469583 Fri Dec 14 16:52:02 -0800 2007 17 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 3209313 There is a pepper which is identified in all the books and other reference I can find as the Poblano - nice dark-green thing, heart-shaped and shiny, about 4-6" long. It's fairly hot when raw, more so than your typical Anaheim, but mellows to just barely spicy when cooked and has a great flavor. The other thing I like about it is the skin's so thin you don't have to peel it. As Mrs. O despises sweet peppers but loves the hot ones, I have been using these in any recipe calling for bell pepper, with excellent results. Only thing is, in the regular commercial grocery and produce markets these are labelled "Pasillas." This despite the fact that a real pasilla is a long skinny dried pepper, as ALL THE BOOKS will tell you. It's as though we woke up one morning and suddenly cucumbers were being sold under the name of Banana, and no matter what evidence there was to the contrary they'd be labelled that way, they'd scan that way, and if you wanted your grocer to stock cucumbers you'd have to ask him to order bananas. Perhaps this is a silly thing for an elderly man to be fussing about, but I just can't understand how a vegetable can get mislabelled in the first place, and then how that mislabelling can take on the quality of settled fact without anyone's hollering, "Hold it there, bud!" Fri Dec 14 16:52:02 -0800 2007 11478 Will Owen 1 3209329 I've found the same thing in my supermarket, and it drives me crazy. Fri Dec 14 17:02:44 -0800 2007 3209313 11995 pikawicca 2 5198956 Me too. Love the peppers though no matter what they are called. Some of my favorite to cook with. Sat Nov 21 15:47:32 -0800 2009 3209329 155135 CarolynLeslie 1 3209351 You've made my day. Fri Dec 14 17:12:08 -0800 2007 3209313 36661 Sam Fujisaka 1 3209362 In my semi-regular market a Poblano is labeled a Poblano. Thank goodness. A rose by ay other name.......just wouldn't be the same. Fri Dec 14 17:19:20 -0800 2007 3209313 75332 Gio 1 3209479 Applying 'pasilla' to this fresh pepper is mainly a California quirk. Bayless mentions this in his 1987 Authentic Mexican. I don't know if it can be traced to neighboring parts of Mexico, or how far back it goes. Poblano - from Puebla Pasilla - raisin like. The skinny, wrinkled ones (dried chilaca) fits the name, but the dark Poblanos are also raisin like in color. Dried poblano is usually called 'ancho', wide. paulj Fri Dec 14 18:26:15 -0800 2007 3209313 12139 paulj 2 3209694 Diana Kennedy, Regional Cooks, 1978, also notes these regional variations in names. Fri Dec 14 20:59:06 -0800 2007 3209479 12139 paulj 1 3209518 Will Owen, just because some GS-1 produce clerk, who normally labels plural potatoes as being possessive potatoe's with that blasted apostrophe, says it is a "Pasilla" doesn't make it so. You know the difference, as does Mark Miller (Coyote Cafe) who writes: "PASILLA, also known as the "chile negro", literally "little raisin", the pasilla is a dried chilaca chile. There is some confusion over the name of this chile: in California and northern Mexico, the fresh poblano and its dried forms, the ancho and mulato, are referred to (mistakenly) as pasillas." .....From the mouth of the knowledgable horse. For the time being, we'll have to make do with their mistaken nomenclature, at least until we can persuade the store owners that they look silly with this mis-labeling. (If said owners are Easterners, this may be a challenge) Fri Dec 14 18:54:40 -0800 2007 3209313 15743 Sherri 2 3209657 And from Dave DeWitt, "The Pope of Peppers" http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/pasilla.html Note that the dried chilaca is called chile negro in some places. Elsewhere DeWitt writes that the Poblano is called 'miabuateco' in southern Mexico. And the dried poblano is called, in some places, 'mulato' - black. Variations in regional names of chiles is quite common, especially for ones that were well established before modern commerce. paulj Fri Dec 14 20:30:41 -0800 2007 3209518 12139 paulj 3 3210370 Exactly... aside from Scientific Names... no one really looks silly for using their region's terminology. I may be wrong but I don't the Mexican government has ever come up with official names for any of the chiles... and has just allowed the regional terminology to prevail... so you can't blame people for having different descriptions. Sat Dec 15 09:35:20 -0800 2007 3209657 42572 Eat_Nopal 4 3523164 Then we should all feel at ease with the fact that in Tennessee (Middle Tennessee, at least) daffodils are almost universally referred to as buttercups... most rattling to me, since where I grew up (SE Illinois) half the population called them daffodils, the other half crocuses. But we definitely knew what a buttercup was! Mon Mar 24 14:00:15 -0700 2008 3210370 11478 Will Owen 2 3524281 Here in the east ----Western MA--- where good Mexican food and supplies are really challenging to come by, at least our supermarkets label poblanos, poblanos. Maybe if your CA store owners WERE Easterners, there would be less confusion? ;-) Mon Mar 24 19:41:14 -0700 2008 3209518 137881 BerkshireTsarina 1 3210911 As I think about more, customers who learn about these peppers by the BOOK should be able to buy them by the BOOK. Erroneous names like 'pasilla' should be restricted to places where old time Angelinos shop. :) paulj Sat Dec 15 13:36:59 -0800 2007 3209313 12139 paulj 1 3522220 Amen. I'm from Phoenix and some of the variations on dried chile nomenclature are the same way. Chile negros ancho vs. chile negro mulato vs. chile negro pasilla, etc. And these are all on the packaging, no miscommunicaton from the grocer. Makes it hard to know what your getting sometimes by the label alone without knowing what the chile should look like. I work with dried enough that I keep a cheat sheet to help minimize confusion. :) Mon Mar 24 10:18:48 -0700 2008 3209313 177480 ggcool 1 3523738 From your mouth to God's ears, Will. On my first visit to a local (Colorado) Latin supermarket, I spent a good 20 minutes in the produce section debating with myself whether the pasilla was in fact a poblano. I eventually decided in the affirmative and brought them home. My new approach is to bring my Mexican cookbook with me to the store, so I can resolve any questions that I have on nomenclature and produce idenitification on the spot. Mon Mar 24 16:30:07 -0700 2008 3209313 75002 Megiac 2 3524083 You mean you haven't committed at least one of the many illustrated chile-pepper charts to memory?? You just aren't serious about this, are you? ;-) Seriously, I think we can assume that ANY medium-to-largish fleshy heart-shaped deep green pepper is going to taste really good when cooked, especially if it's either easy to skin or doesn't need it, and the seller can call it Fred for all I care. Mon Mar 24 18:27:22 -0700 2008 3523738 11478 Will Owen 3 3524130 Stuff "Fred" with some Monterey Jack cheese mixed w/ hominy, toasted cumin, crema and cilantro (or Mexican oregano) for a quick, delicious supper. Bake until cheese melts and it smells like you need to eat this right NOW. Mon Mar 24 18:43:52 -0700 2008 3524083 15743 Sherri 1 5199309 A pasilla is a dried chilaca chile. Poblanos, when dried, are called anchos or sometimes mulatos. Sat Nov 21 19:54:57 -0800 2009 3209313 260733 slewfoot