First "real" Cool front of the Season!

ibglowin · Aug 24, 2010

Just now passing through!

Nice and breezy at the moment, cool, and the low tomorrow morning should be in the upper 40's! The monsoon moisture has been whisked away (finally). The Hatch green chile has been roasting for a few weeks now at the local grocery store....

It's officially Fall!

Waldo · Aug 25, 2010

Ready for some nice cool weatherhere for sure...so how long does it take to raost them peppers?

ibglowin · Aug 25, 2010

The low this AM was 50. Almost put the top up on the roadster on the drive in to work this morning but just turned on some heat instead, but my head was a little cold!

That is a ~50lb sack of Green chile from Hatch, NM down South. That propane contraption will roast a bag to perfection in a little less than 20 minutes. Sometimes they have 30 bags stacked up waiting to be roasted. You just write your phone# on the bag and they call you when its ready to be picked up. The smell of roasting chile is in the air for a hundred yards or more and its a sure sign that Summer is coming to an end and Fall is just around the corner.

We eat them on just about everything in these parts. Hamburgers, Eggs, Stews, New Mexican dishes of course! One of my favorite twist on a southern recipe is "green chile chicken and dumplings". Now that is some good eating as they say!

Brewgrrrl · Aug 25, 2010

Yummmmmm...!!! Here in Detroit, we can get a nice variety of fresh chiles in the fall at Eastern Market. A few years ago, I dried a mixture using a food dehydrator and then ran them through a (clean) coffee grinder - we had fresh, homemade chili powder all winter that was really amazing.

ibglowin · Aug 25, 2010

When you pick them up they transfer the now very hot and wilted mess of chile to a large plastic garbage bag and the end is tied shut. You leave them in the bag for 2-3 hours and let them "sweat". This helps loosen the outer skins which need to be peeled off before you can eat them.

After the chile's cool down you can either peel them all and put them into freezer bags or leave the skins on and put them into freezer bags. We usually leave the skins on as this helps as another layer of protection and helps seal in the flavor longer. You have to wear rubber gloves!

When you need some you pullout a bag and microwave for a few minutes to get as much as you want out of the bag then run a little warm water over them and peel the outer skins off and lay them on a paper towel. For Burgers ect no chopping is really required but for stews etc you may wish to coarse chop a bit.

The tips are usually milder than the stem ends which are always hotter. They actually "grade" them into Mild, Medium Hot and HOT. I of course go for the EXTRA HOT! Hard to find but sooooo worth it!

smurfe · Aug 25, 2010

Same here. It is about noon and it is only 84 F here. 88F with heat index. It was 97F yesterday at the same time. It has been in the high 90's for so long here I can't remember the last pleasant day we had around here.