Smoking Peppers

[Daddy-A]

We have a bumper crop of jalapenos and anchos from the patio garden this year (yes, we can grow peppers in the Great White North ). My hope is to take the majority of them and smoke/dry them in the Weber Bullet, and of course document the procedure on eGullet.

Any thoughts on how to go about this?

A.

[lcdm]

Here is a link for smoked pepppers. I have not tried it but I have had good luck with other recipes form this site:

Enjoy and let us know how it turns out:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/chipotles.html

Edited August 14, 2005 by lcdm (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Arne, are the jalapeños fully grown and red? Or are you trying this with green ones? I'll be very interested to find out how it goes. Photos, of course, will be critical to our appreciation of your expertise .

[Daddy-A]

Here is a link for smoked pepppers. I have not tried it but I have had good luck with other recipes form this site:

Enjoy and let us know how it turns out:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/chipotles.html

Good lord! How could I have forgotten Virtual Bullet??!! Awesome lcdm! Thanks ... that site is like a bible for me. Guess I need to read the bible more

Arne, are the jalapeños fully grown and red? Or are you trying this with green ones?

Well, they're green right now. And just to confirm my ignorance of all thinks plant-like ... will the green ones turn red, or is it another kind of jalapeno?

Regardless, I'll be using the peppers we have at hand ... jalapenos and anchos. I'll try to get this done before vacation at the end of the month, otherwise y'all will just have to wait until September!

A.

[fiftydollars]

Oooh!

This is very exciting! I can't wait to see how this turns out for you.

Does anyone know how to make an adobo?

[andiesenji]

The Jals should be fully ripe, bright red, before harvesting and smoking. However, you can pick them when they begin to turn and they will continued to ripen after picking, as long as you keep them where air can circulate around them. On a screen is good.

I smoke mine in a mesh rotisserie basket with the rotisserie on slow speed so they get turned constantly and smoke and dry evenly.

tumble basket

I lined mine with 1/2 inch hardware "cloth" mesh so the peppers wouldn't fall through.

I am not doing any this year as my garden was trashed and it is still being renovated.

Edited August 16, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[Daddy-A]

I smoke mine in a mesh rotisserie basket with the rotisserie on slow speed so they get turned constantly and smoke and dry evenly. 

tumble basket

I lined mine with 1/2 inch hardware "cloth" mesh so the peppers wouldn't fall through. 

Andie, that basket is awesome! I won't be suing it to smoke as I use a Weber Bullet ... but my grill on the other hand would benefit from such a device.

Thanks for the tips!

A.

[chantal]

Oooh!

This is very exciting! I can't wait to see how this turns out for you.

Does anyone know how to make an adobo?

←

There is a recipe here for adobo. I printed it off for my binder, but have not tried it yet. Please let me know how it is if you try it!

[k43]

Chantal -

The Food and Wine site is accesible only to subscribers or to newsstand buyers with a special code printed in the magazine. Any chance you can post the adobo-making instructions?

[andiesenji]

I smoke mine in a mesh rotisserie basket with the rotisserie on slow speed so they get turned constantly and smoke and dry evenly. 

tumble basket

I lined mine with 1/2 inch hardware "cloth" mesh so the peppers wouldn't fall through. 

Andie, that basket is awesome! I won't be suing it to smoke as I use a Weber Bullet ... but my grill on the other hand would benefit from such a device.

Thanks for the tips!

A.

←

My upright smoker is not available right now for photos as has it has been hauled off to a friend's place for him to use.

It did not have a rotissiere but I just had two holes drilled in each side and large washers welded on to reinforce the metal and ran the shaft through from side to side. I also had a bracket to hold the motor welded on to the outside - the motor came from an old "Broil-a-vator" and has a chain drive that turns the shaft.

Mine just happens to be square instead of round but I have seen the Bullet with a rotissiere installed and holding a flat fish roaster as the guy was smoking little fish like smelt.

[nacho]

Chantal -

The Food and Wine site is accesible only to subscribers or to newsstand buyers with a special code printed in the magazine.  Any chance you can post the adobo-making instructions?

←

Secret sharing time....shhhh don't tell anyone....but if you open the link and put your cursor over the the recipe title Pork in Adobo (your pointer will change to a text selection cursor) and you click-and-hold to select the text of the recipe by dragging all the way down to where the recipe ends (it says 'This recipe originally appeared in February, 2005') it will highlight all the text of the recipe (the text is all there, it's just hidden behind that register block). Then copy the text with a Ctrl C (windows) and open Notepad or a word publishing application and paste, you get the whole recipe.

But shhh...don't tell anyone....we don't want them knowing we know.

[ScorchedPalate]

Oh, that ROCKS.

[chantal]

Chantal -

The Food and Wine site is accesible only to subscribers or to newsstand buyers with a special code printed in the magazine.  Any chance you can post the adobo-making instructions?

←

Secret sharing time....shhhh don't tell anyone....but if you open the link and put your cursor over the the recipe title Pork in Adobo (your pointer will change to a text selection cursor) and you click-and-hold to select the text of the recipe by dragging all the way down to where the recipe ends (it says 'This recipe originally appeared in February, 2005') it will highlight all the text of the recipe (the text is all there, it's just hidden behind that register block). Then copy the text with a Ctrl C (windows) and open Notepad or a word publishing application and paste, you get the whole recipe.

But shhh...don't tell anyone....we don't want them knowing we know.

