What's the big deal about red and green chile peppers anyway? Can't you buy them in the produce department of just about any American grocery store year round? Yes, you can. But chile season in the Southwest is accompanied by sights, aromas, and nostalgia that a mere shopping trip to the local market can't hope to match. Each year I look forward with great anticipation to the chile season in August and September.
First, for the uninitiated, we are talking about long red and green chiles. Our neighboring state of New Mexico is famous for having the right growing conditions to produce delectable chiles. The first harvest is for green chiles.
Green chiles are roasted, often in large propane cooking cages set up at vegetable stands and grocery store parking lots.
The distinct aroma of roasting chiles is the first hint of autumn in a land still sizzling with hot daytime temperatures. The blackened skin of the chile is removed, revealing a meaty, mouth-watering vegetable that can be mild, medium or hot. A caution here! One man's medium may be another man's hot! Over the years, my family has moved from hot to medium down to mild. Our palettes just aren't as tough as they used to be.
Green chiles can be frozen for use throughout the year in salsas, sauces, and additions for just about any dish you want to perk up. One of my favorite dishes is chiles rellenos, chiles stuffed with cheese, battered, and sauteed in oil. A new use which I learned about recently is to cut green chiles in strips, cook them in a little oil, and add sour cream, or crema agria, found at Hispanic food markets, or even at our local Walmart.
The second chile harvest, which comes a little later, is for red chiles, which are the ripened forms of green chiles.
Red chiles are dried (sun dried red chiles are reported to be a gourmet treat) and can be reconstituted and cooked into a rich, thick red sauce for making enchiladas, huevos rancheros, chilaquiles, and many other Mexican dishes. Another use for red chiles is the chile ristra, a string of dried red chiles often found hanging by the door of Southwestern homes.
A story that I heard recently on a broadcast of the Chile Pepper Institute of New Mexico State University is that in days past, a red chile ristra was a sign that the chile harvest had been plentiful enough for two harvests, one green and one red. A traveler could perhaps request a meal at a house with a ristra by the door. The chile ristra became known as a welcome sign.
And every chile season brings a wave of nostalgia for past seasons. The year we packaged green chiles in dry ice to ship to a family member in Georgia. The year Wayne, my husband, bit into a really hot chile after assuring friends from the East Coast that chiles weren't that hot. My kitchen as a disaster area after making red enchilada sauce the old-fashioned way by hand with a fruit and vegetable press. A pilgrimage with longtime friends to Hatch, New Mexico to buy chiles (even though chiles are plentiful at our local stores).
Buying, roasting, storing, and cooking with local green and red chiles has developed into a ritual for Southwesterners. Wayne gets really stingy with our frozen green chiles if he thinks they are not going to last until the next harvest.
And I doubt if we will ever make it through a very large tow sack of dried red chiles that he insisted on buying last year. The sack is stored in a corner of our sun room and emits a tantalizing odor when we have an occasional humid day.
Red or green? is a common question asked when ordering enchiladas in my home town of El Paso, Texas. And in New Mexico, if you answer "Christmas," you are an insider who knows how to order your enchiladas half red and half green. A very serious decision, to be sure!
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