A few weeks ago, our good friend Andy Johnson emailed to ask whether we’d like to get a bunch of fresh New Mexico chiles. It sounded great, so last week when we met at the American Ornithologists’ Union meeting in Estes Park, Colorado, we transferred 40 lbs. in a large gunny sack from the trunk of Andy’s car onto my shoulder, and I marched off happily in the dark to put them in my room. All during the meeting my room smelled fantastic. I rotated them every day to keep them as fresh as I could, then packed them into a recycled box I found behind the dining hall and checked them as baggage for my return flight from Denver.
Back home, I carefully followed Andy’s emailed instructions: “You’d have to roast them yourself. Not too difficult just takes a bit of propane and a lot of beer and some time.” They had ripened from green to mostly red by the time I got home, but that doesn’t seem to affect the flavor at all. Once the skins were blistered and blackened, I put them into plastic bags to sweat for 20 minutes.
The smell is wonderful. And the flavor? Like candy.
They proved to be a nice cap to the fall. We woke up this morning with a four-letter word on our lips:
Beautiful chili’s!! What a treasure for you way up in the north!!!
Warms my heart!
That is way too much snow for early October. Ugh. The peppers look tasty!
Only one four letter word?!
Again, this is a bird blog. Another perfectly good post for Foodo!