to the packet of hot mixed peppers I planted.
But there they were. After a bit of research, I introduced myself to a new amigo: the poblano pepper.
Then what? How to preserve them? There were too many to eat fresh, the fiery things, but I wasn’t about to let them go bad. I could always dry them. Then I would have to re-do the introductions–after drying they are called ancho peppers.
After some looking around I decided to roast and freeze them. There are many recipes that call for roasted poblanos, and they all look good.
To roast poblanos, or any kind of pepper, you:
- Wash peppers if necessary. Dry them.
- Toss them with a bit of oil (I used canola, any vegetable oil would be fine) in a pan large enough to allow a bit of room between peppers. You can also roast them dry, no oil, if you prefer.
- Put them in the oven at 350 degrees F until the skin is blistered and beginning to brown or char a bit all over, turning as needed. Don’t let the peppers bake through to the point they are completely mushy–you want a little bit of fight left in them–otherwise the flesh will cook down and you won’t be able to skin them. You want them nicely charred so the skin will come off easily, but not so done that the meat is too thin.
- Place in a covered container to steam the skin from the flesh of the peppers (some sources advise placing them in a plastic bag, but plastic is notoriously toxic especially when heated so I used a lidded glass bowl. Don’t tell me if they discover glass is toxic. I don’t want to know.)
- When the peppers have steamed and they are cool enough to handle, remove the skin, seeds, stems and membranes. You may want to use gloves for this–if you forget and rub your eye with a pepper hand it isn’t pretty. Here they are skinned before I seeded them:
- Freeze. I freeze them in a container, pop them out like an ice cube and just cut off what I want from the cube-0-peppers. They don’t freeze extremely hard and can be carved right out of the freezer. Alternatively, you could put the individual peppers on a baking sheet, freeze them solid, then transfer the individually frozen peppers to a freezer container.
As you can see in the photos, I added a handful of garlic cloves because I can’t imagine a dish with roasted peppers that wouldn’t be enhanced by roasted garlic. I roasted them skin-on, and squeezed them out with the skinned peppers and froze them along with the poblanos.
The heat of poblanos varies from medium to hot. Mine are hot. I put two of them in this Tortilla Soup (substituting roasted for fresh) and had to add all kinds of extra broth and milk to take it down from hoo-boy!! to cha-cha-cha! Next time only one poblano.
Tomato Lady
THANKS FOR THE COMMENT! I FEEL LIKE I'VE HAD THE FAMOUS "T-LADY" LOOK AT MY BLOG!HEHAHE ~THANKS FOR SHARING THE REC. OF CANNED APPLE PIE FILLING! LIKE I SAID IN MY POST MY MOTHER MADE IT YEARS AGO, BUT DUE TO A STROKE RATHER THAN MEMORY IS TRULY WHY I COULDN'T PUT MY FINGER HERS!:( SHE READS MY BLOG SO I HAD TO "FIB" A TAD NOT TO STEPS ON ANY TOES! THANKS AGAIN & KEEP ON BLOGGIN' "HAPPYINHORTON" JILL
Oh, my–too funny. Thank you, Mrs. Winfrey–you’ve got a boppin’ playlist, had me tappin’ my foot over there at HappyinHorton. My best to your Mother.
I will probably want the ‘cha-cha-cha’ since I don’t like my food too hot. In the Chinese Dimsum restaurant I frequent, they slice these Poblano peppers thinly and mix it with the friend calamari, quite tasty!
You can also roast them over an open flame, either in the kitchen or on the grill. The skins blister rather quickly that way, without breaking down too much. We would put them in a paper bag and let them steam that way until cool enough to handle. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of my family gathered at a friend’s house, swimming, and roasting a 50 pound bag of Hatch chilis (that our friend usually drove from Phoenix to Hatch NM to pick up).
Babette–calamari and poblanos sound like a good combo, never would have thought of that.
Becca–I’ll have to fire up the grill next time, I bet that makes them so good and smoky. Mmmm.
Poblanos were totally new to me this season. I actually did just this recipe while chopping and freezing all of my other peppers. This is a great recipe!
What a fun blog you have! I have been enjoying everything you have from chickens to food.
Would you be up for letting me link your blog to mine?
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
red icculus–Well, great minds and all that–it’s getting to be hearty soup time of year. I’m thinking about my favorite sopa ranchera next. I need to post the recipe.
dayphoto–Thank you so much! It’s a lot of fun. I peeked at your pretty blog–those mountain views are so beautiful. I love Colorado. We’d love a link.
Thanks for the great tutorial! My husband planted two poblano plants this year and I wasn’t sure what to do with them. They are just getting ready now, and just in time you’ve told me what to do with them. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Lisa! This is my first year for them too. I’m thinking of trying to dry some as well, to have anchos.
Thank you, Tomato Lady; you write well! I love this advice! You describe my friend the poblano perfectly. (I came looking for how best to roast.)
Thanks for the info! The only thing I disagree with is poblano peppers are very mild in heat. I saw a chart that rated them almost as low as bell peppers. I grow them to make chicken stuffed rellanos (sp?), and mine have almost no heat at all.
Yum, I’m trying this today! I plan to use my roasted peppers in chili.
Do I HAVE to skin them? I love the taste of the charred skin, especially when the pepper is stuffed w/cheese and covered in picante. Oh mercy!
Roma–The skin is usually removed because it separates from the flesh and tends to be sort of tough, kind of plastic-y. If your peppers don’t do that, or if you prefer it that way, by all means leave it on. One less step to worry about.
One poblano plant, dozens of peppers. Thanks! The poblanos I grow here in Georgia are much hotter than the ones I buy in the store.