When I lived in Colorado, you knew fall was here when the roadside stands set up for fire-roasting green chiles. It was like any roadside stand you might see selling tomatoes and corn back east or in the south. But there, a gas fired chile roaster was set up. It looks something like a great big Bingo basket that gets rotated over a flame and slowly roasts the chiles till the skins are blackened and blistered. Then, the hot chiles were weighed out and packaged in plastic bags. All you had to do was grab a bag and take them home, clean the blackened skin and either cook with the chiles right then, or put them in freezer bags and freeze for use during the winter.
Any self respecting western cook had at least a few bags of fire-roasted green chiles in the freezer. I like to use them to make Pork Green Chile…a delightful change of pace from the traditional red chili with beef and beans. I also love green chiles in scrambled eggs or quiche. I’ve even seen them added to apple pie, although I have to admit I’ve never tried that…yet!
One of the items a roadside chile stand sells is wreaths or ristras…long strands of red chiles that dry as you use them for winter decor. Sort of like putting out Indian corn or wreaths of dried leaves. You might also find jars of salsa with varying degrees of heat or perhaps red or green pepper jelly. I love a soft goat cheese on crackers with hot pepper jelly as an appetizer accompanied by smoked almonds and fresh figs or apples. That makes for a lovely treat on a crisp fall afternoon.
One of my fondest memories of Colorado was when Daughter #2 was little. One of my best friends was Barbara, the wife of one of the surgeons in town. Her baby was about ten months younger than mine and we used to get together often to let the children play while we worked on cross-stitch projects. One fall day, we decided to can salsa. We went to the farmers market and bought our supplies and spent all day chopping and cooking and making the best salsa ever.
I haven’t made salsa in ages…probably over twenty years. The other day Mr. FixIt asked if we could make some. I didn’t have enough of our own tomatoes so I bought a ten pound flat and some nice yellow onions at a roadside stand on Monday. Then I bought two kinds of peppers, garlic, and cilantro at the store and prepared to have another busy week preserving.
There were several steps leading up to actually making the salsa and the first thing I wanted to do was fire-roast my peppers. I bought a couple of jalapeños for the salsa and picked up some beautiful Poblano chiles to make Chile Rellenos. I have never roasted peppers myself so I Googled how to do it. I know you can roast them over any open flame so a propane grill works fine. You can hold them over a fire and roast them like a marshmallow, but I wasn’t interested in starting a fire. I opted for roasting them over a burner on our stove since it’s gas and it worked great!
The grates on our stove are sturdy and aren’t spaced too far apart so they work perfectly. All I had to do was turn the flame on high and lay the pepper on the grate. It snaps and crackles as the hard membrane on the skin blisters and blackens. It only takes two or three minutes to properly roast a pepper. Poblanos are a rather large, flat pepper with a fairly mild flavor although they can vary and sometimes you’ll get a surprise when they pack some significant heat. But in general, they are mild and make the best Chile Rellenos. I’m making some to freeze and take with us to the beach.
Mr. FixIt likes his salsa very mild with pineapple in it. I like mine to pack a punch. Therefore, I divided the tomatoes and made half his way and half mine. I used a simple recipe I found on the Ball website. This particular recipe uses one of their electric Auto Canners, which I don’t have. I followed the directions except I processed the filled jars in a water bath for 15 minutes. I added some chile powder to both batches. I added crushed pineapple to Mr. FixIt’s and just a quarter of one jalapeño for flavor. It was sweet and flavorful…just the way he likes it. I added a little extra salt to mine, added the rest of the jalapeño plus another full one, and…just before I ladled it into the jars, I adjusted the heat by adding some more Tabasco and cayenne powder. Now mine has a nice kick to it without being overpoweringly hot. You can find the recipe HERE.
I finished with twenty half-pints of salsa…ten of each variety. These will be so nice to have for dipping with corn chips or for topping those Chile Rellenos or any number of other Mexican dishes we enjoy. Mr. FixIt was gone all afternoon so I had the house to myself, working happily in the kitchen as I listened to old-time bluegrass by the Stanley Brothers.
It’s FALL y’all…and I’m in my element!
❤️
“Work hard, and you will have a lot of food; waste time, and you will have a lot of trouble.”
Proverbs 28:19 CEV