August Update

August is a good time to clear out and make space in the chest freezer. For me, that means taking the remaining bags of whole pecans from the last harvest and cracking them so there will be lots of nuts ready for holiday baking. The nutmeats take less room than the whole nuts, and the chickens just love picking through the shells. Everybody wins. 

While I was busy shelling nuts, my single zucchini plant was sneakily producing baseball bat-sized squashes. No worries--these make wonderful zucchini spaghetti when run through the spiralizer. Even the very largest ones still taste great. 

In my last post I described my experiment with gradient dyeing of yarn. Here is what that yarn looked like out of the dyepot and when knit into a baby sweater. I'm hoping there is enough yarn from this dye batch to complete the sleeves. Gracie the cat looks pretty confident that all will work out.

The gradient-dyed yarn with the accidental white spots from being tied too tightly

The white spots showed up as random flecks, which Gracie and I actually like. 

In between experimental dye pots, I was working on this Easy Peazy Shawlette from a skein of Mineville Wool Project sock yarn in the Solar Flare colorway. I finished the piece in plenty of time for my sister's birthday. She liked it! and she put together the perfect outfit to go with it, including several of her handmade necklaces. 

August is chile harvesting time here in the Mesilla Valley, and the high school Future Farmers of America had a fundraiser/green chile roast. It was like a big party--country music, lots of kids in cowboy hats and boots slinging big bags of freshly roasted chiles around, and the wonderful smell of chiles roasting over an open flame. It was a great reminder of why we live here. 

BZ photo

When we got our twenty pounds of roasted chiles home, we cooled them in ice water, drained them, and packed them into quart ziplock bags. Now you know why I wanted more room in the freezer! Now we have bags and bags of chiles ready to use for green chile cheeseburgers, chiles rellenos, enchiladas, burritos, and all the other delicious New Mexican dishes we love.

BZ photo

I've been working on the last paint details for the living room. I scrubbed down all the old worn thresholds and painted them to match the rest of the room. Henry helped, as you can see from this photo taken between coats of paint.

My morning walk has to take place a little later now since the days are growing noticeably shorter and my old starting time is quite a bit before sunrise. The crops are growing well in all the fields we pass, but the ditches are now empty and the farmers are irrigating with groundwater from wells, instead of ditch water from the Rio Grande. 

The view is the same, but the ditch is empty now. 

In addition to the views, we also come across the occasional bit of wildlife!

Pecans, Chiles, and Mountains All Around

On my pre-sunrise walk this morning, I saw pecan orchards to the right of me with the Organ Mountains in the distance...

 ...and chiles to the left of me with the Dona Ana Mountains in the distance.

The chile plants are almost ready for harvest, and they smelled so good.

There are even a few red chiles peeking out. I'm guessing that this field will be picked for green chiles soon. As my Bill will tell you, there is nothing in the world like a green chile cheeseburger. Other folks will take a green chile right out of the roaster (where the outer skin is burned off), stuff it with some cheese, and eat it out of hand. Mmm, that first green chile of the season!

In some cases, the farmer will wait for all the chiles to turn red. Red chiles can be eaten fresh or dried for future use.

That sky!

Heading home again, this time with a view of the Robledo Mountains.

These Are the Colors of Fall Around Here

I always get nostalgic for the beautiful foliage and crisp air in New Hampshire at this time of year, but we have a different set of colors (and some much warmer air) to love here in New Mexico. 

The skies range from deep blue overhead to a near-turquoise near the mountains. The chile plants are a dark green, and now that the green chiles have been harvested the scarlet of the red chiles starts to shine out in the fields.

Thanks, Beez, for that last photo. Mine was way out of focus.

The Las Cruces Report for August, Part 2: Green Gold

It's hard to explain the importance of chiles here in the Mesilla Valley. Chile is a crop, it's a culture, and it's a big part of the cuisine here. Our friend, Pat, who is planning to retire here soon, calls them "green gold." There's a sign in one of Beez's favorite restaurants that says, "A day without chiles is like a day without sunshine," and we rarely experience any days without both of these staples of New Mexican life. 

