I’ll probably get in trouble for using the words ’semi-homemade’.

It’s probably a trademarked term or some shit. If you can no longer use the term ‘everyday’ in the vicinity of a food blog, I’m sure there are plenty of other terms no longer allowed to the common home cook.
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It’s official — we are Hatch Chile fanatics.

It was pretty official before, but ever since fresh, roasted Hatch chiles appeared at our neighborhood HEB this season, we’ve been hooked. Every single dish we cook features Hatch chiles in some form. We’ve added them to our eggs, side dishes, main dishes and desserts. I’ve made pastes, sauces, salsas and gravies. I’ve used them to marinate meat, wrapped them in meat and cooked them alongside meat.
I told you…we’re addicted.

One of our greatest resources this Hatch chile season has been a fantastic cookbook I found at Half Price. I didn’t really discover this tome…I just recognized it as an amazing find. A’s parents (who lived in Santa Fe for a time) own this cookbook. A has referred to it as the ‘Bible of Green Chile Cooking’. I have to agree…it’s pretty damn great.
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It’s Hatch Green Chile time!

We love this time of year. Central Market (and sometimes even HEB) sets huge roasters out in front of their stores and roast the chiles on-site. It’s amazing to pull into the parking lot and get knocked over by the smell of spicy Hatch chiles.

The best part is seeing all of the creations they come up with…
They somehow combine green chiles with pretty much everything you can think of. Green chile hamburgers, green chile stuffed pork loin, green chile marinated chicken. There’s green chile bread and green chile scones. Green chile cheese and green chile pesto (also known as ‘crack’ in our house). Every year, they seem to come up with something new and inventive.

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My husband lived in Santa Fe when he was very young, and he’s addicted to New Mexican food. Green chiles specifically…posole, burritos, enchiladas (the flat ones with a fried egg on top)…anything that has that smoky green chile flavor. Any time I ask him for food requests, these enchiladas are pretty much the only thing he suggests.

Every year at this time, one of our local grocery stores has a Hatch Green Chile Festival. On the weekends, they have huge roasters in front of the store, roasting chiles on the spot. In the store, they have all sorts of green chile themed products. They make this really great green chile pesto that A calls ‘crack’ because he can’t get enough of it. They also sell sausages, hamburger patties, steaks, fish, and chicken using green chiles in some way. In the bakery, there are green chile tortillas, green chile scones, green chile bread…I even saw a green chile brownie! It’s quite the thing. We usually buy 5-10 pounds of the fresh roasted chiles and freeze them to be used the rest of the year. Unfortunately, we were out of town for this year’s festival and missed the fresh chiles. When we returned, I got to Central Market as soon as I could, hoping to find they were not yet sold out. Luckily, there were a few products (A’s crack was there), but no fresh chiles.
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