Green Chile Cheeseburgers

[Adrian W]

Quest for world's best Green Chile Cheeseburgers In Las Cruces, New Mexico USA by the staff of The Las Cruces Bulletin.

http://www.lascrucesbulletin.com/ee/lascru...rt&index=01

It would be hard to make a bad Green Chile Cheeseburger. I need to try some of these it seems. Ha!

[CD Smith]

You need to try the Green Chili burgers at the Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio, NM.

[ronsmith100]

You need to try the Green Chili burgers at the Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio, NM.

I feel deprived. I have never had one.
What kind of chili is it?
Cooked limp or raw?

Sounds promising

[Vic&Kathy]

You need to try the Green Chili burgers at the Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio, NM.

If it ain't from New Mexico, it ain't green chili!

[Adrian W]

Please, it is chile (not chili -that's the stuff in Wolf cans, Ha!).

The best is roasted, then the skin is peeled off, not raw. Not really sure of away without roasting.

There is a lot of roasting chiles now in NM. Really smells good. It.s chile season in New Mexico, but not every pepper is created equal. Researchers at New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute and Las Cruces-based Biad Chili Products LLC have partnered to produce Biad's Reserve NuMex Heritage 6-4, a super-flavored chile bred to have five times the flavor compounds and aroma of similar chiles grown today.
http://newscenter.nmsu.edu/?page=article&a...how&id=4678
http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/

Hatch Chile Festival is this week-end. http://www.hatchchilefest.com/

The Bulletin was just doing Dona Ana Country, mainly Las Cruces, but one of the most talked about green chile (with an e, not chili) cheese burgers for years, is a "fried" on a grittle in San Antonio, NM at the Owl Bar. http://www.roadfood.com/Restaurant/Reviews/3612/owl-bar

http://abqstyle.com/albuquerque_restaurants/000026.html

This isn't health food, must be good tasting. But a little greasy for me.

The Buckhorn Tavern is also in San Antonio. This is the first I have heard of it. Not sure how it is cooked, my wife had one from the Owl many years ago. I have not had one. Her reviews on the cooking.
http://food.darkalliance.org/cgi-bin/details.cgi?rid=57

http://nmgastronome.com/blog/?p=164

Still not health food, ditto on the greasy for me from looks of the photos.

[CD Smith]

If it ain't from New Mexico, it ain't green chili!

Well the last time I checked San Antonio, New Mexico is still in New Mexico.

[ronsmith100]

Please, it is chile (not chili -that's the stuff in Wolf cans, Ha!).

The best is roasted, then the skin is peel off, not raw. Not really sure of away without roasting.

There is a lot of roasting chiles now in NM. Really smells good. It’s chile season in New Mexico, but not every pepper is created equal. Researchers at New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute and Las Cruces-based Biad Chili Products LLC have partnered to produce Biad’s Reserve NuMex Heritage 6-4, a super-flavored chile bred to have five times the flavor compounds and aroma of similar chiles grown today.
http://newscenter.nmsu.edu/?page=article&a...how&id=4678
http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/

Hatch Chile Festival is this week-end. http://www.hatchchilefest.com/

LOL!
chilli pepper, chilli, chillie, chili, and chile

You know I was raised in East Los Angeles by a Mexican nana who would be lucky to spell chili in Spanish let alone English.
In fact I doubt she could spell in any language.

But

It is spelled various ways in major cookbooks just so ya know.

Nevertheless we all grew chili peppers in the back yard.
The LA basin seemed to be a good place to garden them and, just like back yard tomatoes compared to any farm tomatoes, they were most excellent when home grown.
Rosa always roasted them on the gas burner on the stove and we ate them at almost every meal.
She could keep turning them as she made the rest of the meal and never burned them.
Almost unconscious in dexterity..

You can roast chili(e) peppers or cook them into submission too, depending on which one you are talking about. Cayenne? Anaheim? Jalapeno? Bell?

I guess I am saying that I am not even remotely a stranger to this fruit or any other Sonoran food specialty but I still have never had a green chili(e) cheeseburger. I am ignorant!

I want one and will wait until I get back to New Mexico where (obviously) green chili(e) cheeseburgers are the best.

See you there!

Ron

[CD Smith]

Chili, chile, chilli, etc.

You can read about it here.

[Vic&Kathy]

Well the last time I checked San Antonio, New Mexico is still in New Mexico.

Sorry, jumped the gun there. Saw San Anton and my mind jumped right to Texas.

