Green Chile Outreach

[lisarea]

Ha ha! I know I've probably made more than one thread about this and I know I post about it all the time, but I don't even care that I am bringing the 's servers to their knees with my constant green chile poasting!

The specific goal of this thread is to force each and every one of you people to make a batch of green chili. This is a requirement for membership in the Free Thought Talk Forum and Green Chile Chat Emporium, and it will be strictly enforced.

Green chili is a stew made from a base of roasted green chiles. Most of the time, it will also have meat in it, but it doesn't have to. There is a lot of variation. Some versions are thickened, some not. Some have tomatoes and/or tomatillos, some do not. If you add diced potatoes to green chili, it is called green chili stew. (Most people spell it chile, but I usually try to call the peppers themselves chiles and the resulting stews chili to clarify what I'm talking about. This has virtually no effect, because I think I'm the only person in the world who follows that rule. I may have made it up or something.)

Some types of green chili can also be called chile verde or even green chile carnitas, but I think those imply specific varieties. Green chili is the best, all purpose term for the constellation of green chile based stews.

In Colorado and New Mexico, and I believe in parts of other states, when the green chile harvest comes in, roasters like these guys pop up pretty much all over the place. Like, seriously, they're everywhere. Most are guys in trucks setting up little stands alongside the road and in parking lots and things, but restaurants, grocery stores, greenhouses, farmer's markets, and small farms have them too.

There is a huge, vital culture around this stuff that is pretty crazy sometimes. But it's everywhere, anyway, and during peak roasting season, everything smells like roasting chiles. That's a good thing.

I look forward to green chile season the way some people look forward to Christmas, and I'm not exaggerating.

There are a bunch of different varieties of peppers available, with different flavors and heat levels. Anaheims are probably the most common, and they are good. My favorite is called Moscas, which is I think a hybrid of the Anaheim variety and the Mirasol that was created by some agricultural extension or something for its roasting quality. Anaheims give them nice thick walls (thinner walled peppers can sometimes just sort of disintegrate when peeling), and the Mirasol's superior flavor. They''ve got a little bit of an almost fruity quality or something.

So people stop at those stands, pick out a bushel or two of fresh peppers, bring them over to the roaster guys, and they roast them for you, then transfer them to big garbage bags. You leave them in the bags for a while to let them steam in there for a while. When you open them up later, then, the very outer skin part is charred and sort of papery.

So you portion them out, peeled or unpeeled, and freeze them to last you the year.

If you live in an underprivileged community where there are no green chile roasters, however, you can roast them yourself on a grill, stovetop, or even in the oven.

To make green chili, then, I usually start with about equal quantities of pork and chiles. If it's a fatty cut of pork, you slow roast and then fork shred it, if it's leaner, you probably just want to dice it and brown it in the pan.

Then, you put on some disposable gloves because eyes do not build up tolerance to capsaicin in my experience. I cannot not stick my fingers in my eyes, apparently. I do it like every five minutes or something without even realizing it.

So you peel the skin off your peppers if you haven't already, remove the stem, and then, depending on heat levels, remove some or all of the seeds and membranes from the peppers (leave more in for hotter, take them all out to make it milder). If at all possible, do not wash them. Dice them up and toss them in the pot with the pork, then add chicken stock, water, vegetable stock, or reserved liquid from the pork to make it more stew like.

At this point, you may also add some finely diced tomatoes and/or tomatillos if you choose. Tomatillos give it a little tang and the tomatoes (blanched and peeled, ideally) add a little fruitiness and some color, if you like.

The chile provides the real flavor in this, so I usually just add salt to taste. Some people will use some cumin or oregano or something, though.

You can also make a thickened version by starting out with or later adding a roux or some other thickener if you choose.

To make it into green chile stew, add diced waxy potatoes. To make it green chile posole, add posole.

So that is green chili. You can eat it by itself in a bowl or on a plate if you've made it with big chunks of meat, served with tortillas, rice, refritos, or any combination thereof. You can also use it in burritos or tamales or anything else, either inside or smothered, make huevos rancheros with it, and just a whole bunch of other things. One of my favorites is polenta topped with green chili with an egg poached in it.

If you haven't had it before, prepare to be enraged at that injusticej.

