The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

(Nandana) #1

your door, no matter where you live. The internet is rife with
Hatch chile distributors, promising to ship you authentic
canned or frozen peppers straight from the source. The
problem with these is not really a texture or flavor problem
—it’s that canned or previously frozen chiles are downright
impossible to char properly before stewing them. They’re
simply too wet. And preroasted canned or frozen chiles
don’t have the deep flavor of home-roasted chilies, which
left me with one option: find some suitable substitutes.


Poblano peppers were an obvious place to start. They’re
readily available, and they have a deep, earthy flavor. To
add a bit of brightness and some of those characteristic bitter
notes to the mix, I also added a few cubanelle peppers. A
couple of jalapeños, with their heat and grassiness, rounded
things out. If you want to go for full-on smoke, you can

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