How To: Freezing Pureed Chipotle Peppers

Well, it's about time I shared this quick tip with you. Chels found this one for me several years ago, and I've used it many times since. I don't remember where she found it, but let me tell you, if you like making tasty sauces for your food, this is one you'll want to use every year. And the reality is, you only need to do it about once a year. So, what is this tip? Read on and find out!

In just about any grocery store, you can grab a can of jalapeño Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for next to nothing. The question isn't whether it's a good deal or not - the question is what to do with it! Here's the answer: open it, puree it, and freeze it. Here's how. Open your can of Chipotle peppers, and dump them into your food processor. If you know you're not ever going to want to make anything even remotely spicy, you can cut open the peppers and remove the seeds first. If you don't care, throw them in whole. As a third alternative, you can separate the sauce in the can from the peppers, and puree the peppers by themselves. The benefit to this is simply that you can freeze the sauce by itself (very mild and smoky), and the peppers by themselves (relatively hot). Regardless, puree them in the food processor.

Once your peppers are pureed smoothly, retrieve an empty ice tray from the freezer. Line the ice tray with plastic wrap, pressing down the wrap into each of the recesses in the tray, and leaving a generous amount of extra plastic wrap around the edges. Spoon roughly a tablespoon of the pureed peppers into each recess. If you chose to separate the peppers and the sauce in the last step, you'll want to spoon the sauce into one side of the tray and the pureed peppers into the other side, just so you can keep them straight. Put the ice tray in the freezer overnight. In the morning, you can remove the plastic wrap from the ice tray and fold up the extra to fully enclose the pockets of pureed peppers. Place the whole thing in a freezer bag, and return it to the freezer. Voila! Now, anytime you find a recipe that calls for chipotle peppers, or a sauce that needs a smoky, spicy kick, you'll be ready. Just reach into the freezer, grab a tablespoon of jalapeños, and get to it! Oh, and if you find that you need to defrost them in a hurry - twenty seconds in the microwave is more than enough! Enjoy!