It’s Hatch Chile Season in So Cal!

By Bryan Tsunoda on August 15th, 2016

Hatch chiles are a huge draw at Bristol Farms

My wife and I love New Mexican food. This should not to be confused with Mexican cuisine as it is food that is indigenous to the state of New Mexico. It is also distinctly different from “Tex Mex”; the food reflects Mexican, Native American, Spanish and Mediterranean influences. When you visit a restaurant in the state, be prepared for the question “red or green”. That is to signify whether you wish to have dish made with red chiles or green chiles.

So why do people make such a big deal about Hatch chiles? After all, they look like Anaheim chiles, right? My wife and I were in a chile roasting class in Santa Fe. There we learned that the taste is a directly related to the environment. Our teacher explained that if you tried to grow the same chile in California, it would taste like an Anaheim chile, but due to the soil, mountainous area and extreme temperature, they become distressed and have a buttery, smoky-like flavor.

After your purchase, the box of chiles are then roasted for you.

Chile roasting in New Mexico comes with the harvest season and my wife and I are grateful that Melissa’s Produce brings this experience to Southern California. In the South Bay, Melissa’s Produce will be roasting at Bristol Farms in late August. They will be at their Westchester location on Aug. 20 and both the Manhattan Beach and Rolling Hills Estates locations on Aug. 27. The complete list is here and includes many other retail establishments.

For the non New Mexico resident, Bristol Farms makes it more appealing because they also have chiles available in smaller quantities (sometimes prepackaged, sometime fresh by the pound). I also like the fact that they have premade items like gourmet sausages made with hatch chiles. This year Bristol Farms’ cheese of the month is their Hatch Pepper Cheddar.

After peeling them, leave some whole and slice others. They go into ziploc bags and into the freezer.

We usually buy a case of chiles, peel and seed them and bag them into recipe sized amounts. Some of them are left whole (for dishes like chile relleno) and other are cut into strips (for salsa). Something my wife will often do is make salsa fresca and substitute the jalapenos with chopped Hatch chiles.

If you don’t think you can go through that much in a year, see if a friend or two would consider splitting a case with you. Some New Mexican expats living in So Cal involve their families and share in the peeling, seeding and bagging process.

Melissa’s Produce offers a wide variety of recipes that include Hatch chiles on their website. This ranges from Hatch Chile S’mores to Hatch Chile stuffed Roast Pork Tenderloin.

Melissa’s Produce