# Hatch's Chili Season



## RPCookin (Sep 9, 2015)

Today was chili roasting/searing day.  25 pounds of Hatch's green chilis , cored, seared and peeled.


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## Whiskadoodle (Sep 9, 2015)

Looks good RIck.   Do you freeze them after they are prepared?


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## Cheryl J (Sep 9, 2015)

25 pounds?!  Wow, I'd love to have a big stash of roasted chiles in my freezer.  Nice!


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## GotGarlic (Sep 9, 2015)

I have about five pounds. Mine are home-grown Anaheims, which I understand are transplanted Hatch/New Mexico chiles.


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## Dawgluver (Sep 9, 2015)

I've heard many great things about the Hatch chiles!  I'm excited for you!


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## GotGarlic (Sep 9, 2015)

Whiskadoodle said:


> Looks good RIck.   Do you freeze them after they are prepared?



I freeze mine in 1/3 cup measures in snack bags that I put in a larger freezer bag. I think that equals about three or four chiles.


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## RPCookin (Sep 9, 2015)

Whiskadoodle said:


> Looks good RIck.   Do you freeze them after they are prepared?



Yeah, most will be frozen, but I see a batch of pork green chili in my near future.


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## Andy M. (Sep 9, 2015)

RPCookin said:


> Today was chili roasting/searing day.  25 pounds of Hatch's green chilis , cored, seared and peeled.




I see you process your peppers before roasting.  I've only ever seen this on TV and it's always whole peppers being roasted.  What's the advantage of roasting cleaned peppers.


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## CraigC (Sep 9, 2015)

What heat level did you purchase?


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## RPCookin (Sep 9, 2015)

Andy M. said:


> I see you process your peppers before roasting.  I've only ever seen this on TV and it's always whole peppers being roasted.  What's the advantage of roasting cleaned peppers.



I find that they are easier to seed and core when raw.  The guys on TV don't generally have to do all of that themselves, and not for 25 pounds at once.  

It took my wife and I about 5 hours to clean, roast/sear and peel them.


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## GotGarlic (Sep 9, 2015)

RPCookin said:


> I find that they are easier to seed and core when raw.  The guys on TV don't generally have to do all of that themselves, and not for 25 pounds at once.
> 
> It took my wife and I about 5 hours to clean, roast/sear and peel them.



I agree, although I usually put mine under the broiler for six or seven minutes.


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## bethzaring (Sep 9, 2015)

Yikes, I just figured up how much chile I put up this year. About 100 pounds.  I did it like the locals do which is very easy.  All four grocery stores in this town of 6000 carry chiles by the case and have roasters set up outside the stores.  I first bought 3 cases.  Go in the store, buy case(s) of chile, go outside, stand in line to get your case roasted, go home, put in freezer bags, cool down, put in freezer.  You put the whole roasted chile in the bags.  After we saw we were going through the new crop of chilies so fast, I went back for a fourth case.  Not having enough freezer space for another case, I canned the fourth case.  There was a huge difference in the prep time taken for the chiles to be canned rather than frozen.  When frozen and thawed, the charred skins slip right off.  When freshly roasted, the skins do not so easily come off.  I'm guessing it took under one hour to process the chiles for the freezer and it took about 5 hours to get them canned.  A case is 1 1/9 bushel and weighs almost 25 pounds.


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## GotGarlic (Sep 9, 2015)

Wow, Beth! That's incredible! 

Can you share your recipe for green chile sauce? I've been using Rick Bayless' simmered salsa verde recipe, but it's really time-consuming.


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## bethzaring (Sep 9, 2015)

GotGarlic said:


> Wow, Beth! That's incredible!
> 
> Can you share your recipe for green chile sauce? I've been using Rick Bayless' simmered salsa verde recipe, but it's really time-consuming.


 

Sure GG.  I have 5 cookbooks on chiles and/or New Mexican cooking and the procedures are similar, just the amount of ingredients vary.  But I found a recipe on line recently that is currently my favorite, because it calls for so much garlic!  It is a recipe for green chile enchiladas but I use the recipe for the green chile sauce by itself.  Making green chile sauce should not be time consuming.

Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas Recipe | MyRecipes.com


And here is a photo of my frozen chiles.


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## GotGarlic (Sep 9, 2015)

Thanks, Beth! That sounds great.

Look at all those chiles! You moved to NM from Ohio, right? Have you always been a chilehead?


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## bethzaring (Sep 10, 2015)

GotGarlic said:


> Thanks, Beth! That sounds great.
> 
> Look at all those chiles! You moved to NM from Ohio, right? Have you always been a chilehead?


 
Yes I moved here 2 1/2 years ago from Ohio.  I had never heard of chiles before I moved here.  When I first saw them, I called them banana peppers.  Wrong. Having married into the Spanish culture, I have studied the food culture here and it has taken me a while to get the hang of it.  DH likes to have pinto beans and chiles every day.  Here is a typical breakfast; sausage patty, pintos, mess of greens, chile and the photo was taken before the fried egg was placed on top of the pintos.  I used to think chile was chili; the tomato based beef and kidney bean soup.  Chili and chili powder are unknown here.


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