I'm looking forward to getting a care package from mi tia en Albuquerque. Tis the season!

[Adrian W]

Sorry, jumped the gun there. Saw San Anton and my mind jumped right to Texas.

The State of Texas did the same (jumped the gun) way back in yester-year with Conrad Hilton (native son of San Antonio, NM) when they gave him an award meant for a native son of TX. They gave it to him anyway even after he explained he was from New Mexico. Not to the "If it ain't from New Mexico, it ain't green chili!" They grow them in Texas and perhaps in other states such as Arizona, I know they are growing them in Mexico. They get Hatch seeds, therefore they are Hatch Chile.

As for the spelling of chile, I found out after I move here from Texas, my native country, the chile spelling. English (also Texas) spelling is chili, Spanish spelling is chile. New Mexico has chosen the Chile spelling for the New Mexico Chiles (Hatch Chile), but I noticed on the NMSU site, the Biad company uses the Chili spelling. NMSU the Chile spelling. Ron, yes, "It is spelled various ways in major cookbooks just so ya know." I know it is. Never said it was a wrong spelling. Just "Please, it is chile (not chili -that's the stuff in Wolf cans, Ha!)." If you went to a chili cook off, you would not spell it as chile cook off. In a chili cook off, I believe one will be working with dried & powered chile or if you perfer chili. I have no real idea why they wanted to call them chile. I expect to just be different from Texas chili. Ha! To be more correct with the Spanish, I have heard.

When I was trying to get a children's book published, the NY publishers wanted & got the spelling to be changed in my book from chile to chili.

It does not bother me which way it is spelled, I have to look it up normally. But my adopted state likes to spell it chile. "Walking by the Rio" by Adrian W -2000 it is spelled chili; in the spanish version "Caminando a orillas del rio" por Adrian W
the spelling is chile.

That's my story and I am sticking to it.

I had one Biad as a student, very good artist, good basketball player, an extreamly nice young lady. A very big name in chile in Southern NM. I did not know that at the time.

Ron I would think when you were growing up in the LA Basin, the New Mexican and/or Hatch variety of chile had not been totally developed. I am not sure but it seems they were pretty new when we moved here in '71. Not sure when the seeds would have gotten to gardens in LA, maybe now days. Can't say. They were not popular outside of NM until recently. Here is some info I found on them:
An Anaheim pepper is a mild variety of chile pepper. The name "Anaheim" derives from a farmer named Emilio Ortega who brought the seeds to the Anaheim area in the early 1900s. They are also called California chile or Magdalena, and dried as chile seco del norte.
The chile "heat" of Anaheims typically ranges from 500 to 2,500 on the Scoville scale, however,　many varieties grown inside of New Mexico can reach 4,500 to 5,000 Scoville units.
New Mexican cultivars were developed in the state by Dr. Fabian Garcia about 100 years ago. These cultivars are "hotter" than others in order to suit the tastes of New Mexicans in their traditional foods.

But the '70s date I mentioned is with the NuMex Big Jim
Released by Dr. Nakayama in 1975, this cultivar is
listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s
largest pepper (Nakayama, 1975). It produces long,
thick, smooth, fleshy fruits. Mature green fruits are
moderately flattened. The round-shouldered fruit taper
to a hook at the apex. Mature green fruit average 7.68
inches in length and 1.89 inches in width. It has a
slightly higher pungency that ‘New Mexico 6-4’, but
not as much as ‘Rio Grande 21’ and ‘Sandia’. Pungency
varied from plant to plant, with some plants producing
mild pods and others producing hot pods. In addition to
use as green chile, the fruit was adapted for dry red chile
products. It is higher in extractable red color than ‘New
Mexico 6-4’. Mature green fruit color ranges from light
to medium green.

Ron, We are in the Chihuahuan Desert and perhaps NM food is influence by the Chihuahuan rather than the Sonoran food specialties. Or NM cooking is just NM made. Any-Hoot, the green chile cheeseburgers which I was refering are mainly (as a base) a hamburger with cheese then green chile is added as a condiment (if I am using the term correctly) or added ingredient after cooking normally. The chile could be a whole roasted chile pod cut in half or it could be chopped or diced up pod of chile which had been roasted first. As you mentioned, it could have been roasted over a gas burner on the stove top, however. I have not seen Hatch chiles being used raw like a bell pepper. Maybe some do. ? I have eaten them in the field raw, a bite or two, not bad. You can get diced roasted green chiles in a can in most super markets, maybe in Alaska as well? And I believe you can get whole ones in a can as well. They come frozen in bags & cartons as well. Albuquerque Brand makes some very good frozen chiles, packaged in Hatch I believe.

