CCC asked about "chile", and I am not talking the kind with meat spices, and whatever else you can catch to put in your pot. I like that kind of chili on a cold day with lots of crackers...But what I am talking about is Green Chile..the chile pepper. The amazing ingredient of New Mexican cooking.
The first thing I learned when we moved here from Texas was when "chile" was talked about here it was not the kind mentioned above. It was the Pepper. And when asked at a cafe if you want "red" or "green" that did not mean red or green Texas chili...which was what I thought at first and was really grossed out by the thought of green Texas chili. But what they were talking about was "red" or "green" sauce. Do you want red or green on your enchiladas? On your Rellenos? On your burrito? On your eggs? On your ice cream......Just seeing if you were paying attention there. So far I have not seen it on ice cream but I don't get out much and it could happen. I did see the flavor at one of those shaved ice stands...kind of makes me shudder but what ever blows your skirt up I guess.
Chile is one of the main cash crops of NM. The soil here is especially suited for the growing of the large peppers. They will grow other places but most people say the ones grown here are far superior in taste.
Some or hot.....Some or not. There is even a scale it is called the Nakayama Scale
10. Bahamian
9. Santaca(japanese pepper)
8. Tabasco
7.Jalapeno
6. Espanola and Cayenne
5.Sandia...my dh loves these..I won't buy them.
4. Hot Ancho
3. Numex Big Jim...this is my compromise...these can be hot have a lot of flavor.
2. Rio Grande
1. New Mexico #6 and Anaheim...this are my favs. I love flavor not fire. I prefer to not have the lips burnt off of my head.
This time of year the peppers are harvested. Green ones are roasted in large..well chile roasters. They are cylindrical cage type things that are run on propane and turned the whole time the chile's are being roasted. Every grocery store in the state will have one of these set up outside..and every Walmart and Sams. We get ours from a local farm, they are the best in our opinion. Plus I am all about helping the local farmers.
The red ones are left to dry naturally on the vine, then are picked. You make your "red" sauce out of these. I don't do it from scratch..simply because it isn't really any cheaper then buying it in the store frozen and someone else has done all the work for you. And....these things cooking in the house for some reason give me coughing fits.
You can buy these canned...I supposed most anywhere. But I really don't know. You can make rellenos out of the canned ones. But make sure you get the ones that are whole. And if you do find then in your local store, it is easy to roast them at home on a grill, or in the oven under a broiler. Or out on a piece of expanded metal with your husbands branding bottle and blower..if your husband has a branding bottle. Which is a technical thing..you have a propane bottle a hose connected to it with a homemade pipe thingy that you light with a match, making sure you don't light it with the bottle turned to high open because it will blow fire at you and you might singe something..ask me how I know. These are used to heat the branding irons during branding. I bet yall thought they still built a fire in the corral. Ha! That is so "old" school. We are a modern outfit. Anyway. I pay the extra couple of bucks and have them do the roasting. We buy several bushels at the time. It is just easier and less likely to catch the pasture on fire.
Well that is it. My last Chile post. Apples. Still doing apples. Will be doing apples for the rest of my life. And I will blog about it. I have to. It is therapy. I need therapy, I am almost certain.
In the midst of apples I have a sick kid. A sick kid with Mono. Just got the good news this morning. DD is feeling mighty puny. A heck of a way to get off work. She is doing lots of couch time. And we may be hauling 10 cows up to my mother sometime toward the end of the week. And there is always..laundry, cooking cleaning and various other things, like the box that the dogs have shredded up in my yard. I like that is a good job for the Youngest. It is amazing what 5 dogs can do to a box. And you just wonder "why".
Gotta scoot. DH will be here looking for a meal soon.
God Bless and Happy Trails
RanchWife
9 comments:
I've always understood it that Texas Meat chili was spelled with the "i" on the end of it, and the chile peppers you're talking about have the "e" on the end of them... is that not true?! I loved this, so interesting to learn about food traditions in other parts of the country. We have nowhere NEAR the variety that you do, and I AM SO JEALOUS! I want to try all these peppers!!!!! We love heat here, the spicier the better for us. Someday we will be traveling down to NM to experience peppers. :-)
Naomi......you are so right! Who knew! Not me. I dashed and looked in my NM Cook book and you are exactly right on the mark. Now I must go and edit every spelling of "chile" in my post.
~M~
loved it when they started roasting, they smell heavenly. Haha! we didn't understand the red or green sauce either when we moved from TX.
Well, I'm thinking there is a reason they call New Mexico that when folks as close as Texas learn things about Chille's when they move there.
Thank you so much for all of that. It makes a little more sense to me now. But I guess not like actually being there. I've always wanted to go to Texas, now I'm thinking I better try and hit NM when the chille's are hot : )
Love the chile post. Was suprised to find that just as far east as Weatherford, TX you can't get the canned chile's. Either their Wal-Mart was out or they don't carry them. What a shame! I can't even imagine living without GREEN CHILE!!!
Ha! I had red chile chocolate ice cream AND peach-habanero ice cream at the state fair!!!!!! It was actually really good... And did you know that NM is the only state with an official state question?? And that is... "Red or green?"!
Prayers going to DD, hope she gets better soon!
Dang, building a fire is old school? We got to git with the program over here in AZ. We're still doing it that way (we daywork and run a few head). We're waiting for it to cool off (ahhh, ha ha, its 108 today) to brand. We're watching these calves get bigger and bigger... not really looking forward to it. Wade says to me yesterday, "We're going to have to head and heel more than a few of those". Joy. Send your crew this way, for some reason people over here don't want to get dirty these days.
Love the chilis too. Still got some in my freezer from last year. Have a hankering for rellenos though... mmmm
This was really interesting. I would love to get some fresh roasted chiles. Thanks for sharing this.
Jody
I appreciate this lots! I'm glad CCC spoke up and asked this question-we spent a bit of time in NM and I should've voiced my questions...instead I was just always totally confused!
Post a Comment