Roasted Hatch Chile Peppers & Shrimp

(4 servings)

Every year around this time, Central Market in Dallas puts on a Hatch Chile Festival. Aside from different types of fresh hatch chile peppers, they also offer a ton of prepared foods, all containing these tasty peppers in some form. I had picked out a bag of them in the produce section before coming across stacks of containers of their in-house roasted hatch chile peppers; mild or hot. My lazy side kicked in. I swapped out my bag of fresh peppers for a container of wonderful looking roasted peppers which ended up in the following dish.

1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup *roasted hatch chile peppers, mild or hot
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 lb raw shrimp, peeled and cleaned
1/4 cup heavy cream

4 servings cooked linguine or rice

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and fry for about 30-45 seconds or until the garlic becomes fragrant. Add the onions and adjust the heat to prevent the onions from burning. Cook until they are translucent and beginning to brown slightly; about 6-10 minutes.

Stir in the wine, roasted hatch chile peppers and salt. Simmer the mixture until the wine has reduced by about half.

Add the shrimp and cook until they begin to lose their translucency and turn pink. Stir in the cream and simmer until it's heated through. **Shrimp cook very quickly. You want to just cook them long enough to be done, otherwise they might become rubbery.

Serve immediately with either the cooked linguine or cooked rice.

*If you can't find roasted hatch chile peppers, then you can roast them yourself. This recipe uses red bell peppers, but the method is the same. I usually remove the seeds when I roast peppers, but the prepared ones I purchased contained seeds and they were fine; it's up to you!