A Hatch Chile Dinner at Chez Melange
My wife and I have been to New Mexico a number of times. We enjoy the scenery and the people, but most of all, we enjoy the food.
It’s important to know that New Mexican cuisine is not Mexican cuisine. For example, if you order a “chili hamburger”, you won’t receive one with chili. Instead, you will receive a hamburger with chopped green chiles.
I received an update from Chez Melange’s Facebook page and noticed that they were offering a pre-fixe dinner featuring Hatch chiles. My wife surprised me when I asked her about it. She simply replied, “Let’s do it”.
This time I had the pleasure of dining with my wife, a friend of mine and his wife. Both my friend and his wife had previously lived in New Mexico and were already well versed with the New Mexican hatch chile.
Co-owner Michael Franks’ son, Daniel was on-hand and he gave us an overview of the wines that were going to be served that evening. He decided to match a Spanish wine with each dish.
Mont-Marcal Brut Reserve Cava
A Spanish cava was paired with a chilled soup as our first course. Daniel selected a Brut Reserve from Mont-Marcal from the Penedès region of Spain which is well known for producing quality wines. This was a well balanced sparkling wine providing hints of pear and apple.
Chilled Chile Soup
Michael cautioned us that while we were about to be served a chilled soup, it was going to be the “hottest” item on that night’s menu. Chopped fresh shrimp was placed on top of the Chilled Hatch Chile Soup. After trying, I think a better name for it would have been a Chilled Chile Avocado Soup since the base included puréed avocado.
Fried cornmeal dusted rainbow trout
Cornmeal dusted and fried Rainbow Trout was served with a housemade hot sauce. It was accompanied with zucchini. The Rainbow Trout was perfectly cooked – very crisp on the outside and flakey tender and moist on the inside.
The zucchini was dehydrated, then rehydrated in heirloom tomato juice. Since zucchini is comprised of so much liquid, rehydrating in heirloom tomato juice naturally sweetened the zucchini and gave it a bit more acidity in flavor. This zucchini nicely balanced the spiciness of the housemade hot sauce.
Martinsacho Verdejo 2013
Since the trout is more delicate in taste, Daniel paired it with a Spanish white Martinsacho Verdejo (2013). I enjoyed the fragrant nose of the wine and it was a lot more complex than most white wines.
Slow roasted pork ribs with sweet and sour yams
A hatch chile mixture was hand rubbed into pork spare ribs and marinated for two days. The ribs were then slow roasted for 5 hours. The result? The ribs were extremely tender and the chile seasoning permeated the meat. The sweet and sour yams nicely offset the heat.
Mencia is a popular red wine in Spain and Daniel selected one from the Bierzo region, the Pajaro Rojo. This wine was a medium bodied wine that was very fruit-forward.
New York Steak with Mole Verde
Just when I was getting a chance to exhale, we were served a New York Steak with Mole Verde. Rice with heirloom beans was served on the side. While I enjoyed the steak, I really enjoyed the natural sweetness of the heirloom beans.
Condado de Haza tempranillo
A bold tempranillo full of fruit provided a long sweet finish to the palate. The 2011 tempranillo was from Condado de Haza of Ribera del Duero. I really enjoyed this wine and ordered a couple of bottles afterwards.
Hatch Chile cornbread pudding with spiced whipped cream
The Hatch chile theme remained with dessert as we were served a Hatch Chile cornbread pudding with spiced whipped cream. I’m not a huge fan of dessert wine, but the 2008 Toro Albala Pedro Ximenez Sherry was perfect and I ordered a bottle of that as well.
Daniel did a fine job pairing the wines with the food and I look forward to the next wine event at Chez Melange. Our friends thanked us for letting them know about the event because they had a good time as well.
Chez Melange, 1611 S Catalina Ave. Redondo Beach, CA 90277
