Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Ancho and Poblano Chiles
    Ancho and Poblano Chiles
    Ancho and Poblano Chiles
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    Ancho and Poblano Chiles

    By Dave Dewitt

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Of all the civilizations the Spanish explorers found in the New World, the one that loved the native chile peppers the most was the Aztecs. Theirs was a culture in which the hot and tasty treats were revered almost as much as sex.

    Over the centuries, Aztec cookery grew and spread to become the basis for the Mexican food of today, and many Aztec dishes have lasted through the years basically unchanged. Usually, these foods were roasted, boiled, or cooked in sauces, in a legacy that Dave DeWitt, the noted Pope of Peppers, has compiled into this wonderful addition to his scintillating Pepper Pantry series.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTerra Nova Books
    Release dateDec 15, 2018
    ISBN9781948749374
    Ancho and Poblano Chiles
    Author

    Dave Dewitt

    Dave DeWitt is a food historian and one of the foremost authorities in the world on chile peppers, spices, and spicy foods. He has published fifty-six books, including Chile Peppers: A Global History (UNM Press). He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

    Read more from Dave Dewitt

    Related to Ancho and Poblano Chiles

    Related ebooks

    Cooking, Food & Wine For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Tastes Of FLORENCE

      Mar 12, 2020

      Of course, Italian cuisine is well known for its diversity, but what is perhaps less known is that the region of Tuscany is the same. Within each of its provinces, there are marked differences of style, method and flavour. And nowhere are these diffe

      5 min read

    • Article

      Ras Plant Based

      Dec 25, 2020

      Ethiopians have a talent for transforming vegetables, and Ras proves it. The team creates dishes that are humble and comforting, yet robust and complex—simmering, stewing, and spiking with aromatic herbs and spices like cardamom, fenugreek, cinnamon,

      1 min read

    • Article

      Cabbage patch

      Sep 16, 2023

      Cabbage patch
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Story Behind Why Magnus Nilsson Is Closing Fäviken

      May 13, 2019

      JARPEN, Sweden - Magnus Nilsson is sitting in the April sun looking out at the garden at Faviken, his 24-seat restaurant in Jamtland, in central Sweden. The snow is melting fast and the garden, one of two that supplies about half of the restaurant's

      5 min read

    • Article

      Ethiopian Style

      Jan 15, 2020

      Ethiopian Style
      8 min read

    • Article

      Sweet, Sunny Winter Citrus

      Nov 24, 2020

      Sweet, Sunny Winter Citrus
      6 min read

    • Article

      Cook Like A Local Romania

      Oct 27, 2022

      Cook Like A Local Romania
      5 min read

    • Article

      David Lebovitz

      Jan 15, 2019

      David Lebovitz
      2 min read

    • Article

      All Hail The Queen Of Cake

      May 13, 2019

      Maida Heatter’s cookbook is a keeper thanks to the decadent recipes, including zingy gingerful biscotti and ethereal orange puff cake.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Happy Halloween

      Sep 23, 2021

      Happy Halloween
      8 min read

    • Article

      Gratin Dauphinois

      Sep 26, 2021

      Gratin Dauphinois
      1 min read

    • Article

      Palestinian Cookbooks Help Preserve A Culture's Identity

      Jul 13, 2020

      The deep red of ground sumac brings to mind the ripest strawberry, though the spice's flavor veers lemony and tart - like a floral vinegar distilled into powder. Its brightness defines sumaqqiyeh, a Palestinian stew with origins in Gaza City, where i

      19 min read

    • Article

      Lockdown Snacks To Try

      Sep 26, 2021

      Lockdown Snacks To Try
      1 min read

    • Article

      New Native Kitchen

      Oct 19, 2021

      New Native Kitchen
      6 min read

    • Article

      How To Be A Better Cook

      Jun 25, 2021

      How To Be A Better Cook
      4 min read

    • Article

      THE Broth SISTERS

      Jul 12, 2017

      THE Broth SISTERS
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Scrambled Dog

