It’s Hatch Chile Festival time at Central Market! That means when you go to the store this weekend, you will open your car door and immediately smell hatch chiles roasting. I swear you can taste the heat, just from the smell.
Buy in bulk, freeze, and you have hatch chiles year round.
(Sorry to make some of ya’ll jealous, but Central Market is a Texas store! There are Hatch Chile Festivals all over the country though, google it!)
So what is a Hatch Chile Pepper? Well first off, to be called a Hatch Chile Pepper it must be grown in Hatch, New Mexico (which makes this a ‘location’ pepper, not a variety of pepper). In the late 1800′s a variety of the New Mexico Chile was taken to California (or so the story goes…) and that was the start of the Anaheim Chile Pepper. Which means these peppers are interchangeable in recipes.
Due to their thick skin they are most commonly roasted and the skin removed. The most common methods when ‘roasting’ Hatch chile peppers are:
- In the oven or broiler until skin blisters, or 450 degrees for 8 minutes
- Grill outdoors until skin blisters
- On the stove top use a heavy pan and roast the pepper on high heat for about 10 minutes, turning and blistering each side.
(Want to know my ghetto but favorite method? Direct flame baby! I am fortunate enough to have a gas stove so I turn on the flame and let the pepepr rest on the grates, the skin chars nicely and its easy to control where the heat source is on the pepper. Does it create a mess? Yes.)
Blueberry, Pineapple & Roasted Hatch Chili Salsa
yield: 4 servings
1 roasted Hatch Chili, small dice
1 cup Blueberries
1/2 cup Pineapple, small dice
1/4 cup White Onion, small dice
1 TBS Lime Juice
1 tsp Lime Zest
3 TBS Fresh Cilantro, finely chopped
1/2 tsp Salt
1. Using gloves, remove the seeds/black charred pieces from the roasted Hatch Chile. Cut the pepper in a small dice and place in a bowl.
2. Remove about 1/4 cup of the blueberries and reserve. Add the remaining blueberries, pineapple, onion, cilantro, lime juice, zest and salt. Toss gently.
3. Using a potato masher or fork, ‘squish’ the remaining blueberries. Add to the salsa. Let the flavors combine in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving.
There is a Hatch Chile Recipe contest and this is what I am entering!
Whatcha think??
I was trying to think of fresh summer flavors and its hard not to think of blueberries. Not to mention fruit salsa seems to be in right now! I made Blueberry Basil Salsa last month (using a jalepeno) so this is almost the same recipe, except I used a whole hatch chile (and took out the basil).
By the way, hatch chile peppers are hot little suckers! I added fresh pineapple which did a great job toning down the heat. This salsa is fantastic and can be enjoyed on almost anything (especially grilled chicken, blue corn tortilla chips, and meat or veggie tacos.)
Ive never had blueberries with peppers before in a relish…looks great!!
