Awhile back I ordered a Chile Grill and had this to say about
it:
“You’ve got to see this Web site, chilegrill.com. These folks
have designed a jalapeño holder/rack that they call The Chile Grill.
It’s a metal plate, with one-inch holes drilled through it, welded to a
stand. The idea is to find big jalapeños, cut off the tops,
core out the insides, remove the seeds, stuff them with whatever, plop
them in a hole and then cook ’em off on the barbecue or in the oven to
present and serve as appetizers.
The Chile Grill comes in base metal, coated metal or top-of-the-line
stainless steel and in various shapes– round ones for a Dutch oven and
square ones for the sheet pan and barbecue. And for us cooks, what
also collect art, they got pretty ones too. I passed on the Texas-
and Arizona-shaped Chile Grills, but had to go for the genuine stainless
steel 12 hole armadillo. Of course, they provide a couple pages of
recipes including cream cheese and sausage and peanut butter.”
The Chili Grill finally arrived. It’s 10x6x2 inches high, weighs
a hefty 1¼ pounds and is made of 3/16-inch stainless steel plate
precisely laser cut in the outline of an armadillo, welded to a stand.
The thing is built as rugged as the custom grill Furlon bought for his
GMC Yukon. Upon close inspection, I noticed that the eye of the armadillo
is cut in the precise outline of the state of Texas. Now, what do
you say that?! Neato, eh? Well, what to do with it? Admittedly
this culinary tool has rather limited uses, though it may have potential
in the garage as a car stand. But I’m a gadget nut and I have to
write about something. The box arrived with the grill, general instructions
and a number of recipes. The folks that make the grill rightly state
that just about anything can be used as a filling with tasty results, though
Id draw the line short of peanut butter or smoked oysters.
The Chile Grill folks suggest you wear rubber gloves to handle chile
peppers, if you have real sensitive skin. Forget that criterion.
Wear rubber gloves. If for no other reason than to discourage you
from rubbing your eyes, nose or other body parts after handling hot chile
peppers. Capsaicin oil is caustic!
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The second photo shows it with cored-out jalapeño peppers, stuffed
with andouille sausage and capped with bacon–all uncooked–ready to fire.
Buy jalapeños bigger than an inch around so they won’t fall through
the holes of the Chile Grill. I grilled the first batch and oven-baked
a second. Grilling is best in that the pepper skins charred and loosened
and the whole mess looked most appetizing. The oven batch didn’t
look as nice and retained more pepper heat. The Little Woman says,
grillem from now on.
My chile pepper preparations followed essentially those recommended
by the Chile Grill people.
1. With a sharpened paring knife cut off the tops of each pepper
2. Clean out the inside of the pepper with a small paring knife
and 1/4″ teaspoon scoop
removing all the seeds and white ribs
3. Turn the pepper over and cut a small hole through the bottom
pointy end to
enable the filling to drain as it roasts
4. Stuff the peppers with the filling of choice
5. Cap each pepper with a small piece of good quality bacon
6. Push a toothpick through the bacon and out the side of the
pepper
7. Spray the Chile Grill with Pam, to ease cleaning (it’s difficult
to clean)
8. Fit the peppers into the holes of the Chile Grill
9. Grill on indirect heat for about 55 minutes (the bacon should
be well done), or,
bake in the oven for about 60 minutes
at 350F. For the oven, I placed the
Chile Grill on a sheet pan (lined with
parchment paper)
Fillings:
For the grilled batch, I stuffed them with uncooked andouille sausage,
that I got from Henri, my butcher at Balducci’s, and capped them with a
square of Nueskes smoked bacon. They tasted great: a little heat,
spicy with crisp bacon.
For the oven batch, I prepared the ground beef filling I use in my Chiles
Rellenos and in my Stuffed Poblano Chiles. I had this in mind
all along and that is why I bought the Chile Grill in the first place.
FYI, Rick Bayless devotes nine pages to Chiles
Rellenos. They are a real hassle to make, so I haven’t posted my
versions to the site.
It takes only about a ¼ lb of meat to fill 12 big jalapeños,
so there will be leftoversenough for a barbecue burger for lunch, perhaps.
Here’s how:
· 12 large
jalapeños chiles
· ½
onion, diced finely
· 1 T extra
virgin olive oil
· 1/3 C tomato sauce
· 1 t
fresh ground cinnamon
· S/P to taste
· ½ lb ground
beef sirloin (pork shoulder will do, as well)
· ¼ C raisins
· 1 T balsamic
or red wine vinegar
1. In a skillet, sauté diced onions in olive oil to translucent
2. Add the tomato sauce
3. Grate in the cinnamon and add
the S/P
4. Bring to boil and simmer for about 2 minutes or until thickened
5. In another skillet, sauté the meat to rare
6. Remove the meat from the skillet, drain and add to the sauce
7. Add the raisins and the vinegar
8. Simmer again to thicken
9. Cool and stuff into the prepared chile peppers
Notes:
Use this filling for any pepper dish or barbecue sandwich,
or add a little more tomato sauce and make a casserole with it.