I like them hot, but they come in different degrees of heat.

Just added some green chile to the top of a Whopper with your own cheese, it will be pretty close. Some of them in the article are really over the top. They are ment to blow your shocks off, not something one would want to enjoy all the time. IMHO. Taste wise yes, heart wise, no. Or better still grill up your own burger, added the chile....leave off the cheese, it is still the best burger you can get.

But what do I know, I chose to live in a dry hot desert and I even like it. Ha!

[ronsmith100]

It does not bother me which way it is spelled

LOL!

This was interesting enough for me to Google too, Adrian.
Same chili(e) in New Mexico as in Anaheim!
Imagine that!
Exactly the same seed and the same inventor.
Different farmers ranchers.
Perhaps different cultivars since, and maybe that is what has changed to make Hatch chilis different? but its the same original pepper.
Came to Ventura/Anaheim with Ortega over 100 years ago.
Milder climate = milder (sweeter) taste, that's all.
Like I said every household in East LA grew their own green chili.
Jalapenos too.
Made our own chipolte.

So here's what I'll give you:
I didnt grow up with the peppers they now have in new mexico.
So I guess I have to take it back and say I am more than remotely unfamiliar with this New Mexico fruit.
We just had to make do with the authentic green chili.
Now if I could only get someone to roast and peel a "fresh" Anaheim for me so I can put it on a cheesburger!

PS "Sonoran" is a cooking/eating style. I have never heard of Chihuahua cuisine.

[Vic&Kathy]

LOL! I have never heard of Chihuahua cuisine.

[Adrian W]

Ron wrote: PS "Sonoran" is a cooking/eating style. I have never heard of Chihuahua cuisine.

Every state in Mexico seems to have their own cuisine.
Chihuahua Cuisine
http://www.mexicanmercados.com/food/states/chihuahu.htm

http://www.bestday.com/Chihuahua/Restaurants/

Not sure how much it has influenced NM cooking?

I had never heard of Sonoran Style cooking. But would have thought it came from Sonora, cooking style from Sonora. As for Sonoran-Style (Stacked) Enchiladas, I have heard them called New Mexico style, here and in Tucson & Lancaster, CA.
http://www.ehow.com/how_9212_make-marinara-sauce.html

Some food writer in AZ wrote:.....until you have eaten the southwest Arizona Sonoran style Mexican food... you won't know why we think it's the best tasting Mexican style food... ever!

Mexican style foods are varied across the country... New Mexico style Mexican food is very different than Sonoran style.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art57102.asp

http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2008/1...-rc-sonora.html

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/94148

Not sure, but it seems to me some of these "styles" cross regions or are very simular; it might come more from Food Writers wanting something to write about. I'll just call it Mexican & New Mexican. Too much for me.

Tampico cuisine http://www.bookofrai.com/my_weblog/2006/12...ood_of_tam.html

Jalapenos seem to be about the same from place to place, but they do vary in heat. But this seems wrong, valid only to the ones I have seen, only.
Chipotle is a fully ripened and smoked jalapeno pepper. One site said, but then another seems to say different. But no it also says: When the jalapeños are deep red and have lost much of their moisture, they are selected to be made into chipotles. But then again it sounds like a different chili. I assume they are both. Two kinds of jalapeno. But they all must have came from one or two wild pepper plants. IMHO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipotle

For something which seemed so simple, isn't.

[ronsmith100]

I wondered how many links you would find! LOL

Adrian these food writers are not food historians.
I am pretty well versed in the history and anthropology of Mexican food and in particular the food that crossed the border from or near the Baja gulf into Southern California and Arizona.
My education came from personal experience, interviews, and books... not from Google links.

Sonoran food is NOT staked enchiladas no matter who says that in a web link! LOL

Today Sonoran food would be considered "comfort food" with hearty portions of provincial tastes but NOT combination plates and not anything smothered in cheese. If you order tacos they bring you hand made corn tortillas, hot salsa, and a bowl of some type of prepared meat or seafood suitable for picking up in your fingers and depositing into a double (two corn tortillas at once). But you can use a fork or spoon if you want... and tacos are never pre-filled unless it is from a street vendor. You make your own.
Sonora has the most history with masa flour needed to make tamales.
Different parts of Sonora use pot beans and other parts use refried beans made with lard.
I prefer what I grew up with: pot beans with chilies and onions.
They always have great enchiladas. Not too much cheese and never with any meat at all.
Their chili rellenos are quite literally the best there are to my taste.
Soups such as pouszol, menudo, caldo are very very common.. comfort food again.
You will never see a Sonoran restaurant serving albondigas.
Sonoran food is always chili pepper hot.. always with chopped Jalapeño and none other except for color variations of J.
A Sonoran restaurant would not have anything using a flour tortilla on their menu (never say never but if they were catering to local Mexicans this would stand up for sure). The best Sonoran restaurants are small establishments near the border.. San Deigo in particular.

