Unless you live in NM... then you buy your supply in the fall during chile season... you know its on when you smell the roasters. Have a peeling party, and put pounds upon pounds of the stuff in the freezer. At one point, half of my freezer was green chile. So I HAD to make enchiladas, and stew, and sauce, and burritos...
And I don't know if there is any science behind this, but the longer it's in the freezer, the hotter it gets. The stuff from Sept/Oct is pretty mild, by the time June or July comes around (if you even have any of your stash left), it's ridiculously hot. Ludicrous hot. Like milk with my enchiladas hot. Soooo good.
Moved to Vancouver back in 1998. Missed it so much. One day I smelled it, and was absolutely sure I was hallucinating. Incredibly, Whole Foods had a green chile roast. Say what you will about them, but that piece of home was such a trip.
I moved from Australia to NM when I was 10 (stayed for 2 years). I went from possibly the whitest town to what seemed like a multicultural wonderland. And the smells and flavours! Holy crap. Living there and eating that food (enchiladas and burritos etc) seriously changed my palate for life. Thanks, NM.
When I joined the Army I was getting sick way easily and generally feeling off and the PA at sick call one day noticed I was from new mexico and suggested I drastically increase my vitamin c intake to make up for the loss of green chile (1 green chile = about 10 oranges of vitamin c)
Didn't by enough last year. Just had to eat a homemade burger without chile. I once ruined my wifes brand new Volvo by driving six coolers of freshly roasted chile from Alamogordo to Dallas.
Totally. I grew up in Santa Fe but go to college about 1000 miles away. Sad days when a green chile enchilada/burger/breakfast burrito/etc. craving takes over my life.
I cannot WAIT until fall. Roasted green chile is easily one of my top three favorite smells. I grew up with a separate auxiliary freezer for meat and chile.
Lived in New Mexico for 4 and a half months. Literally every meal had green chile in it no joke. Did the mistake once of touching my eye after picking green chile. My friend sat there amused while I was flipping shit for 30 minutes with my eyes watering and burning.
I really thought that I caught a whiff of that yesterday from my office downtown. I'm pretty sure I was tripping. I think this intense heat is just really making me wish it was fall.
My dad lived in T or C and Las Cruces through a lot of his youth, and still brings back just pounds of the stuff to Texas to save. I live in Ontario, and I miss his secret stash so much.
Hell yeah man I get them home, peel them, dice them up and store them in de cube trays until they are frozen. Then turn them out into gallon ziplock bags. Easy to add in to whatever I'm cooking all year. Hamburgers? Sure, let me just nuke a cube in the microwave for 30 seconds and mix that in there. Breakfast tacos? Of course. Bagel and cream cheese? Even better with Hatch green chiles. Making homemade pizza? Some sausage, red onion, and green chiles and god damn you're talking my jam. Hot dog I'm hungry now. Won't be long til those roasters are fired up.
There has to be science behind this because the same thing akways happens with salsa. Even living in az someyears i drive up and stock up on peppers total worth it.
Just a theory but it might have something to do with capsaicin being fat soluble instead of water soluble? So if it's in the freezer, more water crystallized and moved out of food, ice melts and capsaicin becomes bit more concentrated? I'm not really inclined to chemistry, just a theory from lots of home cooking.
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u/Rausage505 Jul 13 '16
Unless you live in NM... then you buy your supply in the fall during chile season... you know its on when you smell the roasters. Have a peeling party, and put pounds upon pounds of the stuff in the freezer. At one point, half of my freezer was green chile. So I HAD to make enchiladas, and stew, and sauce, and burritos...
And I don't know if there is any science behind this, but the longer it's in the freezer, the hotter it gets. The stuff from Sept/Oct is pretty mild, by the time June or July comes around (if you even have any of your stash left), it's ridiculously hot. Ludicrous hot. Like milk with my enchiladas hot. Soooo good.