The Hatch Chile Festival is usually held around Labor Day and this year the dates are August 30-31. You can think of it as a mini-Woodstock for chile-heads. The Southern New Mexico festival celebrates the harvest of the year’s chile crop and there will be plenty of it to be had. The chile roasters will be roaring and that one of a kind aroma fills the air.

Activities also include chile eating contests, the coronation of the Chile Queen, live music, auctions and more contests.

As far as a town goes, Hatch New Mexico is pretty darn small and motel rooms are limited. Larger communities in Southern New Mexico with more motel rooms include Las Cruces, Demming, and Truth or Consequences. (The locals call it T or C) You might have better luck finding motel rooms in those locations.
Take plenty of sun screen and a big hat. There is not much shade, but there is plenty of New Mexico chile goodness and fun. And beer. Here is a link to the official Hatch Chile Festival website.

My wife is among those who out of tradition want to have some black-eyed peas on New Year’s day. She likes them and wants to eat them for “good luck.” I’m less enthusiastic about the peas and believe that it is bad luck to be superstitious.

After seeing a recipe that suggested adding black-eyed peas to home made salsa to keep the New Year tradition alive I decided to try the same with Pico de Gallo and of course include New Mexico green chile. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a recurring bit in “The Simpsons” where Homer eats some kind of fiery spicy hot food, has a cartoonish physical reaction like flaming smoke rings flying out of his mouth while shrieking, then promptly and calmly says “more please.”

Not so when Dr. Paul Bosland of the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University bit into a Bhut Jolokia, now considered the world’s hottest chile pepper. One bite was enough to convince him that this pepper packed some record setting heat and what he’d really like was a glass of milk and not another helping of that pod.

The Bhut Jolokia is indigenous to north eastern India and the name translates into “ghost pepper.” Seeds were sent to New Mexico by a colleague of Dr. Bosland. Plants were raised under controlled conditions and the heat levels tested in laboratories. Would you believe a pepper three times hotter than a habanero? Over a million Scoville Heat Units? Dude, that is hot!

You can read more about it here.

Central Market locations in Texas and an assortment of Tex-Mex restaurants usually set aside a couple weekends this time of year to celebrate the Hatch New Mexico green chile harvest.

Not wanting to miss out, I zipped over to the Central Market Dallas location last Friday. They had a couple guys out front flame roasting Hatch chile by the case. Inside the store were various displays of fresh Hatch chile that you could buy bulk. “A” list pods, I should mention.
Central Market is known for their in-house bakery, among other things, so I picked up some hamburger buns and sourdough bread baked with bits of Hatch chile. You could also buy hamburger patties or sausage with the New Mexico green goodness mixed in. Those I passed because it’s pretty easy to make your own at home.
I also got home with a case of Hatch chile that had been fire roasted an hour or so before. The inside of my car still smells like roasted green chile, but who’s complaining? I’ll have to admit that the chiles looked pretty ugly with a real good toasting put on them. But the outer skin slides off real easy.

I shot some video of the green chiles being fire roasted and you can see it on YouTube here.

You know the Hatch New Mexico green chile season is really underway when you walk into a Walmart in Rowlett, Texas and come face to face with long green goodness.

What surprised me a little was the improved quality of the green chile pods over what I had seen the other day at a local Albertsons.

These green chile pods were closer to “A” list. Sure there were some small curly pods to avoid, but plenty of long, flat, heavy green chiles. The kind to take home to Mama Relleno, if you know what I mean. And I think you do.

I popped into my local Albertsons yesterday for some produce. Taco salad was on the menu. First thing I noticed was a display and bin of fresh Hatch New Mexico green chiles. The aroma shouted “get your fresh chile pods right here!”

The problem is I don’t think the produce buyer for this store knows from good Hatch New Mexico. What I found in the bin was mostly the kind of pods the experts tell you to avoid. Small, curly, bruised and such. I went through the batch and hand picked a few decent pods but if I had wanted to knock out a couple dozen chile rellenos I’d be out of luck.

They sort the chiles out in Hatch as they are being harvested and I get the feeling that pods that don’t make the “A” list end up in some stores here in the Dallas area where the produce people and most customers for that matter don’t know the difference.

The good news is we have several Central Market locations here with folks who do know and sell good produce and I’m sure they will have some better Hatch chile pods.

In the meantime the New Mexico chile I picked up yesterday will be great for basic chopped green chile so I should stop whining about the selection and go do some roasting and peeling.

“So, what’s the difference between New Mexico green chile and the Anaheim peppers I see in the grocery store?” Good question.

Anaheim peppers are a direct descendant or cultivar of the New Mexico type pod. In fact all generally mild peppers with a long flat pointed pod type are cultivars of “New Mexico No. 9″ released in 1913 by a horticulturist named Dr. Fabian Garcia who was with the college now known as New Mexico State University.

Seeds from “New Mexico No. 9″ were taken to the Anaheim area of Southern California where they became widely cultivated.

Because of climate differences New Mexico chiles have one growing season per year but are grown pretty much year round in Anaheim with a wider distribution. That’s why you are more likely to see them in your local mega-mart.

However, it is those soil and climate differences that make New Mexico chiles better tasting and a little hotter. At least that is the opinion of New Mexico chile aficionados like me.

For me, there is something magically delicious about putting New Mexico green chile together with Swiss cheese. Not just somewhere in the same dish or recipe, but right on top of each other.

Quick examples would include a burger with a slice of Swiss cheese top and and chopped green chile on top of the cheese. Or an omelet with melting Swiss cheese and chopped green chile as a hat.

Another unlikely but tasty combination is fresh pineapple and green chile. In some parts of the Southwest U.S. pizza parlors (does anyone call them that any more?) or the pizza delivery chains offer up a pineapple and green chile pie on their menus.

If your part of the world doesn’t include green chile on the pizza menus you can always have a couple of 4 oz cans of chopped green chile ready when the pizza arrives and throw it on while it’s still hot. Try it, you might like it.

In 1967 when The Beatles were tripping in “Strawberry Fields Forever” and The Doors were urging us to “Light My Fire” I was a “new cadet” at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell.

In that day “new cadets” at N.M.M.I. were under a hazing system similar to Plebes at West Point. We had our heads shaved, doubled timed in The Area, yes sir/no sir, saluted, kept eyes straight ahead as not to engage humans, which we were considered not to be by “old cadets”, dropped for push-ups, walked “tours” or ran laps for the slightest perceived infractions of behavior or “deportment.” It was a real slice of heaven for a 15 year old from California.

The fun continued at meal time when we “new cadets” perched ourselves on the front few inches of our chair, sitting at attention with eyes forward, yet expected to serve and cater to the whims of the “old cadets” scattered among us, members of our squad or platoon.

Punishment for not doing so took various forms. Read the rest of this entry »

If you like smothering the top of a burger with New Mexico green chile or maybe jalapeños you have a very odd thing to thank for your pleasure: bird poop.

Botanists have determined that all chile varieties originated in South America and more specifically, the lowlands of Brazil. That region is home to the most varieties of wild chile, a small fruit about the size of a large berry. Here is where the birds come in.

Read the rest of this entry »