Ah ! The aroma of roasting green chiles! If only that pungent smell could be captured and bottled for future use. Alas, like many pleasures in life, "essence of green chiles" can be enjoyed only for the moment.
The chile crop matures around Labor Day each year in the Desert Southwest. Soon roadside stalls and even urban grocery stores are selling large cardboard boxes of long green chiles, roasted on site for an extra fee.
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| Chile roasting |
My family buys and freezes about 50 pounds of these chiles each season. This year, however, my husband, Wayne, checked our chile supply in the freezer and announced that we still have plenty of chiles left from last season. How could this be? Running out of chiles has always been a major household concern. Now we have such a surplus that we don't have to shop for chiles this year? Are we getting bored with the same old uses for green chiles?
Every Southwesterner can tick off ten uses for green chiles: Chile con queso, Green chile soup, Green chile stew, Chiles rellenos, Green chile enchiladas, Chiles stuffed with guacamole, Scrambled eggs and green chiles, Southwestern cornbread, and even Cranberry Sauce with green chiles.
Maybe what I need is a new cooking inspiration. I checked the kitchen cookbook collection and discovered a book I hadn't opened in years: The Hatch Chile Cookbook (1994) written by David G. Jackson and Mark Preston and published by B Publishers, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Hatch, New Mexico, known as the Chile Capital of the World, is a small town about a two and a half hour drive from my hometown of El Paso, Texas. I found three recipes that may make me wish I had replenished our chile supply.
The first is called "Freezer Salsa del Sol "(p. 49). This recipe appealed to me because it looks incredibly easy. Into a large stock pot, put the following ingredients:
8 cups chopped tomatoes
2 cups green tomatoes
2 cups chopped onions
3 cups diced green chiles
3 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 half teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon cilantro
Bring ingredients to a boil and simmer, uncovered for five minutes. Set aside to cool and freeze in freezer containers. Will keep for a year frozen or seven days in the refrigerator.
The next recipe for "Robert's Cranberry Chile Cheese Bread" (p. 159) would be good to mix up on a cool autumn day.
Combine the following dry ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Then cut into the dry mixture 2 tablespoons margarine or shortening.
In another bowl, combine the following ingredients:
4 tablespoons chopped green chiles
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
1 1/2 grated cheddar cheese
1 cup cranberries, halved
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange peel
Juice from 1 orange, mixed with enough water to yield about a cup of liquid.
Combine wet and dry ingredients. Bake in two greased loaf pans at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes
And finally, I found a recipe for "Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers" (p. 167) that I must have made many years ago, because it had a large check mark and the word "Outstanding!" written beside it. (I often make notes in my cookbooks.)
4 green bell peppers, tops removed, deveined and seeded
4 tablespoons chopped onions
4 tablespoons chopped red bell pepper
4 tablespoons chopped green chiles
2 slices of bacon, fried and crumbled
3 cups tomatoes
3 cups cooked rice
butter or margarine
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
Prepare bell peppers and set aside. Saute onions, red bell pepper, green chiles and bacon. Add tomatoes and break up with a spoon. Add cooked rice. If you like a spicier mixture, add a liquid hot sauce. Fill bell peppers, top with butter, and sprinkle with brown sugar and lemon juice. Bake in a glass casserole to which a little warm water has been added. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Long green chiles are plentiful, affordable, nutritious, and, of course, delicious. They combine well with other tastes, even sweet tastes.
May your chiles last until next season!
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