It’s Cold Out and Soup is in Demand!

It was a random cold snowy day out here in the Denver Metro Area and I planned to make a chicken and poblano casserole. My dear hubby had something else in mind. As I walked in the door after a long day of work, he gave me a hug and said, “today would be a really great day for soup.” He was right, and I wasn’t about to turn that challenge down.

I raided the pantry and threw together a stew that was DIVINE! (Do I use that word too much? Maybe I need to explore some better adjectives…) I didn’t have a whole lot of fresh stuff, but, with the flavors in this soup, you couldn’t tell. So here is what it looked like:

Chicken-Poblano-Stew — Chicken Poblano Stew with a Rancho Verde Chile Cerveza Photo: © Gray Box Studios

And here is what I did:

I made a soup base by simmering a 32 oz box of vegetable broth and a 14.5 oz can of tomato sauce together. I added a splash of apple cider vinegar and a few dashes of cinnamon, salt, and black pepper. After simmering for a few minutes, I added a can of rinsed pinto beans and a large can of rinsed hominy, two small boxes of raisins and kept the simmer going. The simmering pot was at capacity, but I kept going.

I diced up the roasted poblanos (after removing the skins and most of the seeds), half a white onion, and 1 lb of chicken breast meat. I browned the onions and a little garlic in oil and added the roasted poblanos. After cooking that up for a few minutes, I put half of the mix into the very full pot of soup. I added the diced chicken to the other half of the mix in the frying pan and added a little salt and black pepper.

When everything was heated through, I combined a few scoops of each in a bowl, garnished it with some tortilla chips and Monterrey cheese and voila! This soup was DEEEE-LISH!

Thankfully, my family agreed.

The divine food that is… The Green Chile Burger

My family and I were hungry. We were on our way home from the Rocky Mountain Air Show and, because we live out in the middle of nowhere (a fact that is swiftly changing, but not changed quite yet), I insisted on doing the grocery shopping on the way home. Armed with our reusable bags and bulk containers, we headed for our regular grocery haunt, Sunflower Market. Being a Colorado company with fresh foods and seasonal selections, they (naturally) have a selection of green chile products available at the meat counter.

We could not contain ourselves. We had the butcher (is that the appropriate name for the guy standing behind the meat counter???) wrap up some pork & green chile sausage and some freshly made green chile burgers.

We got home and fired up the grill. The green chile burgers were DIVINE! They are mixed with Monterrey jack cheese and spices, but the green chile was delightfully flavorful. We served it up with a side of chile lime cucumbers and fried green tomato slices. YUM!

Stay tuned for the pork & green chile sausage!

To Hatch Chile or Not to Hatch Chile, There Really is No Question

Hatch New Mexico Chile Sign — Are the Hatch, New Mexico chile signs the only ones you should follow?

All around the Denver area, signs are popping up for fresh roasted green chiles. It is still early in the season, but I decided to go check out a few stands and markets before I buy and, as I was doing so, I came across a sign for Hatch, New Mexico chile. I have purchased and cooked with green chiles from Hatch in the past and never understood the hype. This occasion inspired me to do a little research, and I found that the celebrity status of Hatch green chile is, indeed, mostly high-quality hype.

I dug up an article written in the Westword (Denver’s alternative newspaper and a source of great journalism time and time again) back in 1999 about the hullaballoo created by chile merchants around the Denver area. A few merchants decided to make Hatch chile THE chile to buy and developed a not-so-friendly rivalry out of it, driving some merchants out of business and consumers to seek out Hatch chile, though they had no idea why.

In The Complete Chile Pepper Book by David DeWitt and Paul W. Bosland, the authors write about the fame of Hatch chile and the counterfeiting that chile growers have confessed to doing in order to sell more chiles. The growers felt that they had to submit to the hype to keep sales up.

I also found that the growers in Hatch have a pretty proud history and, no doubt, work to grow the best chiles possible. Hatch has a huge chile festival over the Labor Day weekend and is formally declared the “Chile Capital of the World”. I don’t doubt that they are great at growing chiles, but why limit yourself to only buying chiles grown from one place before deciding what tastes best to you?

The moral of this story is that if you set out to buy “Hatch, New Mexico Chile,” shop with caution. Ask the merchant, if their chiles are actually grown in Hatch, New Mexico, or if they are New Mexico chiles grown from seed elsewhere. The chances are that many markets and chile stand employees won’t know. Keep your eye on the price, and ask if you can sample before you buy. Ultimately, you will cook with the flavor, not the name of the town in which the chile was grown.

!Hola August!

Let the harvest begin! It’s August, which means that markets and stands offering freshly roasted Green Chiles will be popping up around the city. I will be busy visiting and posting about them here. It’s going to be a busy month.

Chile & Cheese Stuffed Chicken

Here is a quick and easy recipe I whipped up one night using a few chiles I had on-hand:

4 chicken breasts, sliced lengthwise down the middle and pounded flat (for stuffing)

1/2 cup chopped roasted green chiles (I mixed Anaheims and Big Jims)

1/2 cup shredded cheddar

1 small tomato, finely chopped

1 Tbsp red onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

a pinch of salt

a pinch of black pepper

Toothpicks or skewers to close the chicken for grilling

Lay the chicken breasts open on a pan. Mix chiles, cheddar, tomato, onion, garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Spoon equal amounts of mixture on to chicken breasts. Skewer chicken breasts so that they stay closed during grilling. Grill until chicken is cooked through (this won’t take long), but be sure not to overcook the chicken as they will dry out quickly.

Serve with rice (spanish or cilantro lime) and refried beans (pinto or black – homemade is always best!)

Dig in!

(We devoured this one too fast for a photo, but I will be sure to get one the next time I make it.)

Costillas and Margaritas at Efrain’s in Boulder

We have some friends in Boulder who insisted that we break for lunch at Efrain’s after a busy morning helping them move furniture into their new condo. Hmmm… chile on a hot day? Sure thing! The menu features a spice meter and every block on the meter is filled on anything that features green chile at Efrain’s in Boulder (and Lafayette), Colorado. That is because Efrain’s only makes one kind of green chile. It’s spicy hot! I sampled the Costillas with fried potatoes and a margarita. Costillas are ribs smothered in Efrain’s green chile. Wow! That was a tasty spice bomb for the senses! The potatoes take off some of the heat, but it is best to take this dish slowly, chasing it with a tart swig of the Premier Margarita (limit 2 per customer and they aren’t kidding).

What’s so great about chile?

Before moving to Colorado, I didn’t give any thought to red or green chile. I didn’t really like Southwest or Mexican style cooking. That’s because I hadn’t had *Good* Southwest or Mexican style food. Once I found good food though, there was no going back, and before you know it I learned to cook it myself.

One of my favorite influences is Rick Bayless. He is an amazing chef. He has travelled extensively in Mexico and really taken the time to learn the nuances of Mexican food. He owns the restaurants Topolobampo and Frontera Grill in Chicago. I recently had a serendipitous opportunity to eat at Frontera Grill. It was an experience I will never forget. I nearly passed out with the excitement that, “I am here! I am REALLY HERE!” Of course the food was divine, straight from the kitchens of the gods. My only souvenirs were my satisfyingly full belly and this picture: