You Can Smell Hatch Chile Season Before You See It 🌶️

Hatch chiles roasting at the market.

There are certain ingredients that tell you exactly what time of year it is.

For me, Hatch chiles are one of them.

I didn't grow up with Hatch chiles. Growing up in California, they weren't part of my family's cooking. My relationship with them really developed over the years through Melissa's Produce, and now Hatch chile season is something I genuinely look forward to every year.

And if you've ever been around a Hatch chile roasting, you know why.

The chiles tumble over intense heat, the skins begin to blister and blacken, and that smell of roasting green chile starts filling the air.

That's when my chef brain starts going.

What are we going to cook?

There's also something special about knowing they won't be around forever. Hatch season has a relatively short window, and I think that's part of what makes cooking seasonally so much fun.

When something is really good right now, use it.

A fresh Hatch chile still has that green, almost grassy quality of a fresh pepper.

Roasting changes everything.

That intense heat blisters the skin and softens the flesh underneath. The natural sweetness starts to come forward. You get smoke from the roasting, a little bitterness from the char, that fresh green chile flavor underneath it all, and depending on the chile, some heat at the end.

The texture changes too.

It goes from firm and crisp to soft, juicy and almost silky.

And that's important because now the chile can become part of the dish instead of simply sitting on top of it.

Roasted and blistered - skins loosened, ready to peel.

When I build a dish around Hatch chile, I think about what will support its flavor.

• Sweet corn is one of my favorites. Its sweetness works beautifully against the roasted chile.
• Cheese gives you richness against the heat.
• Tomatillos bring acidity and that slightly tart flavor.
• Lime brightens everything.
• Avocado, olive oil, butter or pork fat can soften the heat and carry that roasted flavor.
• Cilantro and Mexican oregano are natural partners.

But here's the important part:

You don't need all of them.

Sometimes cooks get excited and just keep adding ingredients because everything sounds good.

Sometimes the best thing you can do as a cook is get out of the ingredient's way.

Baked Hatch chile rellenos - roasted Hatch chile, melting cheese, ranchero sauce.

So when I was writing this week's SEASON plan, I wanted to cook something where Hatch chile wasn't an addition.

It was the reason for the dish.

That's why we're making chile rellenos.

Traditionally, chile rellenos are stuffed, coated in an egg batter and fried. I love them that way.

But I also know what happens when somebody reads that recipe on a Tuesday night:

Egg batter? A pot of oil? Frying? Cleanup? Maybe another night.

So I asked a different question.

What can we take away without taking away what makes the dish good?

We're still roasting the Hatch chiles. We're still steaming and carefully peeling them. We're still keeping them whole. We're still stuffing them with good melting cheese. And we're serving them with a ranchero sauce made with ripe tomatoes, onion, garlic, jalapeño and a little cumin, finished with crema, cilantro and lime.

What we're taking away is the batter, the pot of oil, the frying and the cleanup.

We bake them until the chiles are hot and the cheese melts inside.

That's not about taking a shortcut. It's thoughtful simplification.

A shortcut asks: How can I make this faster?

I'd rather ask: What matters about this dish, and how do we make sure we don't lose it?

That's a big part of how I think about SEASON.

Start with what's good right now. Respect the ingredient and the food we're cooking. Teach some technique along the way. Then make it realistic enough that someone will actually cook it for dinner.

Japanese Beef Curry - ground beef, potato and carrot over steamed rice.

Don't overlook the Japanese curry.

This might not be the obvious pick this week, but I'm putting my money on it becoming one of those family favorites. It's comforting, deeply savory and approachable. We're making ours with ground beef and serving it with steamed rice.

Japanese curry can sound like something you order at a restaurant rather than something you make on a weeknight.

Then you make it once and realize: I can absolutely do this at home.

That's the kind of discovery I want SEASON to create.

Maybe three years from now, nobody remembers where the recipe originally came from. They just know: "We're making the curry tonight."

And it's become your family's dish.

Chicken Piccata - lemon-caper butter, Sun Gold tomato, leek.

There's another dish I don't want you to overlook: Chicken Piccata.

Lemon. Capers. Butter. Sun Gold tomatoes. Leeks.

Nothing particularly complicated.

But you're learning something important.

