Chipotle en adobo

[Vanessa]

This appeared in today's food section & thought you might enjoy the info
Chipotle in adobo is really two items: a dried, smoked, ripe jalapeno chili pepper and a spicy sauce. They can be used in recipes alone or combined.

The pepper alone: Remove the pepper from the sauce. Gently use the tip of a paring knife to open the pepper up. Scrape the inside of the pepper to remove the seeds. Chop, dice or mince the pepper as desired. The chipotle alone will add more heat than the adobo sauce. Add chopped or minced chipotle to salads, marinades, sauces, stews, ground meat mixtures, quesadillas and soups. Want to heat up your guacamole? Add one or two diced chipotles.

The sauce alone: Simply spoon the sauce out from around the peppers. Use to add depth to dishes already containing chipotles or other chili peppers. Add to barbecue sauce, stews, long-cooked sauces, dressings and mayonnaise. Or use as the base for a marinade for chicken, pork or beef.

The two together: Either combine the two elements described above -- the sauce and the deseeded, chopped pepper -- or blend them together to make a paste. To make a chipotle-adobo paste, remove the peppers from the sauce and remove the seeds. Then combine the sauce and peppers in a blender or small food processor until pureed. Some seeds may remain in the sauce. If desired, strain the mixture before using

[kentgirl]

Thanks Vanessa!
I never remove the seeds from the chipotle pepper, and never had any problems in my recipes. I just dice them up and throw them in.

My husband made omelets Sunday, and used my frozen chipotle peppers (thawed of course) and the omelet was delicious! Although a bit hot!



[This message has been edited by kentgirl (edited 03-28-2001).]

[valchemist]

how about the rest of you BB'ers?

do you remove the seeds or not?

I have yet to use (or taste!) chipotles in adobo. I just bought some and I am planning to try some CL chipotle recipes soon. Can't wait!

[Jeanne G]

Interesting that this came up! I just bought some this weekend and when I opened the can, the peppers were whole. I was expecting them to be minced already. So... and I hope this isn't a mistake, I pitched the whole peppers with the sauce into my mini chopper and blended it all together. Well, tonight I get to try what I put the mixture in and I hope http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif it won't be too hot, since I did NOT remove the seeds! I was inspired by CL recipe for Black Bean Burritos and I sort of combined that recipe with another and made my own layered bean mixture casserole with tortillas.

Wish me luck!!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

[laughsandlaughs]

That's exactly how I do it...I take the whole pepper (seeds and all) and mince it up and add it to my recipe. I've never seen any recipes that tell you to deseed...I wouldn't, it'd be messier than necessary.

[Emdg]

I have never deseeded them....I agree with laughs...too messy.

[MaryH]

I always, always, always leave the seeds in. The spicier the better. Sort of defeats the whole purpose to de-seed (IMHO) and I agree it would be really messy. If you don't want the heat, try using either more of, or only, the adobo sauce.

[lindrusso]

Too much trouble to take out the seeds - it's not like a fresh jalapeno that you can easily manipulate! You can always just use less pepper if the seeds make it too hot for your tastes.