On Mar 31, 9:02 am, "Nunya Bidnits" > wrote:


> You're making chipotle! Are you using red ripened japs? That's the only way
> I've done it.

Sadly, the red ripened ones have another home. I eat them with
sandwiches, or save the big ones and grill them in halves after
stuffing with cream cheese seafood dip. The red ones are a little
sweeter and seem to have a more gentle heat to them. So some of them
go into salsas for color as well as tasted.

>Flavor would be different using unripened japs.

Oh, yeah. The green peppers have a much sharper flavor, no sweetness.

Take a handful of the peppers while dark green and just starting to
turn and smoke them to almost dry. I make mine the way one of our
local pepper purveyors does, and he brands his "Texas Gunpowder". I
wash the peppers, cut the stem end off to allow the moisture to escape
and dry and grind the whole peppers seeds and all.

When you smoke them green, they have a really different taste, and it
is much more pungent. I like to smoke mine over local oak wood with a
piece or two of mesquite thrown in. They will be VERY pungent and
smoky. For a change, I just cut them into slices and put them on a
non stick surface and let the little wheels smoke. These are really
great in bowl of Texas red.


When my garden
> gets going I let the jalapenos ripen because they taste better and I smoke
> 'em. Most people are familiar with chipotle only the way its usually sold in
> stores, in a can, packed in adobo sauce. Those are tasty, and nicely hot,
> but not the same as straight chipotle, obviously.

Those little cans aren't very popular around here. Most, but not all
of the folks that are serious about traditional cooking smoke their
own and do not want all the sauce with its tomato, vinegar and spices
in it along with the chilies.

Interesting to me and a few of my amigos that prefer the traditional
ways is the fact that when you search for recipes to make your own
chipotles, the almost always include the adobo sauce. They also tell
you to use dried peppers to smoke! Wrong - not if you want a
traditional chipotle.

It's raining here so no work for me, so a little more info with your
coffee.

Chipotles were originally dried and smoked for preservation purposes.
In many places in Mexico it is still the same, with fresh japs put in
the smoker and dried much like jerky with the same aim in mind. Our
fair city is full of latinos (69% !) and has been a gateway from
Mexico for many decades. It was only natural that the traditional
methods of the homeland came over there with the immigrants, and
traditionally smoked chipotles were part of those methods.

So around here, only recently were the smoked peppers in adobo called
"chipotles". They were called "smoked peppers in adobo" until all
those cooking shows found a couple of brands with "chipotle" on their
cans. I have even found recipes on the net for making homemade
chipotles using the pickled japs (escabeche style) as the peppers!
Why would you smoke a pickled pepper?

Folks around here go for the heat and not for the other flavors. For
example; say you made a pot of beans, and want that smoky pepper spice
in it. You don't get a can of peppers in adobo, you go to the
cabinet and get your bottle of lightly ground smoked japs and use it.
No vinegar, tomato or anything else is added to the beans. Just a
little heat and smoke.

> For sauces etc. where I need a larger amount I can get chipotle powder and
> sometimes whole chipotle from Planters Seed Co.http://plantersseed.com/

I haven't seen them before. How is their ground chipotle? Smoky?
Smoky enough that you don't lose the punch in a recipe?

The prices don't look bad if they are a good product.

Thanks for the link!

Robert