Pre-Culinary: Chiles Rellenos

As mentioned previously, having a food processor opens up new culinary doors like enhanced salsa making. The thought to do the following recipe was inspired by a One Small House trip that I did last winter, where a group of individuals including a decent number of medical students went to rural Tijuana to build homes for a few families in need of them. While we were out there, we were fed by the couple that cooked for the local orphanage that we stayed in… and they were great cooks! I thought that I was taste-bud happy (TBH) when I had the best carne asada taco of my life at a local taco stand or when the orphanage cooks made homemade tostadas. But no, true TBH came when they unveiled their chiles rellenos. Not only were they delicious with a nice kick but it was a dish that I could agree with the vegetarians on the trip that meat would not improve the flavor. Now fast forward to the present where my tiny food processor at the time allowed me to make a TBH version of my own.

Chiles Rellenos
Servings: ~ 4
Prep Time: ~35min
Cooking Time: 50min

Ingredients:
For the Peppers
• 4 poblano peppers
• 6-8 ounces of cheese (shredded or cubed) (I used Monterey Jack because I wanted them to be spicy, but you can use regular Jack or maybe even Coby cheese if you want less heat)
• 4 eggs, separated
• ½ cup of flour
• 1-1½ cup of vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
For the Salsa
• Either 4 large ripe tomatoes (peeled and chopped) OR 8 ripe plum tomatoes (peeled and chopped)
• ½ medium white onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ¼ tsp dried thyme leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• ¾ cup canned reduced-sodium chicken broth
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a food processor combine the tomatoes, onion, and garlic. Puree until smooth. In a saucepan heat 2 tbsp of the oil, add in the puree, and cook for 3min while stirring. Add the cinnamon, oregano, thyme, bay leaves, broth, salt, and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and simmer while occasionally stirring until the salsa is thickened and the onion is cooked (15min). While the salsa is cooking, preheat your broiler. Remove the bay leaves once the salsa is cooked. You can either let the salsa cool and put it in the fridge or you can just set it aside.

Place the peppers on a baking sheet and broil them close to the flame for about 5min each side (you want the outer skin to blacken and start to separate from the pepper flesh). Then place the peppers in a container or bag (I used a paper bag) and let them steam for about 15min. Peel off the blackened skin and rinse the peppers in cold water. With a small sharp knife, slit each pepper the long way on one side while keeping the stem on the pepper (I would actually not cut along the whole length but would leave about an inch of uncut space at the top and bottom of the cut). Carefully cut out the seed pod, remove it, and rinse the inside of the pepper with cold water to get any remaining seeds out. Pat the peppers dry inside (carefully) and out.

Stuff the peppers with 1.5-2 ounces of cheese each. Reshape the peppers so that they close while retaining the general shape of an intact pepper. Secure the open cut in the pepper with your toothpicks.

In a mixing bowl beat your egg whites with ¼ tsp of salt until it is frothy. Beat in egg yolks 1 at a time. Then beat in 1 tbsp of flour. Use the remaining flour to dust the peppers with. Preheat your oven to 200oF. In a medium skillet heat the 1 cup of vegetable oil until it is very hot. Gently place a pepper in the oil and cook on each side until golden brown (~2min each side). Remove the pepper with a slotted utensil and place on top of a paper towel to drain. Place the pepper in the oven to keep it warm while you are frying the others (use the remaining ½ cup of oil if needed). Once you have fried all of the peppers, (optional to heat up the salsa), take out the toothpicks (not so optional), place the peppers on your dishes, place the salsa on the peppers, place a piece of Chiles Rellenos in your mouth, and then place a smile on your face.

Commentary:
This recipe is adapted from 365 Easy Mexican Recipes by Marge Poore. I will tend to post more original, family, or less specialized cookbook recipes on the blog but this one was very very good, I tweaked it a bit, and I’m plugging the book. I look forward to trying more recipes in this book when I can.
The salsa in this is really nice as it tastes very fresh and complements the spicy heat from the pepper (and Monterey Jack if you used that). I prefer having the salsa cold or room temperature to even further contrast the spicy and temperature-hot pepper, but you can alternatively heat it up before placing it on the peppers.

Enjoy!

Picture 1: Salsa making with the little food processor that could