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Welcome All! I'm a dreamer, I hope you are too! A Posse ad Esse, or From possibility to reality, is a general state of mind. I hope you'll share your possibilities with me as I will with you. Namaste~

September 2, 2008

And yet ANOTHER campfire use

So, are you tired of hearing about my campfire uses yet? I hope not. I have to say I've been really really pleased so far with the benefits that we've been able to get from it. We're using waste wood (If your food will be directly exposed to the wood smoke or flame, make sure that it is 'clean' wood not plywood, OSB or particle board. Those woods contain glues and chemicals and can be hazardous to your health. This does not apply to heating water for water bath canning. The jars are sealed and will be under water...no risk.) which in itself saves a lot of power usage but it also helps us to keep out home cooler during a normally very hot process. This reduces our energy use further by reducing our AC usage. Not only that, but best yet, in the words of MeadowLark ( a regular reader) "it involves FIRE - what could be un-fun about that?"
So, what's on today's menu? Chilies!! A few posts back I talked about all the produce that we were able to get from our U-pick-it farm. Part of that was nearly a full bushel of chilies. Aided by the miracle of modern refrigeration these fresh as could be chilies were put on hold until this weekend when we decided to fire roast them before canning them for the winter.
There's really not another way to make chilies taste better in my opinion. If you've never roasted them, any variety at all, you're truly missing out. And it's so easy. Make fire, put chilies over fire, when they're black or nearly so remove them and plunge in ice water (actually even just very cool water will work). After they've cooled for a few minutes, just work them under the water until the skins slip off. Ta Da... roasted chilies.Most of the chilies that we roasted were "Big Jim's", a very large, meaty and mild green chili like the kind you would find in the small cans at the local store. However, we also had some yellow wax peppers, some Ancho chilies, and some Jalapenos. Anyone ever heard of Chipolte peppers? You know, the trendy little spice that comes in everything from Doritos to high end Mexican food? Any idea what it is? Fire roasted Jalapenos, that's it and you can do it yourself.
Give it a try, you'll love it.
P~

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi P,

I am growing sweet peppers, not spicy chiles. I do love to grill the peppers however.

Hey, you wanted more details about our greenhouse, so I just added a new post about this project at http://10yearchallenge.com.

Sandy

It's me said...

I'm wondering if I could do that with store-bought stuff... we don't get chilis at the farmer's markets around here. I'm assuming they wax the chilis at the store? Probably more hassle than it's worth, so I'll just wait til you do the "Jar of roasted chilis" giveaway, and then win one! :)

ps. thanks for the shoutout

JenJen said...

Campfire cooking! Yes!

We have a charcoal grill in which we use wood instead. (HOA rules--no "open fires." Grill is fireproof, and no one knows the difference.) We cook a few meals a week on it so far, and my boyfriend has made our last two loaves of bread on it. (That process needs tweaking.)

Most days of the week, our stove/oven does not get used. I love it! I love the savings, and I love being outside!

~The Hippie

P~ said...

meadowlark~ You could totally do that with store bought chilis. WARNING, you try it once and chilis any other way won't taste as good. You could also do them in a barbeque pit.

Hippie~ I never asked "The man" if I could do it. To me, if there's fire & there's a grill... It's a BBQ! I love it too!
P~

JenJen said...

Exactly! :)

Actually, it looks like our HOA is defunct. YAY, us! We still have to look out for the larger, governing agency of our planned community, but they're pretty hands-off, unless you have a BLATANT violation. We do not. We're very quiet little hippies. ;)

Great blog!
~The Hippie

MasterpieceMom said...

Question: After having messed with jalapenos once and getting 'burned' from them, can you handle these barehanded AFTER they've been cooked? Or are you using gloves?

P~ said...

Hi Masterpiece Mom~
Don't feel bad, I've been "burned" too and I do use gloves whenever I'm handling them in large quantities.
For reference, the hot part of hot peppers is contained largely in the foamy membrane that holds the seeds in place. If you want to get a lot of the pepper flavor but limit the heat, slice the peppers in half and use the edge of a knife to scrap out the seeds and the membrane that holds them.
Best of luck, and don't be a stranger.
P~