Has you already gots the chile? Pickin’ and lurin’ the chile is, in mah opinyan, much harder than cookin’ 'em.
In fack, To Serve Man by Karl Wurf specifikolly reckomenz agin choosin chillun on account of people is likely to miss em. Still, some argues that chillun is mo tender and has a sweeter flavor. Ah mahself have bin known to indulge in the sweet sweet flesh o’ chillun from tahm to tahm. Ah has found thet mos recipes fo pork adapt well. Mmm, now you has mah mouth waterin fo chillun.
I roast about 15 red peppers per week for my job. I’ve found the best way to remove the skin is to scrape them with a serrated knife that’s about as sharp as your car keys.
Two methods not mentioned yet: blow torch and deep fryer.
The blow torch will blacken a small area of the skin almost instantly, just rotate the pepper until it is done. This is the fastest way to “roast” a pepper, but you get minimal flavor development and the pepper’s flesh will still be raw. This is a great method if you are short on time, or you will just need to get the skin off and will be cooking the pepper later.
The deep fryer is excellent for “roasting” a lot of peppers at once. The hot oil insures even heat distribution. It does not make the skin as black as other methods, so the flavor is not as good. But the oil blisters the skin, making it easier to peel.
Blow torching is mentioned in MikeG’s post above. As for deep-frying, I don’t think it develops the flavor the same way at all but, like you said, it does help with the peeling.
“Roasting” is really a misnomer when talking about chiles. You want to burn the skin to blackness, so you really need direct fire. Doing them on a burner or with a blowtorch are the two best ideas mentioned. I don’t think a grill is that good unless you can generate a really tall flame.
In the southwest you just go to the Hispanic neighborhoods in fall and they sell them by the bushel. They put them in a chicken wire cylinder that rotates over a propane flame. After a couple of minutes, they put them in a plastic bag and tie it up for you. By the time you get home, the skins just slide right off. They also freeze really well.
P.S. If you’re making chile rellenos, you of course don’t want to cut them in half.
I walked down to Pike Place Market at lunch and got four six-inch Anaheims. I have to get the car in for an oil change tomorrow, so I’ll be ‘in town’ and I can look for a propane torch (which might come in handy if I want to try my hand at crème brûlée).
Stay tuned for Part Two…
Went to Home Despot this morning and bought a torch. I roasted the peppers with it. Per Pullykamell I didn’t make a large effort to get all the black bits off after ‘sweating’ the peppers in a plastic bag. I just scraped off what I could with a table knife. I whipped up some egg whites like a meringue, added the yolks, gave the stuffed peppers a light coating of flour, coated them in the ‘batter’, and fried them. I didn’t make any sauce, so I’m just using some Pace out of a jar. And…
They’re pretty good! The flesh of the peppers aren’t cooked all the way like they are in a restaurant or cooked by someone who has a clue; they’re still a little crunchy. But that’s OK. Nothing wrong with crunchy peppers. 