When it's chile harvest time, the air is filled with the smell of roasting chiles and the grocery stores sell a ton of those little quart freezer bags. We all shop for our year's supply of chile and a great many of us have an extra freezer just for all those bags of green gold. 

We bought our first batch at the Farmers Market on the weekend. You buy a big burlap bag, 20 pounds worth, right from the farmer...

... then you bring the bag over to the roasters...

... who roast your 20 pounds and pack the hot chiles into a plastic bag like the one on the left in the first photo.

Once we get the chiles home--and what a fragrant ride it is!--we spread them out a few at a time on a pan to cool a bit. Then we plunge them into some chilly water, drain them, and package them (skin and all) into those little freezer bags, 8 chiles to a bag. Once the bags are all closed up, we pop them into the chile freezer, all but the plateful of fresh ones that we peel and eat for lunch. 

It's a lovely, almost ceremonial tradition, and a nice thing to do on a hot day in a shady kitchen while looking out the window over the sink up at the Organ Mountains and being thankful for such a good life.

*****

If you are a fan of cowboy stories (Deb, I'm trying to catch you!), be sure to check out the tale of tenderfeet over on the Remember blog today. 

Health Benefits of Chiles

Chiles are so good to eat that it is almost surprising that they are so good for us. Here is an article from the Las Cruces Sun, Aug. 20, 2008, called Eating Chile Peppers Can Be Good For Your Health:

Health benefits of the hot stuff:

• Capsaicin creams made of chile can help in pain relief.
• Anti-inflammatory effects benefit those with arthritis.
• Used in patches for sore and aching muscles.
• Cleans sinuses.
• Chile decreases cholesterol absorption, so more is expelled from the body.
• Chile peppers increase the enzymes responsible for fat metabolism in the liver.
• Chile burns calories by triggering a thermodynamic burn, which speeds up the metabolism.
• Chiles help thin the blood, treat blood clots and increase blood circulation.
• Chiles help treat hypothermia, frostbite and heartburn.
• Aids in many skin conditions, including psoriasis, itchiness and bruising.
• Teas and lozenges help treat sore throat.
• Chile peppers may help prevent the growth of certain cancers.
• A teaspoon of red chile meets the recommended daily allowance for vitamin A.
• One green chile pod has as much vitamin C as six oranges.
• Chile peppers are rich in vitamins E and B complex and a good source of iron, potassium and dietary vitamins, as well as antioxidants.

Source: Paul Bosland and Danise Coon of the Chile Pepper Institute at NMSU, "The Healing Power of Peppers" by Dave DeWitt, Melissa T. Stock, and Kellye Hunter

Southwestern Foods on The Zees Go West; An Index

Spring cleaning! It's time to de-clutter and tidy up at The Zees Go West. The next blog post or two will consist of indexes to help you find your way around and to minimize some of the stuff on the side of the page.

Note: You can find more recipes of all kinds on my other blog, Recipes for Ben.

Best Green Chile Cheeseburger

Blue Corn Meal

Chipotle Recipes

Green Chile Recipes

Harvest Time in Clovis

Honey Spreads

Little Fires in Your Mouth

More Chile Sweets

Peanuts!

Pinto Beans

Posole

Red Chile

The Search for Local Honey

Which is Best--The Owl or the Buckhorn?

Wineries in New Mexico

Chipotle Recipes

Photo from MexGrocer.com

Last week in the post called Little Fires in Your Mouth I promised to find some recipes to help us all use up that everlasting little can of chipotle chiles. I'm sure you remembered to put the contents of the can into a glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Those little chiles will last almost forever in your fridge, so you will need these recipes.