Ugh, I just image searched for pictures, and there are a bunch of pictures with BEANS in them. May as well just throw a bunch of dicks in there while you're at it. UGH. Go find pictures if you like. I can't sort through that beany garbage.

[Megatron]

you, lisapea. Thanks for this

[livius drusus]

Do you have a preferred cut of pork?

[lisarea]

I think my favorite kind is with slow cooked well-marbled pork shoulder with the bone in, fork shredded into big chunks.

It's hard to find those at my closest grocery store, though, and it takes a lot longer, so I usually use a diced pork loin and dice it. That's what I did today.

They're both good, though.

[lisarea]

When I came in from taking pictures of poop, I stopped and took a picture:

greenchili.JPG

As you can see from the potatoes, which I just added so they aren't cooked yet, I decided to make it green chili stew.

[Megatron]

Originally Posted by lisarea

I think my favorite kind is with slow cooked well-marbled pork shoulder with the bone in, fork shredded into big chunks.

It's hard to find those at my closest grocery store, though, and it takes a lot longer, so I usually use a diced pork loin and dice it. That's what I did today.

They're both good, though.

Why is it so fucking hard to find a good pork shoulder in the northeast?

(Yes I know you're in colorado now or whatever, although I still have no idea why anyone would want to live there. I just can't talk a whole lot of shit because for real who would want to live in new york either)

I used to get those fuckers for like under 2 bucks a pound down south and the few times I DO find them here it's like 4.something a pound which means like 30 bucks for a pork roast. Seriously, what the hell?

[Dingfod]

How about some posole instead?

[wildernesse]

I am here for this. Green Chile was a revelation once I moved to Arizona, although I have not noticed any roasters around me (because it is still 100+ degrees outside, so I guess people are just NOPE about that). There are big bins in the grocery stores, though.

I have a recipe from a local that I haven't made yet, but maybe I will do that this week.

[Corona688]

I am unclear on this principle, and would like not to be as the store is selling green chile peppers real cheap right now. How does one go about roasting masses of them? Would dicing fine and frying them also work?

[lisarea]

I don't have a lot of chile roasting experience, but there are a couple of different methods here: When I have done some myself, I've used a grill or open flame, but I've only done it with very small quantities.

Roasting Chili Peppers - How to Roast Chili Peppers - Chili Pepper Madness

I don't think that frying them would get the right results. You want the skin to char so you can peel it off, and it leaves a little bit of a smoky flavor to it.

And don't forget the gloves when you peel them. I think it's kind of evil that so many recipes leave that part out. It is almost impossible to get the chile juice off your fingers before you forget and stick your finger in your eye.

[wildernesse]

I'm going to broil and turn the ones that I have. Then you put them in a bowl, covered, and steam them for a bit. Rub the skins off, then go.

[Qingdai]

I usually broil in the electric oven, turn them a lot, then put them in a paper bag to cool. I never wear gloves, because I'm hard core like that. Next Saturday, the Hatch roasters are coming out so I'll probably just get a bunch then.

[thedoc]

In my last batch of Seafood Bisque I used "Bell View" Hot Sliced Jalapeno Peppers, does that count? I used just enough to add some kick to the soup.

[Dingfod]

I never wore gloves either, now I'm blind. So, next time, I'm wearing gloves.

[livius drusus]

I've never done this with green chiles, but you can get something like an approximation of a roasted bell pepper by sauteeing them as long as you peel them first. The problem is you lose that lovely smokiness of the char and they don't get as soft. Also using a peeler on peppers is a giant pain in the ass. Having to peel bushels of them is far more work than it's worth, I suspect.

I'd go with wildy's broiling system. Cut them in half lengthwise and put them on a baking sheet skin side up. Broil until the skin is blackened. Put them in a paper bag to steam. Remove the skins. You should probably use your bare hands. I've heard that only sissy babies use gloves.

[Qingdai]

Check, 5 pounds of green chiles peeled, as per Lisapea's instructions. We could get hot, mixed hot and milder, or milder. I got the mix. The hot peppers are a lot thinner and super hot. I never know what kind to get. I make chile rellenos and chile verde with them usually. I even grew tomatillos this summer because those are ridiculously expensive here.

[Dingfod]

I always put a few peeled jalapenos in my chili verde, because chilis aren't that hot.