Re: [CH] New Mexican Chiles? What are they? What do I buy?
David Gallardo (david@gallardo.org)
Sat, 22 Jan 2005 17:49:40 -0700
We live near Southern New Mexico, and once drove to Hatch for their
annual chile fest to stock up on NM greens. As it turned out, we didn't
have much success finding any great buys there for some reason, maybe
'cause we went too late in the day, & wound up visiting various farms in
Mesilla Valley till we found what we were looking for: large, not too
wrinkly peppers in a variety of heat levels. The nice thing about buying
them in NM at harvest time is that you have your choice of
varieties--some, like Big Jim, but esp. Diablo, are really hot! We did
find a huge, beautiful ristra of edible red chiles at a stall in town,
though.
It turns out we weren't really happy with roasting and freezing large
amounts of chiles, though, because they get kind of mushy. That was OK
when we lived in the Northeast, (we stocked up when we visited my
parents @ Christmas), but now that we have a reliable supply of long
greens throughout the year we prefer buying them fresh and roasting them
as needed, a few at a time on the gas stove or on the grill. (You can
also put them in the broiler.) The only drawback is that we don't really
have control over the heat level, esp. since the variety is never specified.
@D
ChileBuzz wrote:
>[...]
>
>I have eaten the El Paso brand canned green chiles for years, but recently
>spotted cans of Hatch's green chiles, so bought some of those. Very nice.
>Just in time as I was beginning to notice more pieces of tough outer skin
>showing up in the El Paso chopped chiles. Ugh. I switched to the whole
>chiles, which helped. But the Hatch canned chiles are better yet. Most
>of the recipes in the cookbook call for fresh chiles, which I'd rather use
>when possible. I hadn't even thought about the canned Hatch green chiles
>being a possible substitute, so that's a good thought, too.
>
>Chris, I'd love to know where you get those chiles; will email you offlist.
>We're in an apartment with loud obnoxious smoke alarm that would make my
>neighbors awfully mad (and perhaps scare them) if I tried smoking chiles.
>Boy, would I love to smoke some jalapenos. Heavenly stuff. But chiles
>freeze pretty good, don't they? I can't fit 50 lbs into my little freezer
>compartment, but am willing to devote a fair share of it to good chiles
><grin>
>
>ChileBuzz
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