It’s Hatch Chile time here in Texas. Earlier than the rest of the country, apparently. That’s the trade-off for triple-digit heat.
They are dirt cheap. DIRT CHEAP! 97¢ a pound. Are you kidding me? I couldn’t help it. They needed to be cooked and baked and roasted and, of course, canned.
Pretty, pretty pepper (and blurry…)
Two things made up my mind: their dirt-cheapness (versus Dr. Nancy’s info that plain ol’ jalapeños cost $2.79 for a pack of FOUR peppers way up in Canadialand) and their sweet, spicy tastiness that I discovered quite by accident.
I had grabbed a couple on a whim when at my local HEB grocery because they looked to be the perfect size and shape for a recipe I found for Black Bean & Sweet Corn Stuffed Peppers. And they were sweetly hot and smoky and perfectly nom.
Ignore the messy plating. I had some issues transferring it…was purty in the cooking vessel.
This pepper needed to be jellified. Many ways. This morning, I jumped out of bed (figuratively) and ran (again, figuratively) to buy scads of the Hatches.
First: a double batch using the three-pepper lime jelly recipe, sans lime and avec only the Hatch peppers. The plus side is that these lovely peppers are such a gorgeous color — ranging from pale chartreuse (look it up) to a rosy Kelly green — that you don’t need food coloring.
Bubbling and boiling merrily
Not that I’m so inclined. Not a big day-glo green pepper jelly fan.
A couple of notes:
These peppers have only a few seeds, but MAN, they were potent. I had to stop a couple of times because I inhaled while de-seeding and, well, just don’t.
Also, these suckers FOAM. I’ve never made a jelly with so much foam!
Mad dog! Mad dog! GRRRRRRR!
Just make sure to scoop it all away. All of it. This will assure you a lovely crystal green jelly worthy of any occasion.
Pretty, pretty jelly!
Off to roast some of these suckers for a new and different jelly now.
Sincerely,
Bonnycate
