Nation learning about New Mexico's favourite, Hatch green chiles
For the past several summers, Rouse's Markets and Whole Foods (which is based in Austin, Texas) have roasted green chiles in the parking lots at their stores. Rouse's roaster moves around to their stores in the month of August.
Although they have carried fresh Hatch green chiles during the season, this is the first year Robert's Fresh Markets bought and used a roaster. Until the season ends in mid-September, they're roasting them every day. Critical mass has been achieved for green chile fans.
Why have Hatch green chiles become so popular? Cheryl Alters Jamison is the state's culinary editor for New Mexico magazine. She and her husband, Bill Jamison, who live in Santa Fe, have won four James Beard and other prestigious awards for their many cookbooks.
For years, the New Mexico green chile has been "kind of a cult underground favourite," said Jamison, as well as an eagerly anticipated local crop. "Five years ago, the state's Department of Agriculture made a concerted effort, sending marketing guys and women to major markets around the country, to show them how to roast chiles properly. That was so successful, they put together a DVD on how to really do these the best way and make a big deal out of it. They've just taken on a life of their own.
Jamison said Hatch, New Mexico, a small town in Dona Ana County, is considered the center of southern New Mexico chile production. Every Labor Day, they have a Hatch Chile Festival. But the southern New Mexico chile harvesting area stretches to Las Cruces. Not all the chiles are grown in Hatch.
"There is not a Hatch cultivar of chiles. Hatch is a marketing term that has caught on," Jamison said.
The proper name is New Mexico green chile. There are a number of varieties, such as Big Jim, a thickly meated chile with mild flavour that's great for chiles rellenos. Whatever you call them, New Mexico chiles are direct descendants of old Aztec chiles the Spanish found growing in Mexico.
The amount of green chiles grown in New Mexico has been going down each year, Jamison said, because imports and imitations from Mexico and China, some sold under the Hatch name, undercut chile farmers.
"Put that together with drought conditions, which we've had for several years. But not this year, we've had a lot of rain this year."
Like grapes, New Mexico green chiles have a sense of terror, of the land. The hotter and drier the weather, the hotter the chile.
Source: nola.com
