Ristra Madness

This one I took up north, in Albuquerque, but it fits as we all love our chile! It is a happy time to see the bright red fresh chile. Time to make up a huge batch of red sauce and freeze it for the coming year. My refrigerator went out a couple of years ago, naturally it was Sunday. I went down to get a new one as soon as the store opened and pleaded for my green chile. They understood and had me a new one to my house within 2 hours!!! Gotta love it when people understand the addiction!

Enchilada Fiesta

I am finishing up the Whole Enchilada Fiesta today. starting with this view of the Organ Mountains in the distance.

This is Enchi, the mascot of the festival. A combination of a couple of my favorite subjects, chiles and balloons!

There were a bunch of vendors, and frankly we paid much more attention to the food vendors than others, but there were some nice jewelry and handmade product booths.

Boy, this is New Mexico livin' at the best! Roasted turkey legs, sausages, chile rellenos, gorditas, nachos and 3 kinds of chile to slather on your choice!

This booth took a potato and somehow curled it with that big machine and made these huge plates of homemade chips, please note 4 kinds of salsa at this booth!

The Whole Enchilada Fiesta

Yep, that time of year! Yesterday we went to watch the yearly making of the worlds largest enchilada. Las Cruces hosts the festival each year. It was a perfect day although I had spoken too soon and it is apparantly not fully fall yet. It was 92 degrees coming across the desert. Oh well, it made the shaved ice all the better!

The enchilada is made by Mr. Roberto Estrada owner of Robertos Mexican food. His staff works to help cook and assemble the 10.5 foot diameter enchilada. Check out how many men it takes to transport the tortilla from the fryer to the plate!

This is Mr. Roberto himself wielding the ladle of red chile sauce. It takes -

175 lbs of red chiles to create the 75 gallons of enchilada sauce, 750 lbs of corn for the masa to make the tortillas, 175 lbs of cheese and 50 pounds of onions. AMAZING!

Here a couple get their taste of the finished product! The fiesta goers all get to try the enchilada when it is done. The masa makes a thicker tortilla of course, but the rest is the same! Thanks to my sister for a couple of the photos!

Roasting Chiles

We are in the full swing of chile season! I mentioned before that stores roast for you. You buy a burlap sack of chile and they roast it and put it into the bags. Well here are a few pics I
snapped at the grocery store a couple of days ago.

You can see the flame licking the chiles as the cylinder turns. It smells heavenly.

This batch has quite a few that are already turning red. Later in the season I will get a bag of red and make the red chile sauce that is used for enchiladas and pasole. I LOVE this stuff!

Little Green Addictions

Thats what my friend Jennifer calls them! Here are the little lovelies... All roasted and tucked into bags to take home. All of the grocery stores have the roasters out at this time of year, even Walmart. You buy by the gunny sack and they roast it for you.

It is a messy job after you get them home, they are still hot and they need to cool. The conventional wisdom is to freeze them unpeeled for a couple of reasons. One, they peel easier after they have been frozen, and two, it keeps the flavor better. I used to peel them first, so they would be ready when I defrosted them, but now I do not. I just de-stem and pull out most of the seeds before freezing.

Here is one of the beauties peeled and ready to eat! I LOVE green chile!!!

Red or Green?

This sign is all we need to know- The official state question is "Red or Green?"

You can see the new crops are coming in by the mixed red and green chiles. The dark ones are the dried red chiles.

This little shop in Tularosa sells a variety of in-season fruits and vegetables as well as varying heats and styles of salsas. Enough to make a New Mexican's mouth water.

The ristras are the most common form of the strung together chiles, but circles and hearts also make their appearance. The ristras are mainly for storage of the chiles. You break off what you need for cooking. For the red enchilada sauce, the chiles are soaked to get the pulp.

What a beautiful sight. Not only are we gearing up for our next year stash, we know that fall is in sight.

I personally think the chile crop and the county fair are the harbingers of autumn.