The challenge: Feeling up to blogging, and finding affordable recipes with farm fresh food during a cold spring. I've made one asparagas recipe and the other takes the expensive parmigiano-reggiano cheese. I'm thinking of substituting another parmesan, based out of Wisconsin, but I have to try it first. So, for this recipe, I did find poblano chiles, which I enjoy. Part of me gave up on finding hatch chiles and simply used anaheim. If I find hatch chiles later in the season(they are not from this region), I will add a comment to this post about how it turns out.
The recipe: I took a few poblano chiles and a couple of hatch chiles and roasted them in the oven(I'm becoming an old hat on roasting). The peppers then are coarsely chopped and set aside. The book recommends wearing gloves while handling chiles. If you do not wear gloves, wash your hands thoroughly when you finish handling chiles. And maybe this should go without saying, do not touch your face while handling the chiles. I managed it this time, but have had minor issues with this in the past. Enjoy your chiles safely;-).
Next you heat a bit of oil in a large sauce pan. Since I do not have a dishwasher, I used the soup pan. I added bell peppers, onions, and garlic and saute'ed for a few moments until the onions are golden brown and tender. Next, I added homemade chicken stock. (You can use water or vegetable stock instead). I like chicken flavor in my soups/stews when there is no other meat present.
With the water/stock, add the cubed potatoes, salt and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Once it boils, reduce heat to a simmer and cook about 45 minutes until the potato is tender. Once the potato is tender-tested by inserting a fork, I added the roasted, chopped chiles that had been set aside earlier. Then I cooked for another 20 minutes.
When the stew is ready to serve, add the cilantro, ladle the stew into bowls and serve right away with sour cream or creme fraiche. You can also serve it with tortilla chips. I used the sourcream and find it delicious.
I will definitely make this recipe again. And I apologize for the delay in posting it, which leaves out some of the fun details. However, I was not called away to a band concert or off to Ludington in the meantime. The trip to Ludington is coming soon, and involves ramp-hunting on a trail that gives your car an "undercarriage cleaning" as Jeri euphemistically suggested. I'm grateful she has a sense of humor. But that's another blog to come.
Holy Hatch, Batman! Note to self: taste the pepper before you use it. Taste, taste, taste. I found hatch peppers at the local supermarket and bought the bag. Then I checked the rest of the contents, bought the ingredients, and proceeded to make the stew again. I've made this recipe at least once more, but with the hatch peppers, it gives it a heat. Not the searing, attempting to burn my tonsils off heat, that Dear James manages to accomplish, mind you. It's more like the you'll be glad for the sour cream garnish, have a piece of bread with this soup, you can get through it. If you don't like that much heat, stick with milder peppers...Otherwise, stock up on tortilla chips or bread.
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