There are a truckload of reasons to look forward to fall every year.
Brisk cool days, gorgeous color on the mountainsides and along the rivers, running brown trout and the promise of hunting to come just to name a few.
There’s another reason to love late summer and early fall – the green chiles of the Southwest come in.
Even here in the outskirts of hell we’re able to procure fresh Hatch green chiles by the bushel; heck, they’ll even roast your bushel of green chiles at most of the local grocers here in Austin (though we like to do it at home to savor that heavenly aroma of chiles roasting over mesquite and oak).
This time of year we gobble up fresh chiles in salads, roast them and eat ‘em right off the grill, fold ‘em into scrambled eggs and omelets, stack them on cheeseburgers and nachos, and process them into sharp salsa verde and green chile vinaigrettes. A bushel and a half have just recently gone into the freezer (roast on the grill, cool and then bag to freeze, they’ll peel easily when you thaw them to use later….). That frozen treasure will be headed mostly to stews and soups over the next five or six months.
We’ve even taken lately to munching though half a dozen preparations for chile rellenos, the perfect rellenos recipe having eluded us for years. This year’s spicy steak with smoked mozzarella rellenos and blue corn beer battered chiles have come close to hitting the mark.
One of our favorites way to enjoy the flavor of the season’s best fresh green chiles has been to combine them with summer corn in a Roasted Green Chile Corn Chowder.
This is a very simple recipe pushed into the ‘wow’ zone by the use of the ultra-fresh and ultra-flavorful green chiles and corn available now. There are a couple of simple tweaks that really boost the flavor – one being reducing the chicken stock and the other using both pungent red onions and some of the summer sweets available everywhere right now. The chorizo also adds a very nice background flavor without overpowering the chowder (be sure to drain it well), though if you’ve got vegetarians in the flock the chowder’s great without it too.
3 tbs olive oil
2 cups red onion, diced
2 cups sweet onion, diced
1/2 lb. chorizo, removed from casing, sauteed, drained of red grease and crumbled
1 lb. red potatoes, washed, diced small
2 quarts whole milk
2 quarts chicken stock, reduced to 1/2 cup
3 cups corn kernels, frozen ok
6 green chile peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped small
2 tsp ground cumin
Kosher salt and white pepper to taste
Saute the onions and chorizo. Using a large stockpot, heat the olive oil to a shimmer over medium heat. Add both piles of diced onions and saute gently for 6 or 7 minutes until translucent. Add the cooked, drained and crumbled chorizo and saute for a couple of minutes.
Build the base. Add the reduced stock (may substitute 2 generous tbs chicken base here), milk and the diced spuds. Cook gently, without boiling, for 30 to 40 minutes – you need the spuds to become tender.
Add the good stuff. Add the chopped green chiles, corn, cumin, salt and white pepper. Mix well and simmer the soup gently for another 15 minutes until all the ingredients are heated through.
Enjoy.
Tags: Friday Feast
{ 4 comments }
??oly ??eck! Sure sounds like you like your green chiles. Chorizo always adds a delicious taste to such recipes.
Heck yea we love our chiles. Try this chowder and you’ll be ordering your Hatch chiles next year.
This was great! I used less onion and more corn and chilis. I had the luxury of using potatoes and roasted chilis from our CSA, and local Colorado Olathe sweet corn. Yum.
Well done. Fresh summer corn is impossible to beat prepared any way this time of year. We’re thinking of starting up a CSA – enjoying yours?