      May 24, 2022

      The Scrambled Dog
      2 min read

    • Article

      Eastern Promise

      Jun 5, 2020

      Eastern Promise
      7 min read

    • Article

      FIVE WAYS WITH Pineapple

      Sep 2, 2021

      FIVE WAYS WITH Pineapple
      1 min read

    • Article

      Quick Tips

      Jun 9, 2020

      Quick Tips
      3 min read

    • Article

      Meatballs the Spanish Way

      Jan 11, 2019

      Meatballs the Spanish Way
      5 min read

    • Article

      Melting Pots

      Aug 27, 2021

      Melting Pots
      7 min read

    • Article

      Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

      Sep 28, 2018

      ¾ pound strawberries½ pound rhubarb1 tablespoon vanilla paste1 teaspoon sea salt1 ½ cup cane sugar½ cup cornstarch2 pie crusts (homemade or store-bought) 1 egg3 tablespoons water Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Rinse the strawberries and rhubarb, and

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Ancho and Poblano Chiles

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Ancho and Poblano Chiles - Dave Dewitt

      Author

      INTRODUCTION

      The Legacy of the Aztecs

      In 1529, Bernardino de Sahagún, a Spanish Franciscan friar living in Nueva España (Mexico) noted that the Aztecs ate hot red or yellow chile peppers in their hot chocolate—and in nearly every other dish they prepared as well! Fascinated by the Aztecs’ constant use of a previously unknown spice, Sahagún documented this fiery cuisine in his classic study, Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva España, now known as the Florentine Codex. His work indicates that of all the pre-Columbian New World civilizations, it was the Aztecs who loved chile peppers the most.

      The marketplaces of ancient Mexico overflowed with chile peppers of all sizes and shapes, and Sahagún wrote that they included hot green chiles, smoked chiles, water chiles, tree chiles, beetle chiles, and sharp-pointed red chiles. In addition to some twenty varieties of chillis, as the pungent pods were called in the Nahuatl language, vendors sold strings of red chiles (modernristras), precooked chiles, and fish chiles, which were the earliest known forms of ceviche, a dish for which fish is preserved without cooking in a marinade of an acidic fruit juice and chile peppers. Based on the friar’s descriptions, there is no doubt that early forms of the ancho/poblano variety were in the Aztec markets.

      Father Sahagún, one of the first behavioral scientists, also noted that chiles were revered as much as sex by the ancient Aztecs. While fasting to appease their rather bloodthirsty gods, the priests required two abstentions by the faithful: sexual relations and chile peppers.

      Aztec cookery was the basis for the Mexican food of today, and, in fact, many Aztec dishes have lasted through the centuries virtually unchanged. Since oil and fat were not generally used in Aztec cooking, the foods were usually roasted, boiled, or cooked in sauces. The sauce legacy especially lives on today, as we will see.

      NOMENCLATURE

      The fresh green form is called chile poblano, or chile of the people, and poblano is descriptive of the Valley of Puebla, where large-scale production may have first begun. Literally, chile ancho means wide chile pepper, an allusion to the broad, flat, heart-shaped dried pod that results from sun-drying of the mature red poblano pod. In the United States, the variety is called ancho/poblano, but in Mexico, the variety is called ancho, and the poblano is its processed green form. In Baja California, both the green and dried pods are called ancho. Further adding to the confusion are the terms mulato (light brown) and negro (black), which refer to varieties of the Mexican ancho. In California, the confusion increases because poblanos are called pasillas by the produce industry.

      HORTICULTURAL HISTORY

      The earliest poblano forms were probably cultivated in pre-Columbian times, and the present varieties are at least a century old, attesting to their popularity in the cooking of Mexico. About thirty-seven thousand acres are under cultivation in Mexico, particularly in the dry valleys of central Mexico in the states of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, Durango, Zacatecas, and Aguascalientes. They are also grown to a lesser extent in the coastal regions of the states of Sinaloa, Coahuila, and Nayarit. Popular Mexican varieties of the ancho are Esmeralda, Verdeno, and Flor de Pabellon; the mulato variety is represented by V-2 and Roque.

      LEGEND AND LORE

      Chile, they say, is the king, the soul of the Mexicans,

      A nutrient, a medicine, a drug, a comfort.

      For many Mexicans, if it were not for the existence of chile,

      Their national identity would begin to disappear.

      —from El Chile y Otros Picantes, by Arturo Lomeli

      The Ancho chile figures prominently in the legend of the origin of the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1