Hatch Chile's for Relleno's Recipe
I kinda, well almost, got carried away yesterday.
OK, so I maybe bought a little much, but we'll use it all.
I'm talking Hatch Chiles from New Mexico.
I was in the 'big' city and decided to check out a 'new to me' market.
So...
I went in the store figuring that if they were having this extravaganza the following day, that they would probably have a few chiles in stock.
They did.
I bought a bunch. I would have bought more than I did, but I knew I had limited space in my freezer, so I only purchased just over 8 lbs.
Which is enough for a few meals for us.
Guess what we're having for dinner tonight.
*giggle*
At any rate, it's been a long time since I've had such a gracious plenty of peppers, the three Anaheim pepper plants I planted this year have yielded very little. I think I've picked 5 peppers so far, really pitiful.
The Chiles' I bought yesterday are huge, I mean really big, three of them will be more than enough for a dinner for the two of us.
My mouth is watering as I type this.
So I got out my trusty camp stove, hooked it up and proceeded to char the skin on all those chiles.
What a job.
And you do need to do this. The skin is pretty inedible. I have done this in the oven, but don't care for how 'cooked' the chiles get.
After charring, I put the chiles into a ziploc bag, so they can 'sweat'. It makes it a whole bunch easier to remove the skin if you do that.
I then cut the end off, and remove the seeds, and the stem.
You can also take a paring knife and scrape the skin off as well.
All ready, well, almost. I usually take a paper towel and wipe them down at this point.
And if there are any pesky little bits of skin still clinging, I just work the tip of the paring knife under and take it off.
These Chiles are ready for step two, which is to be made into Chile Relleno's with Cheese.
I'll go through the steps later on.
I need to go and put the rest of the chiles in the freezer for future meals.
And here's a tip. Go ahead and freeze the chiles as is, charred skin, seeds and all in a single layer. After freezing, stick them into a ziploc bag, as many as you'll eat for a meal, and when you're ready to use them, take them out of the freezer and run them under some warm water for just a second or so, and the charred skin will wipe right off. You might still have a few pesky hanger ons, but the most of it, just wipes away. You can then cut the ends off, and pull the seeds right out.
Gotta go make dinner now, but wanted to let you know what I was up to.