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Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
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.
Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
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.
Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
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-
Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
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.
Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
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.
Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
Um ... what do you do if you don't have a gas stove? Our electric range has a glass top with the burners underneath.
Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
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.
Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
Though if you do, make sure it's an untreated screen.
Nothing like getting melted plastic resin all over your tasty chiles.
Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
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.
Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
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.
Serious Heat: Roasting Chiles the Alton Brown Way
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.
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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.