Bienvenidos!

Hey there, world traveller! You've found the only place on this website (so far) dedicated to that wholly remarkable and jealously-guarded miracle of agriculture known as New Mexican Chile! Wait wait wait ... I hear you saying you know all about chillies! You've read the wonderful entry on chilli peppers, eh? You think you know all about hot peppers, and you want something more! Something different. Well, step right up, pardner, yore goin' fer a ride!

History

Chile peppers have been cultivated and grown in the Rio Grande valley that runs through the state of New Mexico, USA, for over 400 years.¹   For many New Mexico residents, the NM chile pepper is considered as much a symbol of New Mexico as the well-known symbols of desert landscapes, mesas, canyons, the roadrunner, the lobo wolf, coyotes, and Santa Fe combined. The chile plant is as much a part of New Mexico as the grape is of central California, France, or Italy, or even as comparable to how the olive is a symbol of Greece and Italy. Although Native American culture throughout the land is much more ancient and includes foods that have used earlier versions of the New Mexico chile pepper, the variety known as "green chile" throughout the southwest was specifically cultivated in the late 19th century by two farmers, one who would take this variety of plant to Anaheim, California (and from whence one particular variety got its name), and the other remained in the Rio Grande region to continue developing the plant there. Eventually, he succeeded in growing a much larger (by comparison to most peppers) plant that produced a green pepper, with varying spice levels, that could be then roasted and eaten with just about anything. Indeed, out here we'll put green chile (or it's slightly older brother, red chile) on nearly everything we eat, at any time of the year!

Red or Green?

Every time New Mexico's state congress starts a new session, it seems that someone re-introduces a bill to make the question, "Red or Green?" the official "state question" of New Mexico. It might work better if other states had their state questions as well, but speculation along such lines just wouldn't be all that neighborly of us, so let's not and say we didn't. There are two types of chile (in the "food" sense of the word) here in New Mexico: red or green. Historically, the same exact pepper plant was used to grow both green and red chile, the only difference being when the pepper was picked (green is, as you might guess, picked sooner than red) and how much sun it's had. Today, most chile is specifically grown by a plant variety with either green or red in mind. This has to do with the style of how the heat of the chile presents itself and the obvious differences in how well they complement other foods. In very general terms, red chile tends to be more sweeter, a little more smoky, and not quite as subtle in flavor (that is, you won't have to wait for it all to work its way along your palate while enduring as much heat), and usually served in sauces or powders than in the fresh, chopped-up style. Green chile tends to have a very strong flavor that nevertheless takes its time to fully reveal itself, usually along with some serious heat. NM chile of either "color" can easily mask its heat until the unsuspecting tourist has already eaten a significant amount (a serious problem for some, a surprise for others, and an "I told you so" comment session for those-in-the-know). Usually, the red is easier to spot the heat, and also is like the more commonly-found cayenne pepper powder-flavored sauces people outside of New Mexico are familiar with (various hot sauces, picante sauces, salsas, etc). Red chile seems to complement red meat and pork better than green, and green chile seems to complement chicken and vegetables better than red - but if you want a lively debate, pardner, all ya gotta do is start talkin' like that around a New Mexican restaurant around chile season (which is later Summer through the Autumn and into the Winter), and you'll get a what-fer you'll never ferget! This author prefers green chile on everything - even with pasta! If you've never had a green chile pepperoni pizza, you've never lived.

A Note

JD's Note: I'm still working on this entry, but I'm slow ... be patient! I'll return to it soon!