Smoking Jalapeņos
The smoky spice of the chipotle makes them my favorite flavor addition to almost any dish. This obsession has lead to a quest for the perfect smoked jalapeņo created at home. The ideal chipotle will start with a homegrown jalapeņo fresh from the garden. Firm, ripe chiles are the best choice. If there are holes or soft spots in your jalapeņos, save them for fresh uses where you can slice out the affected areas. Remove the stems before using the peppers. One pound of fresh peppers will end up as one tenth of a pound of chipotles. The first step in smoking is to thoroughly clean your smoker. While old smoke may give a good flavor to meat, the old meat will add an undesirable element to your chiles. I have thrown away whole batches because of this unsavory taste. Once the smoker is clean, the flavor will come solely from the wood. In Mexico, pecan is most commonly used. If you do not have ready access to pecan wood, any wood from a fruit tree will make a good substitute. Try smoking with apple or pear wood. Hickory or oak may also be used. After washing your chiles and soaking your wood, you can start your smoking fire. Set this fire just as you would when smoking meat or fish. Lay your chiles side by side on your grill - do not stack them on top of each other. The goal of smoking peppers is a slow flavor infusion. With this in mind, use small fires and a small vent opening. Check your peppers periodically throughout the smoking and rotate their position in the smoker to maintain even smoking. I recommend letting the fires burn for 48 hours at this slow rate. Your chipotles are complete when they become ugly, shriveled, hard brown objects that don't look too appetizing. I keep my finished chipotles in small cleaned butter containers. This way you do not need to let air into all of them each time you open the container. The less often you use chipotles, the smaller your storage containers should be. Stored properly, you can keep your chipotles for one to two years. |
