What luck! I happened to be wearing my Gila Cliff Dwellings shirt that I got on our last trip to New Mexico when we drove through Hatch, the Green Chile capitol of the universe. Those are our home roasted Hatch chiles.
My Aunt Mary used to Fed Ex bags of frozen roasted and chopped New Mexico Chiles to us in the fall to keep us going through the winter. No more! Harris Teeter orders a supply for a small handful of transpants in Nashville that know what to do with them. Apparently, the few of us buy up the whole lot. Who are you other people? The chiles are named after Hatch, the little town in Southwestern New Mexico that’s the buckle of the chile belt running down through Las Cruses. In August/September you’ll see roasting chiles in giant spinning baskets over flames everywhere. We roasted our chiles on the gas grill, peeled them, chopped them, and packed them neatly in easy-to-use zipper freezer bags. We’re set for green chile stew, posole, enchiladas, rellenos, Aunt Jan’s green chile green beans, and throwing a chunk in pretty much anything–especially cornbread. Check it out. The Hatch chiles blistering on the grill nicely.
Aren’t they gorgeous?
R.B. is always at the ready for a Hatch project.
It makes for great two person teamwork. R.B. grills, I peel. Takes much less time than you think.
It’s a good idea to wear rubber gloves. I learned this the hard way. My fingers tingled for hours after peeling last time.
We kept some whole for chile rellenos. The rest we chopped for easy freezing and throwing into recipes later. We seem to use the chopped most often.
You gotta love technology. The chiles were perfectly chopped in seconds. We did them in smallish batches.
The most important picture of all. The bags are thin and not too full. It’s easy to break some off for a recipe. They thaw quickly and store easily in the freezer. Be sure to label the freezer bags.
Stay tuned for our Hatch Chile Rellenos post! Lots of places besides my generous and kind Auntie Mary will ship roasted Hatch chiles to you. Google it.