The Sonora -- and for that matter the Chihuahua -- region was one of the last to get European influences such as goat, cheese, beef, pork, and flour and other than Sante Fe there was no a strong presence of Fathers to make the culinary changes. The cuisine was developed on the indian staples of beans corn, squash, onions, garlic, peppers, roots, etc, and rabbit or venison or snake or whatever else they could hunt and catch.
That is what makes authentic Sonoran food so much different. It lasted the longest without as much European influence and it still has not submitted to Anglo dishes like chimcahnga and tostados and toquitos and burritos... or whatever.. It is the closest to the authentic Indio cooking that you can get today even if it has evolved some since.

But

As a menu item, Seafood is what makes Sonoran food stand out from all of the other Mexican cooking the most. Albacore, shrimp, sea slugs, sea weed, all of it. A good Sonoran restaurant will devote one third of its menu to "La Mer".
Seafood soup will always be a good choice as long as you are open to any of the fruits of Cortez.


No links. I don't need them. If you want to Google anything I've said feel free. But if they disagree with what I have written here they are wrong. This is not as strong headed and egotistical as it sounds. I just have a passion for real Sonora Mexican food and have researched it pretty much.

Suggested reading.

A History of Food by Maguelonne

Que vivan los tamales! by Pilcher and Johnson..this book has a great biblio

The Border Cook Book by ???? I cant read it from here.

Adios!

No links! LOL

But i have still to experience a green chili cheeseburger!!

[Adrian W]

Ron, I have enjoyed learning a little about Sonoran food. I am releaved to hear Sonoran is NOT staked enchiladas no matter who says that in a web link! I have been told New Mexican style enchiladas are done flat, not rolled. I assumed staked enchiladas were flat.

Not sure how we got onto Mexican cooking, when we started about American Cheeseburgers made with green chile on them. Not a Mexican food, the cheeseburger.

I am NO expert on chili peppers, nor chile. Just been around ag teachers a lot and farmers and a brother of a seed exporter to Mexico and my son's in-laws from the Hatch area. I just tried to recount what I head them talk about.

Come to think of it, I woud say I am no expert on anything. At least if I were ever one, I have forgotten I had been. I have done a variety of things in my life, besides teaching, traveled the US & Canada some (mainly in the West) and listened to peolpe who have educated me on different and varied topics in their convesations. Sadly, I could not be called an expert. Not even as an art teacher, I just did it my way, which might not work for someone else. That is why I like to use links to let others see if what I have said is correct or not. Not that others should do so. To each his own.

I totally agree not all one finds posted on the web, on TV, in newspapers or in books is always correct. Experts can make mistakes, just like the rest of us. Not saying you have, just something I seem to have heard happen with expert witnesses in trials somethimes.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=363671

Ron have you ever read the blog The Adventures of Tioga and George? George mentions he grew up in East LA as well. But I do not believe he had a Mexican nana. (My daughter-in-law, did. A step-nana, she was from the state of Chihuahua. She enjoyed her cooking as you did yours. But not raised by her.) Not sure what time frame it was when George grew up in East LA. He is in his early to mid-70s I believe. I can not find where he wrote about his early life in Los Angles, as I remember it, he said it was East Los Angles. http://blog.vagabonders-supreme.net/

If you like heat in your chili, and get a chance to be back in NM, try a Sandia Green Chile. Good but they are hot. A tasty hot. If possilbe get it on a burger, with or without cheese.

Are you still traveling in Alaska? My son is over by Valdez this week end. First time by there. They like the beauty there. Stuff is turning colors now. He is trying his hand at fishing. But did not have any luck yesterday. Fishing from shore. Enjoying the weather while they can still do so. They just moved up there from ND. Close to Fairbanks.

Shoot, if I never make a mistake, I would not have mentioned the New Mexico way of spelling chili. For sure! Or asked about Sonorian Style.

Adios!

[Frederick L. Simson]

My gringo scalp is sweating just from reading this!