Here’s a comment from a friend about roasting and freezing peppers. It’s so full of good info that I decided to reprint it here in a separate post.
“wanted to let you know a few of the things we do w/ roasted chiles. we lived in new mexico for five years and during that time developed a love affair w/ green chiles. in the fall we would have them roasted, but were advised NOT to peel them for storage. rather, roast, let sit in a bowl w/ a plate on the top (much easier and probably less toxic than a ziploc bag) and then freeze w/ peels on. the peels do two things: one, they insulate the pepper from freezer burn and, two they continue to impart that wonderful smoky flavor to the meat of the pepper while in the freezer. we just picked up 60 lbs of new mexico big jim’s for our winter eating!!!”
Thanks, Annie, for the advice!
You got it!! Also – we lay the roasted peppers lengthwise in the bags and freeze very carefully in rows. You can also “par” freeze them on cookie sheets, as you would berries so that they don’t clump together. The nice thing about this is that if you only want one or two peppers you can pull them out easily, and if you want to make chile rellenos your chiles stay in perfect shape and won’t tear or rip.