>U Mom Knows Best: It Is Green Chile Time!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

It Is Green Chile Time!




   Here in New Mexico, it is green chile time! Starting in August our favorite vegetable is ready to be harvested. This wonderful vegetable, green chile, comes from Hatch, New Mexico. The green chile from Hatch tastes so much better than the stuff grown in Mexico or California. Those chiles are from the Anaheim pepper and not like a green chile that is grown here. The Hatch green chile is so much better tasting. If you have never been to New Mexico, you probably never experienced the wonderful taste of green chile or how they are roasted. Green chile is a pepper that is used in many New Mexican dishes. The heat can be mild to very hot depending on your taste. I like mine to be medium, which gives my food a slight kick.  Green chile season is very short, so when they hit the stores people go crazy and buy plenty to freeze for year-round. I am going to tell you about my experience buying green chile.

   Two weeks ago, when they first arrived at the store, the green chile was sold out in 2 hours. I waited another week to try again to buy some. I arrived at the store and was pleased to see they had the wonderful green chile. So I grabbed a case and put it on my cart. The below picture is what fresh green chile  looks like.



Once you pay for your case of green chile, you go outside to get it roasted. Many stores will do that for free. The line is always long for the roasting, but people wait as the stores have special roasters. Some people do choose to roast it on their grill but it takes a long time. 


The green chile goes in the cage and then flames roasted it so the peel comes off. This process takes about 15 minutes so be prepared to wait. I was in line for 1 1/2 hours but I made use of my time. I called my mom and then I talked with people in line. The store even handed out cold water while people waited.

Once my chile was roasted, they put it into a clean plastic garbage to finish the process of helping the skin fall off. I then took my chile home.


 I then started the process of bagging my chile for the freezer so I would be able to use it year round. Some people peel the skin off the chile before freezing but I freeze them with the peel on and it falls off when thawing. The skin is the black part on the chile pictured below. Most of the skin has already fallen off during the roasting.  Here is what the green chile looks like after roasting.


I then placed about 2 green chiles per baggie and then put the baggies in a bigger freezer bag. When I was done I had about 60 servings of green chile to go into my deep freezer.




  I am all set for the year to make wonderful dishes like breakfast burritos, enchiladas, tacos, pizza, and many other dishes. Here in New Mexico, we put green chile on everything like burgers and pizza, it's that good! When you live in New Mexico for a while you crave green chile. My older son who is overseas is craving green chile bad. When he comes home in January, I will have some in my freezer to give to him.
 So now you know about green chile, if you visit us make sure to order it on your food. You will be happy you did. I will share with you some dishes I love to make with green chile in another post.

9 comments:

Lisa Weidknecht said...

Yummy! I can't wait to see more! Thanks for stopping by my blog!

LeahSay's Views - Bonnie said...

Sound delicious, I've roasted my own before when we grill.

MammaNatty said...

Wow, you are stocked up :) They sound delicious. I love that the store has a roaster!! Very cool!

Mom Knows Best said...

All the grocery stores here have roasters and roast the green chile starting in August through September.

Linda A Kinsman said...

These look so good! My hubby loves roasting Chile's for cheese dip and tacos. Hmm, now I'm hungry for Mexican food!

Ellen said...

How neat! I have never tried a roasted green chili. I love this idea.

Unknown said...

wow that is alot of chills. I am sure they are amazing.

Dawn said...

They sound delicious. The whole process sounds fun (minus the wait in line) but at least you made the best of it.

Buzz4Mommies said...

I had no idea the store would roast them for you-they look amazing!

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