BajaNomad

Torch It!

bajalera - 6-12-2004 at 05:07 PM

Mexican recipes often call for peeling chiles and, to a lesser extent, tomatoes, by blackening the skins over a gas flame--which seems to take forever.

The Mesa Grill Cookbook suggests doing this with a gas torch, so I tried that. What a pleasant surprise! Took no time at all, and it's easy to get the flame into that inconvenient cavity at the stem end of poblanos.

Upscale kitchen shops sell fancy designer torches in flimsy cardboard containers for around $30, but I bought one in a sturdy little plastic box at Ace Hardware for less than $10.

A fringe benefit: A torch is a tool, and tools are guy things. Ergo, some guys don't mind blackening veggies--if they get to do it with a torch.

Lera

How did Steve survive

jrbaja - 6-12-2004 at 05:10 PM

having you as a Mom? I would have laughed myself to death.:lol::lol::lol:

Eye Protection

M_Man - 7-9-2004 at 08:25 PM

When you're torching those chili skins off, please wear eye protection. The torched skin fairly leaps off the chili under the torch!

bajalera - 7-10-2004 at 01:20 AM

Thanks, Man, for the warning, but the skins of the chiles I've charred with my cheapo less-than-$9 torch have never leaped off in a threatening manner.

Either you have an industrial-strength torch, or you char the chiles longer than I do. Or maybe we're using different types of chiles?

Lera

Mexitron - 7-10-2004 at 08:01 AM

bajalera--about the poblanos--does the meat of the chile get cooked too? What a great idea...I'm a landscaper so I've already got my mapgas torch for irrigation work......I'll be trying that tonight!! Thanks.

bajalou - 7-10-2004 at 10:29 AM

Mapgas sounds like just the thing to match the heat of the Chilis. And do it in an instant too. Great idea.

:biggrin:

bajalera - 7-10-2004 at 04:29 PM

Mexitron, you could zap the chiles long enough to cook them, but I don't since I use them in chiles rellenos or other recipes that involve further cooking.

How great to be a landscaper! (Do you ever drive by places you've worked on, just for the fun of admiring your past efforts?) Mind telling me how a gas torch is used in irrigation?

Lera