Locals Consistently Vote Tomasita’s: Best Red & Green Chile
Locals have consistently voted Tomasita’s New Mexican Restaurant Best for Green and Red Chile!
Why do you ask?..
We Don’t Mess with the Chile
New Mexico is famous for its chile and so are Tomasita’s and the Atrisco. And that’s because we do it right. All our chile comes from family owned and operated businesses in and around the village of Hatch, the self-proclaimed ‘chile capital of the world.’ These families have been growing chile in southern New Mexico for generations and pride themselves on still doing things the traditional way.
The Franzoy family business, Vegetable Products, has been supplying us with green chile for over a decade. The chile is harvested, by hand, in the morning and roasted, cleaned and frozen that same afternoon. The speed and efficiency of the operation makes for the best, freshest tasting chile around.
Our red chile comes from Salem, an even smaller village just up the road from Hatch, where it’s grown by the Delgado family. After harvesting, the chile is left out in the fields to dry. The sun-dried, whole pods are what we then purchase and immediately freeze, to maintain their freshness and flavor.
Preparation is a bit more involved for red than it is for green. After removing the stems, the pods are seeded, rinsed and soaked, before being put through a grinder (for home use, a blender) to make red chile paste.
From that point on, both red and green are treated the same way. And since out goal is simply to bring out the distinctive flavor of New Mexico chile, we add nothing but an olive oil based roux and some garlic. (A gluten free version is also available on request.) That’s it!
So now you know what we mean, when we say, “We don’t mess with the chile!”
- One fresh, medium sized green chile has as much vitamin C as six oranges.
- Hot chile peppers burn calories by triggering a response in the body that speeds up the metabolism.
- Capsaicin, the heat generating substance in chile peppers, is used in ointments, patches and tinctures, to treat arthritic pain and aching muscles.
- Chiles are very mineral rich, containing high levels of potassium, manganese, iron and magnesium.
- Capsaicin has been shown to dramatically inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells.
- Chile peppers have powerful antioxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anti-carcinogenic properties.
And that’s just for starters… so fire up your taste buds and do your health a favor at the same time!