Chile not Chili

We recently got a shipment of New Mexico green chile from Hatch Chile Express. For those of you not familiar with Hatch, NM it is the self-proclaimed Chile Capital of the world. Why such a big deal? If you haven't eaten New Mexico chiles, I really don't know if I can explain it. Before I continue, however, I do want to help clarify a couple different things. Chili: A meat and/or bean based spicy soup. Good, but not the same thing as chile. Chile: A fruit from plants of the Capsicum genus. Pepper: The stuff that you typically dry and put in a grinder. From the Piper nigrum plant. If it seems like I take this stuff seriously, I would say I do and remind you of two things: 1. New Mexico chile played a huge part in the food I grew up with, and 2. I went to a university that has an entire section of its agriculture department devoted to chiles. Besides, chiles are just absolutely delicious.

We got our box of chiles delivered via Fed Ex last week.

I was amused to see the warning label on the outside of the box that warned of "pungent chile."

I suppose they didn't want to have problems with people touching the box and then putting their fingers in their eyes. Opening the box, I was greeted with the sight and smell of fresh chiles.

To prepare them for use and get the most out of their flavor, the chiles needed to be roasted. I fired up the grill and gave them a quick rinse to clean them off. "How does one roast chiles?" you ask. (Ok, fine. None of you are asking or even caring, but you're going to find out anyway.) The chiles go on a hot grill (or under a hot broiler or directly on a gas flame) and are roasted until the skin blisters and blackens, just a few minutes per side.

Don't forget to poke them with a fork before applying the heat. There's a lot of water in there, and it's going to turn into a lot of steam. Exploding chiles, while amusing, aren't that useful. Once the skin has blistered, take the chiles off the heat and give them a nice shock treatment to stop the cooking.

I like using a cooler full of ice, but a big pot or bowl of ice water works as well, just not for as many at a time. Once cooled and out of the water, the chiles are ready to be frozen until you are ready to use them. To use them, just thaw them out, remove the blackened skin (if you take it off before freezing, they can get mushy), remove the stems and seeds and slice them in any way that your recipe requires. How to use them? Oh, man. However you want, but there are a couple of great quick applications, both of which we used tonight.

Application number 1: The green chile cheeseburger. (not pictured, because I ate it quickly) Take one roasted chile and remove the skin. Remove the stem and slice lengthwise so that the chile can be flattened and remove the seeds. Just before assembling a burger, place the flat chile on the hot grill to warm up. Assemble your burger with meat, cheese and green chile. Go ahead and add tomato if you want, it goes great. After all, it's actually just a big berry like the chile. Scoff at mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup and other unnecessary condiments. Eat.

Application number 2: Roasted tomato and green chile salsa.

Roast tomatoes on the grill (I had small tomatoes, so I used 6-7, but you could use 2-3 good sized ones). The skin on the tomatoes will blacken in spots and then slip right off once they are cooled. Chop or crush the tomatoes into a bowl. Skin, stem and seed 5 roasted chiles and dice. If you want to reduce the heat of the chiles, use your knife to remove the inner membrane before dicing; that's where most of the heat is. Chop and add 3 cloves of garlic, and a handful of cilantro. If everyone eating the salsa likes onion, dice some up and add it to taste. Add a little lime juice (about 1/4 of a lime, depending on size). Add salt to taste. Stir and leave chunky or puree to make smooth. Apply to chips. Wonder why you buy bottled stuff.

I know probably none of you reading this (if anyone is still reading this) care as much as I do about green chile, but believe me once you start, they rapidly become an addiction and the possibilities for use are endless. (Don't believe me? Check this out.)