Heat Transfusion

A few weeks ago, our good friend Andy Johnson emailed to ask whether we’d like to get a bunch of fresh New Mexico chiles. It sounded great, so last week when we met at the American Ornithologists’ Union meeting in Estes Park, Colorado, we transferred 40 lbs. in a large gunny sack from the trunk of Andy’s car onto my shoulder, and I marched off happily in the dark to put them in my room. All during the meeting my room smelled fantastic. I rotated them every day to keep them as fresh as I could, then packed them into a recycled box I found behind the dining hall and checked them as baggage for my return flight from Denver.

Back home, I carefully followed Andy’s emailed instructions: “You’d have to roast them yourself. Not too difficult just takes a bit of propane and a lot of beer and some time.” They had ripened from green to mostly red by the time I got home, but that doesn’t seem to affect the flavor at all. Once the skins were blistered and blackened, I put them into plastic bags to sweat for 20 minutes.