Roasted Chiles Hopi-Style
16 October 2007 by Jean Johnson
If you’re ever invited to eat in Hopiland and want to impress your hostess, take her some fresh chile. When I lived in the Hopi village of Sipaulovi it was all about cooking. And in the mornings plates of roasted chiles would appear centermost in the table for enjoying along side the eggs and tortillas. They came directly from the oven for eaters to do with as they wanted.
Mostly people simply picked them up and ate from the tip end, taking small bites through the meal, and usually stopping at the stem end where the seeds and pith create considerable heat–at least the ladies did.
No one bothered about wrapping the chiles in a towel to steam so that their skins could slip off easily the way my Mexican neighbor Juanita Baca did when I lived in Williams, Arizona. In fact instead of drying extra chiles on ristras the way the Hopi did when I lived with them, Juanita froze hers once she did the roasting, skinning, and removing of most of the seeds and pith.
Me, I’ll take a middle road and freeze with the skins on, putting just a few in each baggie the way Juanita did. It’s faster, and I don’t mind the skins. More, when I thaw them to fix with potatoes or cheese crisps or spaghetti squash, if the peelings seem to be too much, I can pull them off then.
Want to roast chiles?
Cooking Beyond Measure, p54
As Hopi cooks know, roasted green chile makes all the difference in a meal. It’s easy to roast meaty Anaheims in a medium oven, either simply angled across the oven racks or on baking sheet.
Once they puff and blister, turn them until the second side is similarly done.
The rest is a community project, so stack the chiles on platter and join the party at the table. Green chile this way is kwangwa, Hopi for delicious.
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