Saltbox House Creations: Chile Rellenos

We had 5 food challenges planned for this month and it seems that we are behind on 3 of them. One of them was the Mexican food challenge in celebration for Cinco de Mayo (I know we are way past that). Either way, we wanted to recognize this great holiday by challenging everyone to make a favorite Mexican dish. Chile Rellenos are a favorite in my house and I wanted to share this delicious dish. They really aren't as hard as some make it sound. They just take a little time and attention. I will say they aren't the prettiest type of food I've ever made but, don't let that fool you. For those of you that enjoy these, you understand what I mean. They are full of flavor!

You can use Poblano peppers or I use Pasilla Peppers. Try to pick ones with out so many dimples and have a prominent stem. I make 9 peppers at a time.

Step # 1 Wash Peppers and brush with Cooking Oil.
I use Olive oil and it works great.

Step # 2- Burn Peppers. What that means is to actually place each pepper on the open burner of your gas stove and burn the skin until it become black and blistered all over. You can use the stem to turn them.

Step #3-Sweat Peppers
After each pepper is burned place them on a place covered by a plastic bag. Just keep adding the burned ones and cover the bag up each time. Leave all the burned peppers in the covered plate for 15-30 min. It is ok if they are left longer.

Step #4- Peel skin off peppers
The sweating will allow you to easily peel off the skin. Rinse under cool water to wash off completely.

Step #5- De-seed and De-stump Peppers

Try to find a natural slit in the pepper of slit it open with your finger. The easiest way to de-seed the peppers is to run cool water inside them and all the seed will fall out. A very important part of de-seeding the pepper is to make sure you clip the inner stump and pull it out. When you pull it out, the top strips of the membranes will follow (those raised lines inside the pepper). This will help your peppers to not be so spicy. Otherwise, they will be extremely spicy.

* The picture on the left shows the pepper with the inner stump and the picture on the right shows it cut off.

I use kitchen scissors to cut mine.

Step # 6- Stuff the Peppers

Try to maintain the shape of the pepper and leave the stems on (There will be more natural slits in the peppers). Cut your cheese (I use Monterrey Jack) in an angle like it is shown below. The wedge should be as long as the inside of the pepper. Wrap the sides of the pepper around the cheese. Secure with 1-2 toothpicks. (sorry no picture of that)

Step #7- Make Meringue

Beat 6 egg whites with 2 ounces of water until it resembles stiff peaks. Add yokes back into the meringue and mix until blended ( like 20-30 seconds). Use Immediately.

Step #8- Dip and Cook Peppers

Dip each secured pepper into the meringue and fry in a shallow pan of hot cooking oil (I use Canola). Cook until meringue is completely like to dark brown. Lay on a plate with a paper towel.