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While Thierry Rautureau is scared of chili peppers and doesn't understand why anyone would enjoy their mouth on fire, Tom Douglas says he loves this time of year for peppers. (AP Photo/file)

Ingredient of the week: Hatch chilis

BY Stephanie Klein  on September 14, 2012 @ 2:42 pm (Updated: 7:09 am - 10/10/12 )

Love 'em or hate 'em, it's pepper season.

While Thierry Rautureau is scared of chili peppers and doesn't understand why anyone would enjoy their mouth on fire, Tom Douglas says he loves this time of year for peppers.

Tom likes to get a cart load of hatch chilis, the 'ingredient of the week' and make a good peppernada.

"They just add some 'get up and go,'" he says.

To start, Tom says you open up the chilis, take out the seeds, and then get cooking. If you're Thierry, you also remove the skin or roast them.

"You can't make me eat a green pepper with skin on it," says the French chef, who believes the closer you get to the Equator, the hotter food you probably enjoy. Since France isn't so hot, neither is the food.

Tom leaves the skins on and says it's probably why his pepper dishes are a little waxy.

For a peperonata, Tom uses a 10 gallon pot and throws in:
3/4 cut up peppers
1/4 Chanterelle mushrooms
anchovies (canned are fine or tubes of paste)
tomato paste
garlic
olives
capers

Cook it down so it dries out a little bit and you get a chunky salsa of peperonata. Tom puts it in little bags and uses it all winter long for appetizers when guests come over. Warm it up and throw some parsley on top.

Read more about New Mexico's Hatch Valley Chile Festival.

Find more Seattle Kitchen here and listen to a special edition of Thierry Rautureau and Tom Douglas at 8 p.m. on Saturday on 97.3 KIRO FM.

Stephanie Klein, MyNorthwest.com Editor
Stephanie joined the MyNorthwest.com team in February 2008. She has built the site into a two-time National Edward R. Murrow Award winner (Best Radio Website 2010, 2012).
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  • seatacmom wrote...
    Yum!!
    September 15, 2012 8:47 pm
    So glad these chili's make it north more often now.... My family is all from New Mexico and we eat these chili's all the time when I go visit. So yummy!! Especially good with breakfast...
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  • C"mon Man wrote...
    Dona Ana County,NM
    September 15, 2012 9:58 pm
    Is not only home to Sir Richard Branson's spaceport, but also amazing Green and red chile's. Every fall ,Green chile's are put into a open air drum, and rotated over a propane flame to sere the skin, then peeled to be frozen for to be enjoyed all year. once you have had a green chile cheeseburger, you cant go back.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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