Monday was roasting day! My mom and dad sent a box of Hatch Green Chile from Albuquerque . . . it arrived while we were out of town. For those of you not in the know, Hatch chile is the premier chile . . . and people from New Mexico and Colorado won’t settle for anything less. We will be eating a lot of this vitimine C packed chile over the winter . . . the day after my mom told me she was sending a box, Tom ordered another 25 lbs from the farm!
Step 1: Cleaning
Cleaning is important to wash off any dirt and gunk. Since the chile box sat for a few days, I also checked each chile for rot — fortunately, my neighbor Leslie brought the box indoors for me and opened it up to allow the chile to breathe. We had hardly any chiles that had gone bad.
All clean and ready to go! Note the brown paper bag — this is to “steam” the chiles after they have been roasted. It makes removing the skin easier.
Step 2: Put them on the Barbie
Yummmmmm . . . . can’t you just SMELL the chiles roasting? At this rate, the roasting took all afternoon. In New Mexico the vendors use big propane roasters that take care of the job quickly. But, once roasted, the chiles have to be refrigerated or frozen.
Step 3: Peel and Bag
I didn’t take pictures of the peeling process since it is pretty messy. But be warned – WEAR GLOVES. My daughter one time processed a bunch of jalapeños and had to call the poison control line. Their advice — soak your hands in milk of magnesia!
The final count: 25 lbs = 16 1/2 quart bags. It doesn’t seem like much, but it will do for now.
Chile, it’s whats for dinner. I had pork bones in the freezer, boiled ’em up and made green chile stew and fresh flour tortillas for dinner.
Here’s the recipe: pork (1/2 to 1 pound), fry with onions and garlic. toss in green chile (1 bag), can of fire roasted tomatoes, 1 pound of cut up potatoes, 2 cups of water or stock; salt to taste. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to simmer until it is time to eat dinner. I forgot to take a picture of the finished stew.
[you are probably wondering who keeps pork bones in the freezer . . . I was brought up with a “waste not, want not” mentality. The pork bones were from our 4th of July party — I made pulled pork and some of the pork butt had bones. I threw them in the freezer thinking that at some point boiling the hell out of them would make a nice broth and cook the bits of meat still attached.]
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