Freshly Roasted Hatch Green Chiles at Bristol Farms
We've been very harvest-focused the past few weeks. Two weeks ago it was picking fresh cascade and nugget hops. This week it was processing a crate of freshly roasted Hatch green chiles. Chile season is on, and you have to get them while you can.
Ours came from Bristol Farms. On Saturday they were set up to do roasting on site, with 23-26 pound crates of chiles going for $35. The chiles came in varying heat levels - we, of course, went for extra hot.
You could also buy the chiles fresh for $1.79 a pound.
And they had smaller batches of roasted chiles for $6.99 a pound.
This is what our load of roasted chiles looked like after we spilled them out steaming onto our kitchen counter:
And this was after our peeling pass:
Some of the chiles were harder to peel than others. We left the troublesome ones unpeeled (in the red bowl) since we have heard that they peel easier after being frozen.
After a deseeding pass, we were left with lovely fillets of green chile.
We also left some with their tops on for making chiles rellenos. Everything got divided into manageable portions and FoodSaver packaged (sealing after par-freezing to avoid juice getting vacuumed out).
In the end, we had 20 8oz packages of fillets, 4 10oz packages for rellenos and 7 10oz packages of whole, unpeeled chiles.
Last night we had a go at using them for chiles rellenos. We usually use poblanos, but the Hatch chiles might just be our new favorite.
The obligatory interior shot:
The cheese is homemade queso fresco, which worked really well. It melts just enough, but doesn't ooze out all over the place. The sauce is ranchera made with our taco shop hot sauce. With substantial heat coming from both the sauce and the chiles, this was not a meal for the faint of heart. For us, it was perfect.
Given the sheer amount of roasted green chiles we now have, we'll be looking to use them in all sorts of ways. If anyone has any favorite recipes, please pass them on!
One thing is for sure, though - I see a green chile cheeseburger in my not too distant future...
Wow, the chile rellenos look great! BTW, I made some of your chile de arbol paste and it's hot! I've been adding it to salsa and other stuff. Still need to make the taco shop hot sauce, though.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carol - yes, the chile de arbol paste is super hot. Even our hot sauce, which is diluted considerably with tomato, is very hot.
ReplyDeleteAnd our ranchera sauce - which is the hot sauce cut again with chicken stock and more tomato - is still definitely no slouch in the heat department.
Lots of bang for the buck in those dried chiles!
Your batter for the rellenos looks so fluffy! That's always been my bellweather dish for evaluating a Mexican restaurant. So were the Hatch chiles truly hot? Are they still available? I'm so happy to hear that you found a source here; usually my cousin from Taos serves as our "mule," bringing us a bag when it's the season.
ReplyDeleteHi Tina - we're the same way with evaluating Mexican places. A good chile relleno can be hard to find.
ReplyDeleteThe chiles varied in heat. In general, the flesh was mostly mildly spicy, but the seeds and veins were extremely hot.
The roasting at Bristol Farms was a one-day event. I'd guess that they probably still have packaged roasted chiles, though. Also, other stores may still have roasting events coming up. Albertsons (which is owned by the same parent company) does roasting days as well.
Looks Great!
ReplyDeleteThe beans in the picture look nice, too. Do you have a recipe? If so, would you mind sharing? I've never been able to make a batch of refried beans that I'm happy with.
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSorry, no recipe for the beans. I must admit, when I cook beans we usually eat them as soupy, pot beans. For these I'm lazy: saute some finely chopped onion in bacon fat until soft, stir in canned, no-fat refried beans, add salt if needed and it's done. Someday I'll do a homemade version....
I heard about that Bristol event! But wow, that looks like ALOT of work to prep the chiles after they are roasted!
ReplyDeleteHow spicy were the chiles? I've never found them to be quite spicy enough.
Wonderful post!
Hi Faye - it was quite a bit of work to process the chiles, but we've got plenty to last us until next summer.
ReplyDeleteAs for heat, the flesh on most of them is pleasantly spicy, but not super hot. The ribs and seeds are a different story altogether. I nearly burned my face off with a bite that had a chunk of rib attached.
I thought about this post again the other day and had to revisit it. That closing relleno shot is just too awesome to forget. You guys went through a lot of work, but what enjoyment you will get. This gives me quite a bit SoCal envy!
ReplyDeleteHi Mike - when it comes to green chiles, we have New Mexico envy...
ReplyDelete