By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

For pico de gallo and other fresh salsas or Thai and Indian cooked sauces, the serrano is still my favorite chile.  It's got just the right amount of bite.  But a few summers ago I fell in love with the poblano, a chile that barely registers on the Scoville heat chart.  1,000 Scoville units vs. the serrano's 10,000 to 20,000.  You don't eat poblanos raw. You char away their thick, waxy skin first by blistering the chiles directly over a flame, grilling in a dry skillet, or sticking under a broiler.  I find the broiler method the easiest.

Then you have lots of great choices.  Cut the roasted chiles in strips to eat as a cocktail snack atop a tortilla chip or snack cracker along with a slice of jack or other mild cheese.  (A lot of my crop got used that way.)  Or you can stuff the chiles and bake them--the poblano is the chile traditionally used in chile rellenos.  Or make rajas, roasted chiles with onion and melted cheese served in tortillas. Or make a green rice.  Or a crema poblano.  Or a soup.  It's all good.  I got pretty addicted to the smoky taste of roasted poblanos by harvest's end actually.

I've been able to find seedling plants at nurseries pretty easily in my area the last few years.  (Spring plant sales at public gardens, such as the Green Scene at Fullerton Arboretum, are also good opportunities.)  But, if you can't find plants, there are plenty of seed sources.  The illustration shown here is from Park Seeds on-line catalog. Seeds of Change is another good source. You might find this chile listed as ancho in some catalogs.  Or as ancho/poblano. 

It isn't as confusing as it sounds.  When the chiles are green and you use them in the ways described above, they're called poblanos.  When the peppers are allowed to turn red on the plant, they're usually dried before being used in cooking.  In this dried form they're called anchos.  Anchos are used in dishes like moles. 

What really is confusing is that supermarkets often call this same chile a pasilla, which is actually an entirely different chile pepper.  The pasilla is slim and nearly black.  Never mind what the supermarkets call it.  If it looks like the chile shown here, it's a poblano.  Buy some and try out some of the recipes listed above.  If you do, I bet you'll want to grow the plants.