Spice things up with these six Hatch chile recipes
For a certain kind of chilehead, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Hatch chiles have arrived in area markets, and cooks jonesing for the Southwest can finally get their fix.
Forty-seven H-E-B stores in Greater Houston have fire-spewing roasters tumbling the green pods into a state of toasty submission posted in their
respective parking lots through Labor Day weekend. Central Market’s annual Hatch Chile Festival runs through Aug. 21 with a variety of cooking classes, chile products and recipes available at the store, 3815 Westheimer. Through Aug. 28, Whole Foods will ship more than 13,000 pounds of Hatch chiles to its Houston locations, which, like H-E-B and Central Market, also offer limited-time foods such as Hatch pimento
cheese.
Cases of the wildly popular pepper — technically one of several varieties of the New Mexican chile pod grown in New Mexico’s Hatch Valley — have long made the 800-mile trip east to Houston. But these days, they’re finding an audience far and wide.
For specialty-produce supplier Melissa’s, Hatch season has become a coast-to-coast celebration.
“This is, like, the coolest thing in produce departments across the country,” said
Melissa’s spokesman Robert Schueller. “There’s nothing where you create drama in front of the store to this level.”
Why does that matter to home cooks? Well, for starters, with Hatch chiles in kitchens across the country, inevitably the pepper has been put to applications demonstrating its versatility beyond the official state question of New Mexico: “Red or Green?”
This week we’re serving a half-dozen recipes that play with flavors both familiar and less common, all of which showcase Hatch chiles in a unique way.
Want a fast snack that’s big on flavor and nutrition? Then try our Hatch Hummus. The vibrant flavor of flame-kissed
chiles is just the ticket to enliven the Middle Eastern staple.
If it’s a frou-frou party appetizer you’re after, we have you covered with our Figgy Hatch Bites. And for a showcase Sunday supper, a Hatch-spiked twist on braciole, the Italian-American favorite featuring a pounded steak wrapped around herbs and cheese, is sure to satisfy.
All of these recipes can be adjusted to your level of spice preference. In Houston stores, we’re most likely to see Hatch chiles sold as “mild” or “hot,” but the peppers come in a wide
range of heat levels depending on the variety.
The New Mexico 6-4 is among the most popular mild Hatch variety, at roughly 1,800 Scoville heat units, and the Sandia is a favorite on the hot end, with a Scoville score up to 10,000. The Big Jim variety is the best of both worlds, at about 6,500.
No matter how hot you like it, get it while you can.