Green Chili

Last year my son Max gave us a bunch of hatch chili seeds from the restaurant he worked at. We started them as seeds last January and put about 6 plants in the ground in March. Peppers are sensitive in that they will not produce well if they are exposed to temperatures less than 50 degrees so you really want to wait until the weather is a little warmer before you plant them. They also tend to do very well in hot temperature so last summers 100 days over 100 degrees actually produced a bumper crop for us, in fact we turned off all water to the garden except the peppers in July. Hatch pepper are officially only Hatch if they are grown in Hatch County New Mexico. The same pepper is also called the Anaheim pepper. Since we live in Travis county my husband calls them Travis peppers here. They are great in salsas and pasta sauces but they are best roasted, peeled and chopped and made into green chili. After we harvest we freeze the chopped chilis in small containers so we can use them all winter. Here is my recipe for green chili which is great on burritto's, pork chops, eggs, chicken and pretty much anything grilled.

Suanne's Green Chili

4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flours
1/2 half Knorr chicken bouillon cube
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green chili's
2 cups chicken broth

Saute the onions in the butter with the bouillon until soft, add the peppers and stir. Add the flour and make a roux. Let the roux paste cook for about a minute and then slowly add the broth and cooks until at low heat until thickened. This is really great on fried eggs.

Green Chili Pork Stew

1 tbls olive oil
1/2 pound pork (I used boned pork chop pieces) cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 /2 cup flour
salt and pepper
2 cups chopped green chili
2 tomatilla chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can of white beans (unless you have some already cooked from scratch - I made a batch of our lima beans)
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 cup chicken broth
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Heat the oil in a large stew pot
dredge the pork in the flour salt and pepper
brown the the pork in the oil and add onions. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 1 1/2 hours stirring occasionally.