….there is Lemitar, New Mexico and the Cinco Estrella Chile farm. This past Friday Wouter arrived back in Nashville from Santa Fe with two 30 lb burlap bags – one with Mild Chiles and one with Hot Chiles- ready to be roasted and shared directly from this fertile area of New Mexico famous for Green & Red Chile peppers .
This is a plate of freshly roasted Peppers.
This is how they got roasted…
Sunday morning we fire up the grill – you can roast on a charcoal grill, gas grill, gas stove top or under oven broiler. We like to roast peppers outside on a charcoal grill. The aroma of the fire and the peppers roasting is unlike anything else.
Nothing fancy;, but a real workhorse when it comes to simple grills.Get the coals or heat source very hot!
Get everything ready to roast: trays for peppers as they come off the grill; good long tongs; large freezer bags or paper grocery bags (I find the plastic works better although I am trying my best to not use so much “plastic”); gloves to protect your hands when you peel the roasted skins off the peppers; and small freezer bags to store peppers in after peeling.
Hot coals or heat source and let those pepper skins blister & blacken. Turn with tongs frequently.
As pepper skins blacken & start to come away from the flesh remove from heat with tongs to a metal tray.
Allow peppers to cool a few minutes and then pop into freezer bags to “sweat”.
Leave sweating until cooled down. With protective gloves (I use the kitchen dishwashing gloves) one by one carefully remove charred skins. If you like you can discard seeds as well. I don’t do this as I rather like the extra heat and texture.
Roasted & ready to eat. Roasted and ready for the freezer for later.
What peppers we don’t roast go into labeled sacks for giveaway. We have been driving around Nashville leaving sacks of peppers on porches & by kitchen doors of friends who like to cook. We will continue this tomorrow until they are all given away while plump and fresh. These peppers are so delicious and have such an earthy taste that is tasty in soups or stews as well as breakfast eggs. They are hot & mild at the same time with a subtle smokey flavor.
“Keep New Mexico Green”
yes it is always great when we do this every year when i come back from Santa fe
and the smell of the roasted peppers are FAB
anxiously awaiting my yearly NM chile bag these are THE BEST
thanks always to Wouter
great tutorial, T!
x N.
As I wait for my peppers to steam, I thought I would share a couple of fun facts about the roasting of the chile peppers.
1. As the peppers heat up on the grill, they begin to emit tiny little high pitched squealing noises, kinda like you are letting air out of a helium balloon little by little. I like to think of them as squeals of joy and not “Holy chile pepper! Is it hot to you in here?”
2. When the peppers start to get really hot, they blow up like fun little chile pepper shaped rubber balls and will make your tongs literally bounce as you test them.
3. When you hear a small “pop!” noise, you know one of the peppers has deflated and is in fact done, look for the culprit and remove the little trouble maker immediately.
Thanks for the fun activity, who knew?
So happy to pass this food info along to my first born…just one more thing for you to pass along someday..thanks for always sharing my food enthusiasms.
Wish I lived nearby so that I could partake of the pepper treats! I’ll have to try to grill style roast very soon!
Excellent blog, as always! Great instruction for roasting & preserving peppers. Yum