First off, I wasn't sure exactly how chipotles are made. I checked around and found from a variety of sources that chipotles are smoked and dried red jalapenos, and red jalapenos are simply green ones that have been allowed to ripen further on the vine. They can be purchased as pods, as chipotle powder, or canned in adobo sauce, which is made of tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, salt, and spices. Here are some of the things you can do with them.


Chipotle Chile : A nice selection of low-fat recipes, plus information on smoking your own chipotles.

Chipotle Recipes from AllRecipes.com

Chipotle Recipes on Epicurean.com

Enchiladas Chipotle

Vegetarian Chipotle Chili

Little Fires in Your Mouth

Photo from MexGrocer.com

Chiles for dessert? At first it might be hard to imagine these fiery little vegetables as part of your sweets, but when you’ve had some time to digest the idea it no longer seems so strange. To New Mexicans, who all seem to be addicted to chile anyway, this is just another way to get our fix. After all--hot and sweet together? What’s not to like?

While taking part in a discussion on New Mexican Foods over at the New Mexico forum on the City-Data website, I was intrigued by the mention of red chile fudge. It sounded like a novelty item, just another way to market something from New Mexico. A little exploration and research proved otherwise. There is a wide spectrum of these sweet-hot desserts, as you will see if you read this blog over the next couple of days.

After my research, I was ready to try out a recipe. I wanted brownies with chipotles, but all the recipes I found were pretty complicated and called for way more chocolate and sugar and butter than I wanted to use. So I turned to my favorite brownie recipe, Immediate Fudge Cake, from my ancient copy of Peg Bracken’s Appendix to the I Hate to Cook Book(1966). Here is the variation that I came up with:

Chocolate Chipotle* Brownies
Note: These are best accompanied by a glass of cold milk, to put out the little fires in your mouth

2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp. vanilla
¾ cup flour
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts
2 chipotle chiles, chopped fine

Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave. Add the remaining ingredients, stir well (be sure the chiles are well distributed!). Bake in a greased 8” by 8” pan at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Glaze while still warm with:

Chocolate Glaze
½ square unsweetened chocolate
1 tbl. butter
1 cup powdered sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
Tiny pinch salt
A little strong coffee

Melt the butter and the chocolate in the microwave, add sugar, vanilla, salt. Beat the mixture well, adding a bit of coffee, until it is the consistency you want.

*Chipotles: Buy them in a can. They are called Chipotles in Adobo Sauce. Store leftovers in a glass jar in the refrigerator. They will go a long way. I will scout out some recipes to help us all use up the rest of the can, and publish them in a future post.

Red Chile

Red Chiles Drying (Library of Congress)*
If you travel around New Mexico during harvest time you are bound to see ristras (strings) of red chiles hanging outside to dry in the hot sunshine. Down in Mesilla, south of Las Cruces, we saw them spread out on rooftops and up north in Chimayo they were hanging everywhere.

You can buy fresh green chiles in the summertime and the dried red ones later in the fall. They both come from the same plant—the red ones have just been allowed to ripen longer on the plant before being dried. They have an earthier flavor to me. When I grew my own chiles in Las Cruces, I couldn’t get over how many wonderful chile colors could be found on a single plant—the greens at first, and then as the chiles ripened they ranged through yellow and orange to red.

We make a very simple version of Carne Adovada at our house. We brown pork strips with onions and garlic, then simmer all in red chile sauce (below) until the pork is tender and well done. I know that traditional versions call for a long marinating period, but the kind we make is absolutely delicious.

For some good basics to get you started, see Chile Colorado (Red Chile).

Visit the Focus New Mexico web site for information on both red and green chiles, where to find them in New Mexico, and how to use them. Be sure to check out the rest of the web site, too, for travel information.

For a good Red Chile Sauce Recipe: http://www.pepperfool.com/recipes/southwest/nm_red_sauce.html

*Library of Congress photograph: I do not know of any copyright restrictions associated with this photo. If you do, please notify me via the comments section of this blog.