Recipe: Roasted  Ripe Chile Salsa 

Using Overly Ripened Chilies for Intense Chile Salsa

So perhaps you over bought a box of Hatch chilies and forgot to roast them.  By now, they are bright red and starting to shrivel and dehydrate. Do not throw them away! Make them into salsa! Fully ripe and slightly dehydrated chile peppers may no longer be juicy, although their flavor is more concentrated. I made an awesome salsa recipe using these overly ripened peppers. You can use any of the meaty chile peppers , like Anaheim , but I think it tastes best with my left over hatch chilies.  This is a fairly easy chile salsa recipe, that can turn your breaking bad chilies into WIN!  I even left my fresh chilies out for a couple weeks to recreate this same flavor. 

Ingredients

• 15 ripe (red) and slightly dehydrated Melissa’s Produce Hatch chilies (or Anaheim chilies).
• 2 Medium size tomatoes
• 1 Bunch of cilantro – stems trimmed
• ½ Clove garlic
• 3/4 Cup sweet onion, diced
• Juice of two limes
• 1 Teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon sugar
• ¼ Teaspoon ground black pepper

Procedure

1)      Roast peppers on an outdoor gas grill or in a broiler, until the exterior chars overs.  Note: Since these chilies are slightly dehydrated, they will not be as juicy, so be careful not to over-cook.

2)      Place the charred chilies in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. This process will loosen the skin from the meat.  After 1 hour, using gloves, peel off charred skin and the majority of the seeds.

3)      While chile peppers are roasting, broil the tomatoes and garlic on high heat in a toaster oven. Be sure to use an aluminum foil wrapped pan. Cook until they become soft and the exterior is charred. Garlic should be a light golden brown.  Remove tomato and garlic from heat.  Set aside roasted  garlic. 4)  Flip the tomatoes over, and sprinkle with the salt and sugar. Next, roast the tomatoes again so that the other side is also charred. The tomato will become very juicy and shriveled.

5)      Place peppers, tomatoes, garlic, onion, cilantro and pepper into a food processor. Use the chop setting until you get your desired consistency. I like mine thick.

6)      Add fresh squeezed lime juice to the salsa to taste.  I personally prefer a slight acidity to the flavor profile, so I use the juice of two whole limes. Give the food processor a quick pulse to mix it in. 7)      Add black pepper to taste

 

Safety First!

Safety note about working with hot chile peppers: Do yourself a favor and use gloves when handling roasted chile peppers. From personal experience, I peeled and seeded these roasted peppers with my bare hands. I did not feel the pain at first, but an hour latter my hands were searing with a hot burning feeling. Once the capsicum goes sub-dermal, there is nothing you  can do but to ride it out. Forget about the milk, yogurt or potato remedies, they don’t work after the capsicum gets ‘Under your skin.” If you forget to wear gloves, be sure to wash your hands with soap and hot water for five minutes. Whatever you do, DO NOT scratch your eye or go to the restroom without washing your hands thoroughly. The consequences are unfortunate, indeed.