When the Accidental Locavore was picking peppers the other day, Jes, one of the farmers at the PFP, suggested I take a bunch of jalapenos and make chipotles. If you’re not familiar, chipotles are smoked jalapenos. Before long we had a lot of jalapenos and I took them home and tossed them on the smoker for an afternoon, along with some tomatoes I was experimenting with. Because I use chipotles in adobo more than straight-up chipotles, I looked online and put together a couple of recipes for making your own. This made two 1 pint jars:
- 7-10 chipotle peppers, stemmed and slit lengthwise
- ½ onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/3 cup cider vinegar
- ¼ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- Big pinch of salt
- 3 cups water
Put all the ingredients in a pot and bring to a simmer. Cook uncovered, on low heat until all the liquid is reduced to about a cup. This took me a little over two hours. Cool, serve and enjoy!
My verdict: Tastes great and can’t wait to use them! If I had used a broader, shallower pan, it would have reduced in a lot less time. The whole process, from smoking the jalapenos to making the adobo is a lot more time-consuming than jumping in the car and buying a couple of cans at the supermarket, but it’s not at all hard and doesn’t require much more that an occasional check on its progress. To store them, put in jars and refrigerate, or you could put in ice cube trays, freeze it and put the cubes in a freezer bag. This recipe for albondigas is one of our favorites and chipotles play a big part in it.
To make the chipotles, cut the stems off cleaned jalapenos, and cut them in half lengthwise. Place on a rack and smoke for at least 6 hours. You can then dry them out further by putting them on a rack in a low oven, 200° for a few hours until they are totally dried out.
Be careful handling jalapenos, even dried, they pack plenty of heat. Wear rubber gloves, or wash your hands thoroughly or you’ll do something stupid, like rub your eyes and regret it!
