Chipotle salsa

A chipotle , or chilpotle, is a smoke-dried ripe jalapeño chili pepper used for seasoning. It is a chili used primarily in Mexican and Mexican-inspired cuisines, such as Tex-Mex and Southwestern United States dishes. It comes in different forms, such as chipotles en adobo (stewed in adobo sauce). Jalapeño pepper (Capsicum annuum) is one of the most typical ingredients of Mexican cuisine. This chili pepper is consumed at the rate of 7–9 kg per year, per capita.[where?] It is mostly consumed fresh but also in different forms, such as pickled, dried, and smoked. Jalapeño varieties differ in size and heat. Typically, a grower passes through a jalapeño field, picking the unripe, green jalapeños for the market. Jalapeños are green for most of the season, but in the fall, which is the end of the growing season, they naturally ripen and turn bright red. In Mexico and the United States, there is a growing market for ripe red jalapeños (the last stage of maturation). They are kept on the bush as long as possible. When they are deep red and have lost much of their moisture, they are picked to be made into chipotles. Smoking is a common technique of food preservation that provides a distinctive aroma and flavor and is traditionally carried out in a field open-oven. The smoking process can affect structural, chemical and nutritional properties of food. Furthermore, the type of wood used in the smoking process impacts the resulting smoked food. The smoking of jalapeños dates back centuries and was mainly used by the Aztecs, who are thought[by whom?] to have preserved the chilis by smoking them, a process they also used on meats. Chipotle production involves using firewood to dry and smoke the red jalapeño for six days in an open-smoker installation. The temperature is maintained between 65 and 75 °C, using mainly pecan wood.

Source: Wikipedia