I live in Austin and, yes this is the first year that I've seen Hatch chile's being sold at central market. They even had a roaster outside and were roasting them out in the front of the store.

I seriously considered buying some, but I bypassed because my wife really doesnt cook w/ them and i have to start digging up old chile recipes to use that much chile in them. I hate to just make salsa - I have to really dig up some good recipes that make good use of the chiles...

Doesn't that chile & the air smell good when those roasters are going?! WalMart had six roasters going at once on a weekend! We made our smaller roaster like those but instead of an electric turner ours is manual & the whole neighborhood can smell the chile roasting & the 'squeal' of the roaster as my husband turns it! Wouldn't you like to have patented that first chile roaster ... who ever designed & built the first one sure should have! Sure beats the 'old days' way of doing it on the wood burning stove, on a platillo on the gas range or on the BBQ outdoors.

We used to have to ship our relatives in Austin fresh green chile to them via UPS (UPS in the Fall sure smelled good then too!)so now y'all can get yours locally!! :)

My husband uses the roasted & peeled green (either the fresh or frozen)chile chopped up with garlic, onion, & pork or beef small pieces previously cooked & with a bit of flour to thicken while cooking... & uses it every night like a sauce/gravy over everything on his plate! I like to also add some chopped potatoes & tomatoes so it is more like a stew. Tell me it's not addicting!! :) With the red pods x the ristras we make in the Fall x the chile that has turned red we make the same kind of sauce but with the dried red chiles: soak dry red pods over night in water, rinse well & run through a blender. Then run the blended red chile through a sieve: press the blender ground chile through the sieve leaving the seeds & skins in the sieve. Proceed as for the green chile. We freeze the green roasted chile in zip loc baggies in quantities for a batch.

I'm curious, even after blending, the sieve is able to remove skins and seeds? so you roast them, and don't have to peel away the blackened blistered skin?

I love roasted chilis but have only done them my self as mentioned on the gas stove or bbq.

I've seen some pics of home made roasters and really like the idea. I don't have any where near enough this year to bother, but next year...

rj hythloday: The red chile (the ripe mature 'green' chile) is picked ripe & not roasted. When strung up in ristras to dry (the only way to preserve chile before freezers!) the dry pods can be picked off the ristra (or they are dry in bags in the market), washed & soaked overnight in water to soften the pods,drained, end stems removed & the chile placed in the blender with some water. Some folks say the blender 'chews' up the skin, seeds & all but I find we prefer to run this blended chile through a sieve over the sink into a bowl. Mash it with your hands til everything in the bowl except the bits of skin & seeds are left in the sieve! Then use in any red chile favorite recipe. I make ristras to hang for Fall 'show' ... but buy the bags of the dry red from the store for making red chile !

Yes,the (unripe) green chile is the form that is roasted, peeled & used. We roast & bag the chile with the skins left on & freeze it; seems easier for us to take off the skins when it is frozen first & then thawed as needed! Yes, the mechanical roaster inventer sure took a lot of the labor out of roasting chile as it was done in the 'old days'!

I got mine here in Florida at Fresh Market grocery,On sale now @$1.69.Roasted myself.I'm going back for more.