Roasted Chiles

Yesterday Jim and I wandered through the local farmer’s market, which is always fun.  Here are some photos I took earlier in the season.

	Wonderful fresh local veggies
Not a huge market but a good selection of wares	These are new aprons in retro designs and retro fabrics of back in the 50s. Seems they are making a comeback.

Yesterday the air was scented with Pueblo chiles being roasted….oh, what a wondrous fragrance. Many of us associate the beginning of autumn with your first smell of green chiles roasting!

A large sack of chiles are put in a homemade drum with a row of propane flames underneath.  Many of the drums are set up to automatically turn, but this gentleman was turning the drum by hand. When properly roasted, a door in the drum is opened and the chiles dumped out and put in plastic bags to “sweat” off the skins.  Many people peel off the skins and dice the chiles before freezing them, but I just leave the skins on and freeze them that way.  It’s a simple task to peel off the skin on a few as I need them.

We bought a large bag of roasted chiles and they filled a 13 x 9 pan.  I froze 5 smaller bags to use this winter. 

        

We also bought cinnamon rolls from the Amish table, 50 lbs. of San Luis Valley red potatoes to give to our friends as we travel, local unfiltered honey and these spices. On the left is something we’ve never seen before, dried green chile powder. They said you use it like red chile powder mixing it with flour and oil in a roux then adding broth and water to make a sauce. We’re very anxious to try this.  To the right is Salsa Brava mix where you add a tablespoon to a can of diced tomatoes to make your own salsa.  We’ve had this one before and it is very good.  In front is another new item to us, diced and dehydrated jalapenos.  This will be an easy way to add heat to our cooking.

In the afternoon my friend, Salai and I went to lunch at my most favorite restaurant of all, Baldo’s in Monte Vista and then we visited a bead store in town there…..but that will be another post.

Remember, you are loved.