Grrr

O

orchid

Well-known member
Gone to who knows where. So again…I have a couple of things I want to mention.

1. I made the green chili sauce that Curious posted for enchiladas this morning using 5 of the Hatch chili’s that I just bought. After giving the sauce a whirl in the blender I took a taste to see if I needed to season and almost blew the top of my head off! Seriously hot folks! We had done a taste test on 2 of them and they were both very mild so I figured the whole batch was mild. Well it must be a mixture of both hot and mild. Wow! I had a can of green enchilada sauce so I used that and added some of the Devil’s Hot mixture with it. The rest I put into an ice cube tray to freeze and I guess I’ll add where I can use some chili heat. John roasted the whole batch and froze them so now I’m not sure what I’m going to do. How can I plan on using them, for instance, to add to a Panini? Hmmm…

2. John picked up The Gourmet Cookbook from the library this morning and all I can say is be sure to do your weight training! That is one big and heavy book. (although I’ve had a bit of a back slide with my back so that doesn’t help) Once I sat down with it and started browsing it I have already found about 10 recipes I can’t wait to try. There is an empanada recipe that I’m fascinated in the dough and how it is made. Very much in the same order of making puff pastry. Interesting. It’s one very serious book and I think it could be a good book to give to newly married couples. It looks like you could cook out of it and not need many more cookbooks. I look forward to do a group project if we have one.

 
It does sound as though you have a mix. Do you know if your peppers are actually from the Hatch

area or are they labeled New Mexico chiles? Probably the only way to tell is see the box they came in. So much can affect the heat including how dry the growing season was. I made the enchiladas with chiles from the freezer but we bought some mild Hatch chiles this week and made quesadillas with some of them. They had a really nice warmth but certainly not anything that would blow your head off.

 
Oh no, this was blow your head off. I have no idea how it tasted.

It was Winn Dixie and the bin just said Hatch chili's. I wonder if I can find out more from the grocery manager. I know at Publix I could do that. I really don't do that much shopping at W.D. They often are out of stock to often so I only go for sale items. And they do have great sales on meat for sure.

 
There is myriad of pictures in that link. My guess is WD got in a batches of chiles

and just dumped them all into a bin. Not good. Hatch chilis should be labeled according to heat - it is what they do here and from what I have heard, in most places. I would certainly speak with the produce guy about it and find out if they really are Hatch chili, and why heat levels are mixed.. The shape of the pepper makes no difference. I had three heat ratings here last week, mild, medium hot and hot and I took note of the shape of all of them. They all looked the same to me, some are shorter than others in all batches, some have pointy ends, some more rounded, some are straight, some have a curve. Even in my garden, peppers coming from the same plants have their own little triats. The most uniform peppers I grow are the jalapenos.

 
Yeah, I know. I just picked that photo because the 1st one is what

they look like. I think you have to remember this is South Florida and it is almost impossible to find Mexican food anywhere here. Cuban food is totally different. I'll just bet the manager doesn't even know what Hatch chili's are.

 
The Hatch come in hot and mild, I can handle the mild which is to my wimpy heat

tolerance like a pleasant medium. The hot ones are HOT by a native NM perspective.

Remember that time I bought poblanos and they were more like habaneros? They gave me 1st and almost 2nd degree burns on my hands just from peeling those suckers. They're supposed to be between a bell pepper and a jalapeno - more like nuclear hot.

 
We can handle heat but this was beyond hot. This was in the habenero

side of heat. I remember one time, when we came back to the States for vacation, I brought back to Saudi some Habaneros. My Thai chili loving friend took a great big bite out of one and said "It's hot, sweet but hot" and then finished eating it! I can't do that so it's disappointing that these were so hot. I don't know how to handle the rest of them. How do I know when some of them are hot and some not? What do you do with that? And by the way, a couple of years ago we had some Poblanos that were really hot! That's not usual.

 
Oh Hatch chilis, how perplexing. Read along and LOO

Safeway ad has Hatch chilies 1.29/lb this week, Wednesday ad. Hippy skippy. So I go to 2 Safeway stores and the produce staff are clueless. Hatch, what's that?? First store didn't even have an empty spot for where they might have been. Produce guy had to get the print ad to see what in Tarnation I was asking for. Ok, this store was probably not the store for Hatch clientele. So I go to my neighborhood store. Produce gal still clueless but said another woman asked for a case. What's so special? At least this store had the bins and signage and FOUR peppers left. Notice the empty in the photo. Sale goes till next Tuesday. Any bet takers on my odds? Heat selection---hahaha

https://recipeswap.org/fun/wp-content/uploads/Finer_Kitchens/AngAk/photo-2-17.jpg~original

 
I bought a habanero for a friend and he held it in hand for a second,

admiring its glowing beauty, then put it on the cutting board. He looked at his hand and frowned, and his palm was bright red, right where the pepper was, he burned it! LOL

 
Yes, I thought of that right off and that recipe that Melissa in Dallas

posted, Chicken with Poblano Cream, is delicious. So that would be one way to use them. I was really looking forward to using them just on their own though.

 
Just bought a 25 lb box of (labeled) mild hatch chiles (more)

Processing them this weekend!
Next weekend is San Marzano tomatoes!

 
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