When you cook the chicken and build the sauce from what's already happening in that pan, you're learning a technique you can use again and again.

That's the bigger story of this week's menu.

Hatch chile rellenos. Chicken piccata. Japanese curry. Miso cod. Carbonara. And some really interesting Plant-Based dinners.

Those are very different culinary worlds.

But we're not asking you to become an expert in five cuisines.

Learn how to build flavor quickly. Learn a good pan sauce. Understand how a powerful ingredient like miso can do a lot of the work for you. Cook a protein properly. Keep the rest simple.

You can travel pretty far in your own kitchen.

Ten dinners this week - five Classic, five Plant-Based. Cook one, cook three, or cook them all.

Chicken Piccata Sun Gold Tomato · Caper · Leek	Carbonara Pancetta · Egg · Pecorino
Miso Cod Sweet Miso Glaze · Bok Choy · Rice	Japanese Beef Curry Ground Beef · Potato · Carrot
Baked Hatch Chile Rellenos Roasted Hatch Chile · Jack · Ranchero

Tacos Dorados de Papa Crispy Potato · Red Salsa · Iceberg	Vietnamese Noodle Salad Rice Vermicelli · Lime-Chili · Crispy Tofu
Herbed Lentil Bowl Lemon-Herb · Cucumber-Tomato · Tahini	Shishito & White Bean Romesco · Garlic · Grilled Bread
Sikil P’ak Pumpkin Seed · Cucumber · Jicama

I'm not asking you to meal prep the entire week. I'm asking you to get organized.

There's a difference.

First, look at the recipes. And don't feel like you have to cook all ten dinners. Maybe you're cooking one this week. Maybe three. Pick the ones that sound good to you.

Use the shopping list and get what you need.

Then spend 30-45 minutes doing the things that will actually make the next few nights easier:

• Wash the vegetables.
• Cut the carrots and potatoes for the Japanese curry.
• Clean the leeks for the piccata.
• Wash the bok choy.
• Make the ranchero sauce.
• Roast and peel your Hatch chiles.
• Make the miso marinade and get the cod marinating according to the recipe.
• If rice appears in a couple of your dinners, make a batch.
• Portion the proteins for the meals you're actually cooking.
• Then put Tuesday's ingredients together. Wednesday's together.

You don't need a restaurant full of deli containers. Use a basket. A sheet pan. One section of your refrigerator.

The point is simple:

When you open the refrigerator tomorrow night, dinner should already be looking back at you.

That's mise en place translated to the home kitchen.

But don't prep just to say you prepped:

• I wouldn't make the chicken piccata ahead. The freshly cooked chicken and pan sauce are the cooking.
• I wouldn't make carbonara ahead. Make it and eat it.
• I wouldn't cook the bok choy. Wash it and leave the texture for dinner.

Prep should make the food better and the cook easier.

Then clean the kitchen. And stop.

You didn't spend Monday night cooking four dinners. You just made Tuesday easier.

Professional cooks don't walk into the kitchen at service time and start figuring out dinner. The work started earlier.

And that's the piece of the professional kitchen I want to bring home.

Dinner doesn't have to be another thing hanging over your head.

I know how quickly the week can get away from you. Work gets busy. The kids have to be somewhere. Something unexpected comes up. And suddenly it's 5:30 and everybody's hungry.

So don't put pressure on yourself to cook every recipe this week. Pick two or three that sound good. Look ahead. Get what you need. Do one or two things before you need them. Then enjoy cooking.

Maybe you roast Hatch chiles for the first time. Maybe you make Japanese curry and your family asks you to make it again. Maybe it's chicken piccata on a night when you've only got 30 minutes.

And maybe one night doesn't go according to plan. That's okay too.

I don't want SEASON to give you more to do. I want it to make something you already have to do every day a little easier and hopefully a lot more enjoyable.

Good food doesn't have to be so complicated. You don't need to cook like a chef. You just need a little inspiration, a little preparation and something you're excited to put on the table.

Pick something that sounds delicious this week and start there.

- Michael

Chef Michael Rossi

This week's SEASON plan has 10 dinners - 5 Classic and 5 Plant-Based - with the recipes, shopping and prep already organized.

SEASON Weekly is free every Monday. If someone you know loves food and could use a little less pressure around dinner, send this their way.