Hatch Chile time

We made a two day trip to the Dallas area last weekend for a business trip to look  at some equipment.  As usual when we go to any major city in Texas, I have to load up the ice chests in the pickup or the car in anticipation of a trip to Central Market.

Central Market is a division of Texas grocery chain H.E.B Supermarkets.  It’s a “Super” Supermarket.  They have a little bit of everything there and I’ve found that if they don’t have it, you don’t need it.  I counted like 18 different varieties of mushrooms, 4 different types of pears, and chesses of all kinds.  There were too many cheeses to count.  Ramona gets Chihuahua cheese from Mexico for our nachos.  In fact, she will be making some nachos as I write this watching the Cowboys and the Texans battle it out for the Governor’s Cup honors here in Texas.

For lunch I had hot dogs on hatch chile hot dog buns covered with hatch chile cheese.  The hot dog buns were infused with hatch chiles as was the cheese.  I even had a hatch chile brownie in Dallas and a chocolate ice cream cone with hatch chiles in it.

The hatch chile festival is held at Central Markets across Texas as well as in Hatch, New Mexico during harvest time of the chile peppers.

Here are a few facts on chile peppers:  I always knew I could find one thing I like that is good for you:

• One fresh medium-sized green chile pod has as much Vitamin C as six oranges.
• One teaspoon of dried red chile powder has the daily requirements of Vitamin A.
• Hot chile peppers burn calories by triggering a thermodynamic burn in the body, which speeds up the metabolism.
• Teas & lozenges are made with chile peppers for the treatment of a sore throat.
• Capsaicinoids, the chemical that make chile peppers hot, are used in muscle patches for sore and aching muscles.
• Chile peppers are relatives of tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants, all belonging to the nightshade family.
• The color extracted from very red chile pepper pods, oleoresin, is used in everything from lipstick to processed meats.
• There are 26 known species of chile pepper, five of which are domesticated.

There are big chile pepper roasters set up at Central Markets across Texas and the festival here is held through August 31.  This is the 15th year of the festival and it seems to be picking up speed.  Hatch chiles are popular to cook with and  you can get them in hot or milder varieties.

Here is a photo sample of items Ramona purchased from Central Market and all items are hatch chile related.  There is a cookbook there on the left, some hatch chile salsa, hatch chile butter, hatch chile cornbread (good stuff), hatch chile tortillas, a couple of different hatch chile cheeses, hatch chile filled ravioli with Monterrey jackcheese,  hatch chile pesto sauce hamburger buns, and even more I can’t identify.  She even got a hatch chile 15th season commemorative T-shirt.

That makes it official.  She’s really bit with the hatch chile bug!  We visited the Central Market in Fort Worth just off  Hulen Street for our hatch chile purchases.

She even made a video about it:

Good grief!……………hatch chile popcorn?  Tortilla chips?  She’s really gone overboard this time…..but I might eat a few of those concoctions just to keep her happy.

Tagged as: david werst, hatch chile festival, Real Texas Blog, texas cooking, texas peppers