It's Hatch Green Chile Season!
And I'm jonesing for my fix of the Green Gold! This is the time of year I miss New Mexico the most. Beginning around Labor Day, and through the second week of October, all the best festivals in New Mexico take place.The Hatch Green Chile Festival in Southern New Mexico, the State Fair in Albuquerque (throughout most of September), the Fiestas in Santa Fe with the famous burning of Zozobra (Old Man Gloom), and the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in early October.
©Ray Watt
What got me homesick for New Mexico? I was walking past the Kitchen Market on 8th Ave. in Chelsea yesterday, and I saw from their window that they had "Fresh HATCH Chile, only 2 days from the field to NYC" and I nearly knocked down several people trying to get in the cramped little store. I was disappointed to find, however, that they were sold out of it, and expecting another shipment soon. AAAAARRRGGHH!!!
So I had to phone my parents and ask them about the Chile harvest this year, to live vicariously for another night until I could get my hands on some of the pods. We decided that perhaps they should bottle the September Rio Grande Valley air for me. This air is redolent with the smell of roasting chile coming from the giant steel drum roasters on every street corner, doing the hard work so that people can take the chile home and peel it, freeze it, and save it for the long winter ahead.
As soon as I procure some chile, I'll be posting tips and recipes for working with it, but until then, check out ZiaNet's great online guide to Roasting Chile.
Technorati Tags: Hatch, green chile, New Mexico
posted by ReMARKable Palate @ 9/13/2005 12:10:00 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Wow, it seems like a very colorful time in New Mexico. Why do they roast the chile?
Green Chile is roasted for the same reasons and applications you'd roast bell peppers: to remove the skin, which is not too digestible, and to develop the flavors. The oils give the chile an even more intense flavor once roasted, and of course, the chiles become soft and pliable, so you can use them in many applications.
If you need the chiles to be more firm and solid, like for chiles rellenos (stuffed chiles), you can leave them unroasted, slit them down the center, remove the seeds and veins, stuff them, and THEN roast them in the oven. They hold their shape better this way.
Hi Mark,
I am from NM as well. Have you found any places here in NY that have any green chile on the menu? I have been to place after place serving texmex or mexican, and have found nothing even close to good green chile.
Hey wow, you sure posted on an OLD post!
No, there are no restaurants in NY that I know of doing authentic new Mexican dishes, HOWEVER, there is a place in Chelsea called the Kitchen Market which does sell some New Mexico products, and they have a take out section with Posole, and when it's Hatch Green Fhile Season they fly it in. It's on 8th Ave around 20th St.
PS - Made a post a few days after this first one in which I explaiend all about the Kitchen Market in Chelsea...I hope you found ti.
The only place that I've found in NY that serves HOT green chile is Los Dos Molinos on 18th st bet Park Ave & Irving Pl. Check it out.
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