Posted on 08/21/2013 1:06:41 PM PDT by CedarDave
Ten days ago, I wrote a column that mentioned fresh New Mexico green chile would soon be available at a grocery store in Washington, D.C. Some readers in Washington – and some who had friends or family in Washington – wrote me asking that I let them know when the chile arrives. Well, here’s your notice.
The Harris Teeter grocery store at Jenkins Row on Capitol Hill now has a small stash of genuine Hatch green chile in hot, medium-hot and (last I checked) mild. It’s $1.29 per pound. That’s probably more than New Mexicans are used to paying, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. I picked up a bunch there last night and can report that the hot stuff is pretty hot – not scorching, but it has a respectable amount of fire.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
wow... sorry about the double text there... don’t know what happened...
It's not so much the heat, as the flavor. Some varieties are very mild, and roasting brings out good, smokey flavor. Others are a little warmer, and some are hotter than jalapenos. I prefer the warmer and hot varieties. My wife prefers them a little milder.
miss Albersons. HEB bought ours, and now we have two HEB’s.
Then our Lowe/Super S lost their lease, so here it’s just Walmart and HEB..Wish we still had Albertsons.
Albertson’s meat department is always better, their produce department is mostly better than HEB.
But for all the extras like TP, cereal, canned goods, HEB has lower costs.
I’d hate it if Albertson’s got taken over by HEB.
One of the reasons I don’t care for Habaneros so much as I cant stand the smokey flavor. I find when I dehydrate them and grind them with a coffee grinder though I love Habanero flakes!
/johnny
If you were blindfolded you think you’d tell the difference between roasted Anaheims and roasted Fresh Hatch peppers? I’d be very surprised as I am guessing they’d probably taste exactly the same.
/johnny
“If you were blindfolded you think you’d tell the difference between roasted Anaheims and roasted Fresh Hatch peppers? I’d be very surprised as I am guessing they’d probably taste exactly the same.”
New Mexico green chiles taste nothing like Anaheims. There are several genetically distinct varietals that are cultivated and sold as “Hatch” chiles: Big Jim, Sania, Joe E. Parker, etc., all of which have been developed by New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. These are genetically different from Anaheims, which were exported to southern california way back in the early 1900s. The new mexico chiles are generally hotter and have a distinct grassy and smokey flavor, that is enhanced by roasting them.
Anaheims are cultivated to be as bland as they can be, to cater to the average mega-mart shopper. They taste little different than green bell peppers. When is the last time that you had an anaheim from your mega-mart that made your forehead sweat and your eyes water?
Mayo, butter, or cooking oil, and soap.
Anaheim is not the only variety of chile grown in Hatch NM I’m sure. Being in northern CO the chile I get is from Brighton or Pueblo CO but it’s darned good and I can get Anaheims (mild, med. & hot), Big Jim, Joe Barker, Mira Sol, Nitro, Dynamite, Poblano (red or green) and Sunny Brook.
I grew some very hot chile when I lived in VT and peeled it barehanded leaving me with throbbing hands. I tried oil, milk, cucumber-based shampoo and every soap in the house. Nothing worked so I gave up and went out to the garden to pull weeds. Twenty minutes later the burning was completely gone. I don’t know if it was the type of weeds I was pulling or the dirt but the effect was completely neutralized.
I said, much ado about nothing.
Try tepin molida in your shaker.......
Nope, Big Jim and/or its cousins.
They are Big Jims. They grow some Anaheims there, but Big Jims are the big deal.
That used to be true years ago but NMSU has worked with the farmers in NM for many years and they have actually come up with new varieties that are very different. More flavor and more heat if you want it, any hot with an X in front of it can very well be hotter than a jalapeno. Within varieties it does depend on rain/watering- temperature, things like that do give some variation from year to year in the same varieties- last year the hotter ones weren’t that hot but most years they really are.
Hatch green chile is great, but I get just as good green chile from Diaz Farms in Deming, in fact they have excellent chile. Deming is closer to me by far and I have never been disappointed.
The flavor is why NM chile is famous, no comparison to any I have ever had from CA, TX, or AZ (unless they grow NM varieties) and people that have only had canned Ortegas are always surprised that these are so different.
They do, indeed, look alike, but I don't think they're the same. I got some Hatch chiles the other day at Bristol Farms--they're also sold at Sprouts and some Ralph's markets in this area--and put one into a burger. It was pretty hot. Anaheim chiles are always mild.
When I grew them myself. Slam a few nails in the stem and the heat is intensified almost double. Still not hot enough for me as that was 5-7 years ago. Also not a very prolific plant I prefer higher yield peppers.
>I have grown Anaheims before and stopped because they are NOT HOT ENOUGH. <
STOP watering them a week before you pick them. The longer they go without water the hotter they become.
Yes there are many ways to stress the plants. I do all of these things already. Thanks for the suggestion to others that may not know this. Also waiting until they turn the final color they will become hotter as well as the seeds being more viable.
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