Grilling the Peppers
Rinse the peppers but keep them whole. Pat them dry with paper towels. Do not cut them before roasting. Poblano peppers should always be roasted whole.
Set your grill to medium or medium-high heat. Let it preheat for a few minutes so that it is hot and ready when you put the peppers on the grill.
Place the peppers directly onto the grill with tongs. Lay the whole peppers out on their side. Once you have placed all of them, close the top of the grill to let them cook. This same method works on a gas stove as well. Instead of the grill, however, you will place the peppers directly on the burner racks.
Turn the peppers over every four to six minutes. This will ensure that they are evenly roasted. Press an uncooked side of the pepper against the grill each time you turn.
Remove the peppers after 12 to 15 minutes. They will be done when the skins are evenly charred and blistered. If one side is charred and the other isn’t, put it back on the grill for about three more minutes. Make sure to place the uncooked side against the grill. Charred skin looks like dark brown spots or small black areas. If the whole pepper is black, however, you may have burned it.
Using an Oven
Preheat the oven to 425 °F (218 °C) or gas mark 7. It will probably take a few minutes for the oven to reach the right temperature. As the oven preheats, prepare the peppers for roasting.
Place the peppers on a baking sheet in an even layer. Use whole peppers. You can roast as many peppers as will fit on the tray. Keep a little bit of space between each one so that they will cook evenly.
Drizzle olive oil over the peppers. One or two tablespoons of olive oil should be enough. With your fingers, rub the oil into the peppers. They should have an even but light layer of olive oil.
Put the peppers in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes. Turn the peppers over with tongs or a spatula about halfway through cooking. When the peppers are done, they will have large dark char marks, and the skin will look wrinkled.
Broiling the Peppers
Set the broiler to high. If your broiler doesn’t have high and low settings, simply turn the broiler on. Let it preheat for a few minutes as you prepare the peppers.
Spread out the peppers on a broiler pan or baking sheet. Rinse the peppers, but do not cut them before placing them on the sheet. The peppers can be close together, but they shouldn’t touch.
Place the peppers below the broiler. Keep them close to the heat source. Ideally, they should be about 2 inches (5.1 cm) below the broiler itself.
Let the peppers cook for about 10 minutes. Flip them after five minutes to ensure that they are roasted on both sides. When they are done, the skins of the peppers should be charred and blistered.
Peeling Roasted Peppers
Steam the peppers to make the skins easier to remove. While peppers can be peeled without steaming, it may make your job easier. As soon as the peppers have finished cooking, place them in a heat-proof bowl and cover them with a dishtowel. Leave them for twenty minutes before you remove the cloth.
Let the peppers cool. Whether you are steaming them or not, the peppers need to be completely cool before you try to handle them. You may let them cool for up to an hour. If you have steamed the peppers, remove the dishtowel to let them cool.
Put on rubber gloves. Peppers can irritate your bare skin and sting your eyes if touched. Before handling the peppers, put on a pair of clean rubber gloves to prevent any mishaps. If you don't have gloves, you will need to wash your hands after handling peppers. Dish soap may be more effective than regular soap at removing irritating pepper oils.
Remove the skins with your fingers. Start peeling where the skins have been charred; these are the dark black marks on the skin. The skin will be looser here and easier to pull away. Work your way around the entire pepper until you have removed most of the skin. The skins of a poblano pepper tend to be very bitter. You may not want to leave any skin on the pepper. The skins should feel crinkly while the edible flesh will be soft.
Slice the pepper in half to expose the seeds. Cut down the length of the pepper, starting at the stem and moving downwards. Split the two sides. You should see a cluster of white seeds around the stem.
Scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Try not to scrape up too much of the flesh. Just gently brush off the seeds until they are all gone. At this point, you may slice or prepare the peppers according to your recipe.
Freeze the roasted peppers if desired. Roasted poblano peppers are a great addition to any meal, but you don’t have to roast fresh ones whenever you want to use them. Instead, you can put the roasted and peeled peppers in a freezer bag. Store for three months. Label the freezer bag with the date you made them so that you know when to throw them out.
Finished.
Comments
0 comment