Re: [CH] Chile Sauce and growing Poblano questions

Sue Bonar (sbonar@nmsu.edu)
Tue, 17 May 2011 11:50:11 -0600 

Hi Gard,
The way the red chile sauce is traditionally made here in Las Cruces, NM 
is with the dried red chile pods. Yes they are boiled, mostly to soften 
them up and reconstitute them a bit. You run them through the blender, 
using the water you boiled them in to liquefy them in the blender as 
needed. After that, I always run them through a conical shaped 
contraption that is similar in function to a food mill, which separates 
the skins and seeds out from the sauce. I don't remember what it's 
called, but it's a necessity around here, and they always pop up in 
stores during the chile season. You're right about skipping this step - 
it leaves all the skin & seed pieces in the sauce, and for us, it's not 
good.

While the red chile sauce from the dried pods is good, we really favor 
the sauce made with fresh red chiles that have been roasted. The sauce 
is made the same way, but you skip the boiling step. Just remove the 
stems and throw them in the blender, then through the food mill. 
Obviously there's a lot more 'meat' on the fresh chiles, and the flavor 
is fantastic - it has a bit of sweetness to the heat that doesn't come 
from the dried pods.

Hope that's helps you some!
Sue

On 5/15/2011 9:10 PM, Gard Meddaugh wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have a couple of questions that I hope someone can help me with.
>
> Mark's site has a link to a Red Chile Sauce that suggests boiling dried red chiles then running them thru a blender.  The few times I have done this, I have held them down with a spatula and pulled the meat off with another spatula.  I roast my fresh chiles to get the "coat" off and am bothered by the idea of eating the coat with the chile sauce.  Has anyone experience with this; how much difference does it make with the dried chiles??
>
> My Poblanos went in about 5" tall and are now about 8" tall.  They are tiny and cute and have BB sized buds on them.  Would it make any difference to clip off the buds now??
>
>    cheers,
>
>      Gard hopin' we have a summer this year in the south S.F. Bay Area.
>
>
> The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.  --Chinese proverb--