Adapted from The People's Guide to Mexico: Chile Rellenos
Time: 45 minutes
Serves: 2 people
Ingredients
2 poblano peppers*
3 ounces Quesadilla cheese (Oaxaca, Monterey Jack, and Cheddar cheeses would also work), cut into inch long, finger-width strips
1 egg
1/2 12 ounce jar roasted red peppers
1/4 cup chopped tomato
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 small jalapeno, diced finely
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Directions
Prepare the poblanos:
1. Rub 1/4 teaspoon oil on the poblanos.
2. Place peppers under broiler until skins char on one side (approximately 3 minutes).
3. Flip peppers over so skins char on the other side (approximately 3 minutes).
4. Remove peppers from oven and place in a paper bag. Roll top of paper bag over so the peppers will steam inside the bag to help release the skins.
5. Once the peppers cool, carefully remove the skins from the peppers.
6. Cut a small slit in the side of each pepper. (If your pepper tears in other places at this point, don't worry, everything will get fixed once you put it in the batter.)
7. Using a small spoon, remove seeds from peppers.
8. Stuff half of the cheese, a tablespoon of chopped onion, and half of the chopped jalapeno into each poblano pepper. (Optional: The possibilities for stuffing are endless. I love adding in diced zucchini or frozen corn kernels. If you add more ingredients in, reduce the amount of cheese.)
Make roasted red pepper sauce:
9. In a food processor or blender, blend 1/4 cup chopped onion, chopped tomato, and the roasted red peppers.
10. If the sauce is thick, thin it out with a little bit of water from the roasted red pepper jar.
11. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Make batter:
12. Separate an egg and beat egg whites until they reach stiff peaks.
13. Beat yolks and gently fold into the egg whites. (Optional: This makes a thin, crispy batter. If you want a thicker batter, add a tablespoon of flour and fold in. Both versions work equally well though the batter with flour is a little easier to fry.)
Fry chile rellenos:
14. Heat vegetable oil in a flat saute pan over medium heat. Oil is hot when a drop of batter turns golden brown in the oil.
15. Dip stuffed peppers in the batter and place in the oil with the cut-side down.
16. Flip stuffed peppers over until it is golden brown on all sides.
17. Place on top of a big spoonful of sauce and serve.
* Poblanos are the Mexican chile of choice when making chile rellenos but you could substitute Anaheim chiles. We find them in our regular grocery store and many farmers markets. They have a little kick to them but are not overwhelmingly spicy. I would not recommend substituting green bell peppers in this recipe because the thick flesh and bland taste would not complement the cheese.
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People keep asking us why we don't have albums for each of the countries we have visited. Fair question and one for which we didn't have a good answer. Well, we got our act together and set them up last weekend. Each album contains our 20 or so favorite pictures for a particular country and you can flip through them in the pop-out album viewer (which, by the way, you can also use to view any pictures on our site by clicking on the picture of your choice.) Albums are located in the main pages for each country we have visited so far on the round-the-world trip: australia, new zealand, india, thailand, and cambodia.