←

Oh Nacho, you're bad.... I always forget I pay for all this stuff. When I checked my post it took me strait to the link. Sorry about that.

Edited August 19, 2005 by chantal (log)

[eje]

Darn it, that trick doesn't work for me, so I can't entirely read that recipe.

However, Mexican, Phillipine, and Spanish Adobo sauces may be sorta similar; but, you're looking for the Mexican one.

It should look something like this one from the big green egg site.

Adobo Sauce for Carne Adobado

[Toliver]

Darn it, that trick doesn't work for me, so I can't entirely read that recipe.

←

At first, I thought it didn't work for me, either. The trick is that it looks like you're not getting the entire recipe because you also end up also highlighting and copying the text of the subscription notice that hides the recipe from view.

But then after you copy and paste the highlighted info into a document (I pasted it in to a new Word document using "Edit>Paste Special" and choose "Unformatted Text") you'll see you did copy the recipe, too. Then I just deleted the subscription info that appeared and was left with just the recipe.

Shhh...mum's the word.

[chantal]

Hi, my name is Chantal and I am a dingle-dork! I was getting ready to type put the adobo recipe to find that it doesn't even have guajillos or chipotles in it . I knew I had one on file though, so here it. I didn't write down the source but here it goes:

Adobo sauce

1 T. canola oil

1/4 cup white onion

1 small garlic clove

2 whole cloves

3 cinnamon sticks

12 whole black peppercorns

1/8 tsp cumin seeds

5 dried Guajillo chiles, cut up roughly

1 1/2 cups water

Toast first 7 ingrdients for 6 mins in skillet. Add chilis and cook for about 1 min till they darken. Add h2o and reduce for 5-8 mins before pureeing. Run through strainer if desired.

Hope this helps.

[Daddy-A]

Hi, my name is Chantal and I am a dingle-dork!  I was getting ready to type put the adobo recipe to find that it doesn't even have guajillos or chipotles in it .

Thanks Chantal. I was wondering why the mystery recipe was included in here ... had I missed something? Maybe I hadn't done the trick properly?

Nope ... it was a dingle-dork.

A.

[rgruby]

Arne,

I dunno if this will help, but I pulled out my copy of the Chipotle Chile Cook Book by Jaqueline Higuera McMahan (whew!) published by the Olive Press.

She suggests using ripe red chiles, as they'll be sweeter.

Her technique uses a Char-Broil meat smoker - not sure how adaptable that is to your Weber. She starts with hardwood briquettes, adds soaked chunks of fruitwood and hickory chips once the hardwood is hot and developed an ash, and smokes the chiles between 150 and 175 (I'm assuming farenheit) for 10 to 12 hours, turning the chiles occassionally and then tops up the wood and chips every half hour or so.

So, pretty standard smoking technique, really. She suggests using a green fruitwood if possible.

She also has a recipe for chipotles in adobo and lots of recipes using chipotles (a couple of breads!) and also a few non-chipotle recipes involving chocolate.

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[Daddy-A]

Thanks everyone for the excellent advice! I finally got around to smoking peppers a couple weeks ago as part of a 24 hour smoke marathon. I started on Friday night with a 10 lb butt which I smoked for 14 hours. Next were 2 free-range chickens for 4 hours. The tomatoes for 1. Then finally the peppers.

You'll understand if I tell you I was too tired to post everything right away

The hot sunny weather we'd had for most of the summer disappeared just as the peppers were starting to ripen. Only a few of the jalapenos turned red, so I simply took the darkest peppers from the plant for this experiment.

Most of the methods I found for making chipotle invloved 10-15 hours in the smoker. That was no way I was going to tend coals for another 15 hours! So I decided on a 4 hour smoke, and then dried them in the convection oven. Most of the 15 hours seemed to be about drying anyway. As an aside, the Virtual Bullet site also suggests a method using a hot plate and wood chips that would certainly make things simpler. Next time.

The peppers after their smoking time. Taste test revealed a sweet smokey flavour (I used maple). Quite pleased with the result.

After drying time in the oven. (The big red ones in the back are anchos.) Haven't cooked with these yet, but they sure smell good! The whole kitchen in fact smelled amazing that day.

A.

[Daddy-A]

Pepper Smoking - Round II.

As we're getting into late fall, the last of the peppers have been harvested. Lest you think Vancouver is getting an unusual stretch of warm weather in October/November, we moved our plants inside about mid-October. Still lots of sun, but pretty cold outside.

This smoke was a double duty ... I needed to replenish our supply of smoked chicken, and I had a whack of peppers to deal with.

The jalapenos and anchos in the Bullet. If you look closely you'll see the layer of chicken thighs below. I figured it was better to have pepper juice dripping on the chicken than vice versa . The chicken smoked for 4 hours, and the peppers stayed in an additional 4. I let the temperature drop to about 150 once I removed the chicken as I was trying to dry the peppers not cook them.

Once out of the smoker, the peppers went into the convection oven (about 135F) for more drying ... another 4 hours or so.

Used some in a soup yesterday along with the smoked chicken.

A.

[ronnie_suburban]

Nice work, Arne. Great-looking stuff!

=R=

[andiesenji]

Arne, your results are beautiful and I bet they are very flavorful.

Incidentally, if the peppers are not fully ripe, if they have just begun to turn, you can pick them, place them on a screen or even in a wire basket, shaking once a day to mix them up. They will ripen if they are where the air can circulate around them. Anaheim chiles with their thinner walls, will ripen within a couple of days.