Prepping For Green Chile

Knowing now that Whole Foods already has freshly roasted Hatch green chiles (it just seems so early this year!), I'm sure there will be a big pot of chile being made in my house this weekend.  That's classically done with pork, and I prefer to lighten it up with a lean, rather than a more typical fattier cut of pork.  The boneless center-cut pork loin chops on sale at Sprouts for a mere $1.99 a pound through tomorrow fit the bill perfectly for me, so some will go in the freezer in anticipation of a chile-fest this weekend.  And as for the spelling of chile/chili when referring to the soup, I most respectfully refer readers to my prior posts about variations in spelling, especially what's proper when making the soup with chiles from New Mexico, as Whole Foods' Hatch chiles are.  But then, I'm probably misspelling things everywhere else.

Weekday Dinner Ideas

Better late than never.  For tonight, Sprouts' sale through tomorrow on boneless center-cut pork chops for a super low $1.99 a pound, plus their sale on organic on-the-vine tomatoes for $1.48 a pound (the lowest I ever recall seeing) is just screaming at me to do garlic pork with tomato and basil from Cooking Light.  It also doesn't hurt that I can use a bunch of fresh basil from my own plants in this.

Tomorrow will be a reheat of something big previously made, which this week is corn and fingerling potato chowder with applewood smoked bacon, also from Cooking Light.  The corn is obviously from Munson Farm, and while it's nice to have fingerlings for the potatoes, others will certainly do.

Thursdays are always quick around here, so I've already grabbed more of those very low $1.99 a pound pork chops at Sprouts before the sale's end tomorrow to do a simple sauté of them.  With the exciting news that Whole Foods already has freshly roasted Hatch green chiles (see a post just below) and our local Munson corn in full swing, the side will be creamy stovetop corn with poblano chiles from the New York Times.  Anyone who would take the time to roast two chiles themselves for this dish would be out of their mind.  I also use Straus plain nonfat yogurt in this instead of the crème fraiche, but it requires care not to boil it, unlike those cream-heavy (but oh so delicious) products.

So that's a quick one for the week, and we'll see if we actually get the lower temperatures and rain possible for tomorrow.  Chowder would be lovely comfort food on a rainy evening.

Whole Foods Has Hatch Green Chiles!

At least at the Pearl Street store, where I just saw chiles from Hatch, New Mexico, both in glorious piles of fresh ones, and also some already roasted in the fridge case on the east side of the produce department.  This is a bittersweet moment for me.  Much as I love cooking with roasted green chiles, their arrival has always signaled the close of summer for me.  I'll just keep reminding myself that I don't think I've ever seen them in Boulder so early.  Plenty more summer to go, so we can enjoy the best of it all!

Hatch Chile Fest At Centro

Here's an interesting confluence, since it's no secret that I love freshly roasted chiles and am a fan of Taos, too.  Boulder's Centro Latin Kitchen and Refreshment Palace (what a great name) will be holding a three-day celebration of Hatch green chiles October 5 through 7, interestingly enough, sponsored by the town of Taos.  You can check out all the details, including menus, a green chili cookoff, and a hot pepper eating contest at Centro's page on the festival.

Roasted Chiles Already At Whole Foods

I think of chile roasting as being a fall event, but Whole Foods already has in-house roasted Hatch chiles, at least at the Pearl Street store.  Maybe the soaring popularity of roasted chiles is prompting them to roast earlier than usual, or maybe the crop is coming in earlier thanks to global warming.  In any case, it's not even the middle of August yet, but I'm seeing ominous signs of the end of summer.  With the torrid heat we've endured this summer, the possibility that Thursday won't even get out of the 70s is kind of welcome.  And one of my trees actually has a few leaves that have already turned.  Enjoy that fresh, local corn, squash, and tomatoes while you can, folks.  We'll be back to butternut squash before you know it.