The Melting Teapot

"Green or Red?"

That’s a common question asked throughout New Mexico, and it refers to whether you’d like your sauce or topping made from chopped green chiles or ground red chiles.  I like both types of chile sauce, but when asked to choose it is almost always green I pick. I love the earthy and acidic heat of fresh green chiles, whether they're chopped into an egg scramble, simmered as a sauce, or providing the background flavor for posole stew.

By late September in New Mexico, the green chiles are transitioning to red.  In a few weeks, the red chiles will become an even darker burgundy color as the pods dry.  Dried red chiles are then used to make colorful ristras, or ground up into fine spices and powders to use for various sauces.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, it can be difficult to find New Mexico green chiles.  I see Anaheim peppers at the grocery store, but they just aren’t the same.  They are more mild, less flavorful, and have a thinner flesh than the Big Jims and other green chiles from the Rio Grand valleys. It is rare, but occasionally you can spot a few Hatch Green Chiles at local grocery stores.

This year, instead of taking a chance, I ordered a 35-pound burlap sack of fresh green chiles from Diaz Farms in New Mexico.  I’m very happy with both the price and the quality of these chiles, and would recommend Diaz Farms as a great source for anyone who’d like to order freshly-harvested chiles (17 or 35 lbs).  Act quickly, though!  Diaz Farms will be shipping fresh green chiles for only two more weeks.

Our chiles arrived via UPS on a Friday, and the next day they were being roasted on our trusty gas grill. The roasting process chars the skin, which can then be pulled back to reveal the wonderful green chile “meat” beneath.

You can peel the chiles as you go, or you can lay them flat in a Ziploc bag.  Stack the bags in your freezer, and you’re good to go until next year’s harvest.  Pull out the required amount for your dish, run the frozen chiles under cold water to quickly pull off the peel, and then chop or prepare them as you need.

For the past month, I’ve been happily making green chile scrambled eggs, chile verde posole, and green chile sauces.  Last week, I rolled up black beans and caramelized onions into flour tortillas, then smothered the rolled enchiladas with a basic green chile sauce.  Roast some chunks of butternut squash as a side dish, and you’re representing some of the best flavors of New Mexico.

Gruet or Huet?

Many people talk about spicy New Mexican food being tough to pair with wine.  However, I’ve found two choices that work very well.

(1)  Bubbles: My first suggestion is to sip a refreshing sparkling wine, something on the sweeter side to counteract the heat of what you’re eating.  Proseccos are very nice and pocketbook friendly.  Add them to orange juice and you have a wonderful mimosa, which is also great with Mexican food.  If you’d like to maintain a geographical connection, check your local wine shop for some of New Mexico's most popular and well-distributed wines, the sparklers from Gruet.

(2)  Vouvray: This second suggestion is a new favorite pairing for me.  The chenin blancs from the Loire Valley in France are full-bodied, fragrant, and multi-layered white wines. Go for the sweeter side of these, a demi-sec, to help take the edge off the spicy-hot food.  If you stumble upon an aged vouvray (easier to find than you might expect), grab it!   We paired a 1985 Huët Vouvray Moelleux Le Mont with our recent green chile enchiladas & roasted squash dinner, and it was a wonderful meshing of flavors.  The years had mellowed the sugar in the vouvray, adding depth to the notes of ripe apple and grassy green tea.  The sweet notes of the moelleux washed the heat from the chiles away without diminishing their flavor, and the heartiness of the wine stood up to the black beans and onions that were inside the enchiladas.