The BBQ Grail

I love using chipotles in adobo sauce. They provide a nice robust flavor to many different types of dishes, however, because of my families intolerance to “heat,” I don’t get to use them as often as I’d like. And when I do I never use an entire can. For this reason, I’d venture a guess that I have thrown away more chipotles than I have actually ever used. Combined with the effort to de-seed them, it makes me hesitant to use them.

That is until I discovered “The Art of Chipotle Gourmet Paste” by Pfleider Pfoods, Inc. One 6.5 oz jar of paste contains the equivalent of several cans of chipotle in adobo sauce, without the need to drain, de-seed, strain or anything. Just open the lid and spoon out as little or as much as you need. The paste is all natural and contains no preservatives. It’s also gluten-free.

According to the Phleider Pfoods website, they grow their own jalapenos from specially selected seeds and then dry and smoke them with some type of super secret proprietary method. Whatever they use, it provides a dynamic chipotle flavor without some of the bitter aftertaste you sometimes find in canned chipotles.

I discovered “Chipotle Gourmet Paste” when trying a crockpot beef recipe found in a magazine distributed in Raleys grocery stores in Northern California, and since then I’ve used up the whole jar adding it to sauces, dressing, and bbq sauce. Just about everything. Keeping the jar in the refrigerator has provided untold opportunities to try the chipotle flavor profile in different dishes without fear of wasting the rest of the can. It also makes it simple to control the amount of heat you have in your food.

“The Art of Chipotle Gourmet Paste” is available in some grocery stores and online.

Favorite sandwich: Pastrami with jalapeno pepper jack cheese.

Favorite bbq appetizer: ABTs (Atomic Buffalo Turds)

I was sitting around last week trying to come up with a new appetizer for a church dinner next weekend when I had the thought of combining a pastrami and pepper jack cheese sammie with an ABT. This is what I came up with!

Started with some fresh jalapenos that I halfed, cored and removed membranes and seeds. I soaked the peppers in Sprite over night. I had heard that soaking them in Sprite would remove some of the heat and leave the flavor.

(The Sprite soak worked just as advertised. And the by product is a super spicy hot Sprite that can be used as a spritz on something else. Probably Super Bowl ribs)

Each half of pepper received a hunk of plain pepper jack cheese. I then took a partially froze, raw corned beef brisket flat and sliced it thin. Like bacon! The pastrami slices got a good hour long soak in cold water to remove excess salt. Each pepper and cheese combo was wrapped in a pastrami slice or two and sprinkled with a pepper blend.

They got a two hour smoke at 250 degrees with hickory wood. They came out amazing! It’s a winner for sure. I’ll be making these for all my bbq parties from now on.

One change for the future. Next time I’ll pre-smoke or roast the peppers a little. Because the pastrami is so lean it won’t take cooking long enough to get the peppers all the way done. If I’d cooked them until the peppers were soft the pastrami would have been jerky.

I’m not sure if my new PBTs helps me find that bbq grail but it sure makes the journey more enjoyable!