Hatch Green Chile Weekend

Between shopping and prep time, I spent approximately six hours with Hatch green chilies last Saturday afternoon. Maybe this sounds like overkill to you, but then you have probably never gorged yourself on delicious Hatch green chilies for three meals a day every time you visit the fine state of New Mexico.

Fortunately, Central Market, a Texas-based grocery chain, has the same fondness for Hatch green chilies as we do. Every year, they have the “Hatch Green Chile Festival” that lasts for two weeks in August. For this limited period, you can get Hatch green chile anything at the store. Over the past two weeks, we have purchased Hatch green chile tortillas, cheddar bread, stuffed pork tenderloin, poblano pesto, and so much more. Our best (and most time-consuming) purchase was a case of fresh Hatch green chilies. You give them to a guy in the parking lot, and he dumps the whole case into this huge tumbler/roaster thing. After the roasting is done, he dumps them into a plastic sack so that they can “sweat” on the drive home. The rest of the process goes as follows:

Fill one side of the (clean) kitchen sink with ice water. Dump the roasted and "sweated" chilies into the water; swish the water around (the point here is to remove the outer, inedible skin of the chilies.

Working one chile at a time, peel and rinse off the remaining outer skin.

Cut off the top and remove the (fiery) seeds.

Repeat the previous two steps until all chilies are peeled and seeded.

Divide chilies into groups in Ziploc freezer bags and freeze. I wound up with twelve dozen (144!) chilies in my freezer!

We have not made any meals with the chilies yet, because for some strange reason, I am completely burned out on green chilies at the moment. I am sure it had nothing to do with peeling and de-seeding 144 of them. However, if they taste as good as they smell, the Hatch Green Chile Festival (and the peeling and seeding) is likely going to be an annual event in the Stroud house. And, by "annual event," I mean that I will spend six hours a year buying, peeling and seeding chiles. David will then spend the rest of the year enjoying the fruits of my labor.