While opinions differ, my personal opinion is that Hatch refers to the cultivar, all of which are descendants of the New Mexico No. 9 developed by Dr Fabian Garcia. Garcia brought the chiles with him to California, which is why they are also sometimes known as Anaheims.
If you grow them from seed there are a number of varieties of this cultivar, including Big Jims, Sandia, Joe Parker, New Mexico Heritage and the original Hatch/Anaheim:
While there are some “terriorists” out there who insist that a genuine hatch has to come from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico, unless you go there to pick them yourself you can never be quite sure exactly where the chili came from, since a lot of chiles grown elsewhere are marketed as hatch.
If you want to get them really fresh you need to grow them yourself, and the only way I have found to do this reliably is to buy seeds and start them.
The best easiest most delicious thing ever…!! There’s a fuschia dunlop version but i prefer the one from Serious eats and i’m a wimp so i minimize the chili. Often i have used the smacked cucumbers ontop of yogurt for a savory yogurt bowl, or make it more of a meal adding in edamame or cubed smoked tofu and some arugala or whatever greens and crushed peanuts or sliced almonds. They lie about the serving size, for just myself i use one large english cuc or two regular cucs that i peel a bit and wack the seeds from
Tomato, cucumber, onion salad with bulgarian feta. Olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. I’ve been eating this every day for the last week. Not a great picture…but so tasty!
We spent a week with some French relatives of my wife’s family in Burgundy when tomatoes were still ripening. The cook/housekeeper had the simplest salad de tomate imaginable – just tomatoes cut into meaty chunks, salt, pepper, olive oil and a little vinegar, left at room temperature for a while and then brought to the table with a light garnish of fresh parsley. To do that here I have to either be in Tennessee at the peak of the season, or in SoCal hit up the farmer’s markets for good heirlooms … though Whole Foods and even Ralphs sometimes has decent ones. Mrs. O is more a vinegar than oil person so I have to compromise on that too. And it’s easy enough to lean towards caprese with basil and fresh mozzarella, or towards Valerie’s version with feta; I use the Israeli Pastures of Eden feta from Trader Joe’s.
You can try this: Cut then in half, sear in cast iron (You can sear them in rendered bacon fat, adding the bacon back later, if you want). add a splash or two of broth, cook until tender, add pomegranate syrup to taste. Or maple syrup and sherry vinegar.
