Chile Relleno
6 July 2008Hola. I’ve been muy intimidated by chile rellenos. No longer. These golden, fatty beauties come together quite easily and are muy, muy beuno.
- 2 long peppers (Poblano if you can find them – not so easy in London town.)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons flour
- Salt to taste
- Enough semi-hard, melt-y cheese (like Monterey Jack) to stuff the peppers. Do the math, genius.
- Roast the peppers over an open flame until the skins are uniformly blackened and smelling heavenly.
- Place those burnt things in a paper bag and let them steam for a few minutes. Like 5 minutes, OK? When they’re cool enough to touch, peel em. Leave the stems intact.
- Separate the eggs, and give your arms a workout whisking the whites until they are firm. For you bakers, you want soft peaks. Fold in the yolks, flour, and salt.
- To prepare the chiles, make a slit near where the seeds live, running down the pepper, big enough to get your pretty little hands in there and remove the seeds. Don’t touch the stem, wise guy – you’ll want it to turn the peppers in the oil and keep things happy and leak-free.
- Stuff the peppers with an ample amount of cheese and shut that slit you made with some toothpicks
- Get some vegetable oil going in a frying pan. Shallow-fry is the operative word. No need to deep-fry these plumpers. You want the oil to be almost smoking.
- Dredge the peppers in the batter and transfer them over to the oil. They only need a minute or two on each side and they’ll be a deep golden brown (thank you, egg).
- We always let them sit on a plate covered in paper towels for a minute or two, but hey, you live your own fatty life.
There are a million variations (we counted – there were exactly 1 million), but a lot of the gorgeousness of this dish comes from the simplicity. Serve it with some homemade refritos, and a side of Mexican rice. La vida gordo.