My garden was an important part of ROWS, especially in pre-production, when the staff ate tomato sandwiches and caprese salad everyday for like three weeks. As we got into actually shooting, the garden was neglected and evolved into a jungle of sturdy weeds. I did, however, manage to take special care of my cherished chili crop. These are New Mexico chilies, specifically Hatch Chilies. Hatch, New Mexico, is to chilies what Kandahar Province is to opium poppies (and note that chilies activate your body’s natural opiates). So, I am a Chili guy, and Hatch Chilies are the gold standard. The hurricane knocked down all the plants, but they continue to mature and produce lovely, long, green chilies. September is prime harvest time for these beauties, which I started from seed in my little greenhouse way back in April. When I obsess on chilies, people often ask me what I do with them. So I’m gonna give a quick little primer:
First, “Chili Peppers” is kind of misnomer, since chilies are not peppers, but everyone calls them that anyway, so okay. Second, no one agrees on how to spell Chili, or Chile, or Chilie, or Chilis, or Chilies, including me, so I just sort of spell it whatever way I want. Third, despite the competition the ubiquitous bottled hot sauces with funny labels seem to be in over what sauce is the hottest, eating chilies is not about the heat! You can grow them and buy them hot, medium or mild, whatever you like, but the subtle flavors (and sort of psychotropic properties) are what make eating chilies magical.
The most important thing you must know about chilies is that they are better roasted & peeled. This goes for bell peppers, poblanos, serranos, or any kind of chili you encounter at the farmers market, grocery store, or garden. You can roast them on a grill (or if you don’t have that, use your oven broiler) just enough to blister the skin. This requires a watchful eye and frequent turning. Then you put the chilies in a plastic or paper bag and let them “sweat.” After they cool a bit, you can fairly easily peel off the thin outer skin. Cut off the stem and clean out most of the seeds, and your chilies are ready to eat.
NOTE: You can’t buy Hatch Chilies here, you have to grow them, but there are lots of other varieties locally available to experiment with. (You can buy Hatch Chilies roasted, peeled and frozen from sources like nmchili.com. I did experiment with the Chesapeake region heirloom “Fish Pepper” this year. I found them to be rather harsh, but very good in small amounts, finely diced, with fish.
Some people don’t like to put roasted chilies into plastic bags. But if you use a paper bag, the oils get the paper wet, and more importantly, you can’t recover the Chili oil that accumulates in the bottom. You really want to save that oil because it is incredibly good. My solution for avoiding plastic is to sweat the chilies in one of those huge mason jars.
What do you do with your roasted, peeled chilies? You make green chili stew, or salsa, or put them straight on burgers. They are mind-blowing with eggs, or in an omlete. If you have nice big ones, you can make chili rellenos. Or wrap some roasted chilies in a warm, buttered corn tortilla and just eat. If you add roasted chilies and roasted tomatillos with cilantro and lime, you get a particularly amazing salsa. I need to write a recipe book for this stuff, but basically there is no dish that cannot be improved by adding chilies, except maybe milkshakes.
