This is the time of year for Hatch Chiles. Yum! I look forward to it every year. Central Market has a festival with a plethora of fresh Chiles for your roasting pleasure. Plus, they sell just about anything Hatch! My favorite is the Hatch Chile brownie and Hatch Chile scones. OMG. Oh, wait...also the Hatch Chile crab cake and Hatch Chile fajita wrap. Obviously I have more than one favorite. So, in order to enjoy my love of Hatch Chiles throughout the year I bought about 30 of them to roast and freeze. Roasting peppers is very easy peasy.
How to roast Hatch Chiles (any just about any other Chile pepper you want):
Place your Chiles directly on a preheated grill
Roast the Chiles until the skin begins to blister then turn. Continue to roast until all sides are blistered
Place in a large zip lock bag and seal. Leave the peppers in the bag for about 5 minutes. This process helps the skin to come off. Open the bag and place the peppers, one at a time, under cold running water and peel off the skin. You may want to wear gloves depending on how hot (spicy hot) your peppers are because your skin may be burned from the acidity of the pepper.
Once you have peeled your pepper you can put it in the freezer whole to preserve or you can slice and dice and serve!
If you choose to can your peppers you will need to use a pressure canner so you don't succumb to food poisoning a few months down the line when you decide to eat them.
Cheers!!