Chile-Tails: Spice Up Your Sippers

If you’re like me, chile season ignites a kind of hoarding mania. I still have a few freezer bags from last year’s harvest, but the thought of running out before ­autumn 2016 fills me with anxious dread. It’s as though I’d never before been reduced to buying the canned stuff from the grocery store and survived to tell about it. Maybe it’s the slight evening chill, coupled with the smell of roasting chile wafting dreamily across Santa Fe, that rattles my brain with the promise of cozy nights in front of a crackling fire and delving into a comforting bowl of green chile stew. Maybe it’s the omelets, sandwiches, sauces, pastas and, well, anything edible that will be begging for a bit of New Mexico homegrown love. Or maybe it’s the cocktails that can be enhanced with a dash of red or green. Cocktails? Yes, my friends, and here are a few ways to use our acclaimed peppers in your drinks:

Infused: Infusions are a quick and easy way to get more flavor directly into your booze. Think about infusing "like with like" characteristics. For example, the bright, vegetal qualities of raw green peppers go very well with (unaged) spirits such as tequila blanco, cachaça (Brazilian rum made from sugar cane) and some gins. Red chile pods, or powder, have an earthy, savory quality that I particularly like with whiskey or aged versions of spirits. When infusing, leave the chile in until the desired flavor and heat take effect. Don't simply plop it in and leave it indefinitely, as the pepper will continue flavoring the spirit as long as it's in there, and eventually, the last sips are overkill.

Muddled: Muddling means pressing the seeded, raw or peeled roasted chile peppers into the bottom of a mixing glass to extract flavor and vegetal oils. Muddle, then add liquid ingredients and ice, shake and strain. If there are lots of bits floating around, double strain by using a Hawthorne strainer and a small sieve over the cocktail glass.

Puréed: Mix some chile with a little sugar and citrus (fresh lemon or lime juice) into a blender until it is liquefied enough to shake with other ingredients. You can cook the mixture on the stovetop before blending, if you prefer a mellower flavor.

Syrup: Cook 2 cups sugar to 1 ½ cups water with ⅓ cup chile (red or green, raw or roasted, depending on what taste you're looking for) in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved. Let the mixture sit (overnight in the fridge, if possible), then strain and bottle.

Powdered: Mix some red or green chile powder with either salt or sugar in a food processor to use as a colorful rim on a cocktail glass. Borrowing from our New Mexico red-and-green chile dishes, why not rim a glass with half of each kind and experience Christmas anytime of the year?

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