Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
Editor's note: On Thursdays, Andrea Lynn, associate editor of Chile Pepper magazine, drops by to drop some Serious Heat.
At Chile Pepper, we have a lot of uses for roasted chiles, whether it’s the mild-mannered heat of chopped, roasted poblanos tossed into a pasta sauce or the smolder of roasted jalapeños in a spicy, smoked salsa. How silly of us to think that the only ways to roast chiles at home were either straight on the gas burner, underneath the broiler, or on the grill.
Enter Alton Brown. I recently discovered a fairly ancient episode of Good Eats where Brown took an insert steamer and magically turned it into a chile roaster on top of the stovetop. Ingenious! I will forever be hooked to this chile-roasting method now.
Here are step-by-step directions:
1. Place the metal steamer insert on top of one burner on your stove's gas burner. Fill the steamer insert with chiles but do not overload. Make sure to trim off the stems of the chiles or you could have a mini fire on your hands. (Ahem. Speaking from experience.)
2. Turn on the gas burner and stand back. Open windows, turn on fans, etc., in your home. Cook the chiles until blackened, turning 1/3 of the way each time for 5 to 7 minutes on each side. The beauty about the entire concept is that the metal heats up from the fire and turns into an actual chile roaster, blistering the chiles quite fiercely. (Note: the metal of the steamer will be permanently slightly darkened.)
3. When the chiles are roasted, turn off the burner and (using tongs for safety), place a metal bowl on top the blackened chiles and let steam for 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Remove bowl from chiles. Take them out of the steamer insert and onto a cutting board. Using your fingers, gently remove the blackened skin of the chiles. If you plan on stuffing the chiles, cut a small insert and remove seeds. For mincing or other options, just cut a line down the middle and remove seeds.
5. Voila. You have a roasted chile pepper! Stuff it, mince it, purée it, you name it. For an easy stuffed chile relleno, check out the recipe below. Personally, I like to stuff poblanos with leftovers lurking in the fridge, like shrimp and grits. The options are endless.
Chiles Rellenos
- makes 6 servings -
Adapted from Kim Kushner
Zest Factor: Medium
Chiles rellenos are usually deluxe, featuring a complex filling and a batter-fried coating, but here they get scaled down to weeknight size.
Ingredients
6 poblano chiles, stemmed, seeded and roasted
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, minced
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 cups cooked white rice
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Procedure
1. In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil, add the onion, and sauté for 3 minutes. Add the ground meat, breaking it up with the back of a fork, and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until completely browned. Stir in the rice, cumin, chili and ancho powders, and tomato paste. Reduce heat to medium, cook for 5 minutes longer, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Stuff each poblano with a generous serving of the meat mixture. Reduce heat to very low, and place the stuffed poblanos, side by side, into the sauté pan, cover, and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Serve.
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12 Comments:
I'm so glad you said to use your fingers to remove skins; I can't stand when people tell you to rinse them in water. Why blacken your steamer? I just throw the peppers on the burner and turn when necessary.
HelloChris at 2:16PM on 04/02/09
I don't understand why you would bother with the steamer. You can just do this on the open flame on your gas stove. I've been doing this for years and it works great.
noahphex at 3:25PM on 04/02/09
Depending on the chiles, it might make sense to use gloves when peeling them if you want to use your fingers. I've learned to use the back of a chef's knife to scrape the skin off the chile after roasting to minimize touching it, and I always wash my hands well afterwards. Once is enough when it comes to getting capsaicin under my fingernails. That burns like nobody's business.
mslaas at 3:40PM on 04/02/09
You use the steamer cause its easier to control. Many burners (including mine) don't have nice grates on top of them to hold the chiles. My burners have a bar going from each corner to the center and then another set of bars in the middle... sort of like the way you'd slice a pizza, if a pizza was square and not round. Try to balance jalapenos or poblanos on that.... i have and have lots a few to the floor as well as can't get the entire pepper blackened as some spots will not balance properly.
Using a steamer give you better control, better coverage and can probably char more chiles on one burner than not using one.
ESNY1077 at 4:06PM on 04/02/09
If balancing the chile on the burner grate is your issue (my grates are just great), a small square of wire cloth (screen, that is) from the hardware store could be used instead, saving you from discoloring your steamer basket.
Lorenzo at 4:37PM on 04/02/09
Though if you do, make sure it's an untreated screen.
Nothing like getting melted plastic resin all over your tasty chiles.
Chef Colin at 7:52PM on 04/02/09
I can see it would be easier to roast a number of chiles that way, rather than one by one over the burner. But ... doesn't the steam captured by the bowl then drip down onto the stove below? I'm thinking "messy, messy" with condensation dripping down on the stove and, worse, through the small open space (around the burner) to that dark netherland below. ~~~ A small caveat about the wire screen suggestion. I've had wire mesh actually melt (yes, metal wire) when in direct contact with flames. Not all wire mesh will hold up to direct fire. I'd try test flaming before using over a gas burner. FWIW.
vbohanz at 10:19PM on 04/02/09
Um ... what do you do if you don't have a gas stove? Our electric range has a glass top with the burners underneath.
mwainer at 12:36PM on 04/03/09
Instead of the steamer, you can also go to the grill section and look for grates or something of that nature.
@mwainer - you'll have to throw them under the broiler, turning repeatedly. it's not as easy, but it works.
stratusgd at 1:42PM on 04/03/09
Has anyone tried using one of those baskets/pans with the holes in them for a gas grill on a gas stove? Even though it is not one of the professional gas stoves, ours does have more BTUs so I can actually roast green peppers directly on the grates. But smaller peppers would fall through so I wondered how would one of our gas grill "pans" would work also. Perhaps it would just be easier to see if I could find a used metal insert steamer from one of the thrift shops. Oh bother.
Ragdoll at 5:11AM on 04/05/09
I just want to say that you are all great. What a fantastic string of comments. Everyone is so smart and informative and funny and helpful and sticking to the point. Ohhh, you guys...
-sigh-
ChicagoAmy at 2:41PM on 04/08/09
I roast chilis with the broiler coil in the oven. Just put the peppers on an oven rack, and slide it in right up under the broiler. Give the peppers 3-5 mins., then turn (about 3 times total). Remove to a cutting board and cover with a bowl or put the peppers in a plastic bag and zip the top. You'll have to experiment, and should the peppers blaze, just keep the oven closed and turn off the coil. But I got a handle on it pretty quickly. Your nose also tells you when a pepper is charred because it begins to smell toasty/roasty.
expat39520 at 4:29PM on 04/08/09