Chiles. Chiles. Chiles.
In September, a big truck of
Chiles came rolling into Los Angeles! I went with my cousin to the El Rey Chile distribution in the La Puente High School parking lot. These chiles are grown in New Mexico and trucked out to Southern California each year.
Check out the
El Rey Chile company for more information. They have been doing this for years and they have a big following. My cousin's co-worker has been buying chiles from El Rey for over 10 years!
Several families placed orders and we ended up picking up 11 bags of chiles. Each bag is over 30 pounds of the mild, medium, hot or extra hot chiles. Each bag is about $37-38.
Check out those nice green chiles peeking out of the bag! Luckily, there are guys with dollies working for tips that can load your chiles into your vehicle. And since we had so many bags, we borrowed a truck to transport the load - saving our vehicles from smelling like 330 pounds of roasted chiles.
You can pay an outside company to roast your chiles on-site ($14 per bag). It was quite hot that day in La Puente so I don't know how the staff managed to take the heat from these propane roasters.
Once the chiles are roasted, a door opens and they fall to the bottom tray. They go back into your burlap bag (that has been lined with a big trash bag) and the chiles sweat it out so the skins will just fall off.
El Rey Farms has a devoted following of families picking up their New Mexico chiles and chile powder.
Dang. Lotsa chiles! El Rey usually comes out for 4 or 5 deliveries during the months of Aug-Sept.
In the past, this is a long day. You need to wait in the multiple lines (picking up, roasting, powder purchasing), but we got through pretty fast! Our appointment was for 9 am, and the roasting went really fast. Luckily, the high school cheerleading group sets up a food booth with drinks, burritos and tacos. This carne asada burrito with freshly roasted chiles was AWESOME.
Then you have to come home and do something with these chiles! Some will peel them while hot, while others will just take the chiles, toss into a Ziploc bag and save them in the freezer. We peeled some and vacuum sealed lots and lots and lots of chiles!
And what does everyone make? Pork & Tomatillo Chile Chili, Chile rellenos, Salsas, and placing them on everything: eggs, rice, burritos... I'll make my Auntie Joy's Chili soon and post it up!
Interested in next year's truckload? Check out: El Rey Farms
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6 comments:
A friend sent me a link to this blog. I grew up in New Mexico, but now I live in Georgia. Those are extremely delicious looking pictures! Makes me a bit homesick! I actually just wrote about how to peel green chile, so this is cool to get see the roasting aspect.
Where is the jealous button? So fun. I cant' wait to see what you do with the chiles.
Wow, that sounds so cool! What a neat thing to participate in every year. I'm definitely excited to hear about what you do with the first of the chiles.
Wow, I feel sad to have missed this big ole' chile truck in Los Angeles - I would have walked away with a bushel full! Thanks for the interesting tips about freezing and vacuum-sealing them, too. I think I would have also made a big batch of chili with these!
How fun! Those roasted chilis look fantastic.
I am from Corona, CA, but currently living in Albuquerque, NM. I went through this same process a few weeks ago (over 20 pounds of chiles!) I make green chile stew. Just a basic soup (veggies and chicken stock) with turkey meat, the chiles. SO DELICIOUS. Or as a pizza topping of course!
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