Chile Rellenos
Chiles
12 poblano peppers
flour, 2 fistfuls
12 eggs
Wesson oil
1 cup sour cream
Cheese Filling
2 lb. Monterey Jack cheese, grated
Meat Filling
2 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup Wesson oil
3 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. cumin
Season salt
Black pepper
garlic salt
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 pods garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. butter
flour
Salsa Roja
3 tomatoes, whole
3 jalapenos
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 small onion, quartered
4 tomatoes, quartered
3 cloves garlic, whole
1 bunch cilantro, in all
2.5 cups Jugo de Pollo
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/3 cup cider vinegar
salt & pepper
Preparing the Chiles. Skewer each Poblano with a big fork and hold over an open flame until the skin is totally black. Rinse off the skin in the sink. Cut the chiles down the side. Pull open, but not apart. Remove the seeds (use a scissors to cut the seeds away from the base of the stem, taking care to leave the stem on).
Cheese Chile Rellenos. Stuff each chile with a liberal amount of Monterey jack cheese.
Meat Chile Rellenos. Heat the oil in a large skillet that has a top. Add the ground beef and season with the chili powder, cumin, season salt, pepper and garlic salt. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes. Add the chopped celery, onion, green pepper and garlic. Continue to simmer covered for another 20 minutes, adding water (3 Tbsp. at a time) as needed to keep moist. Add the butter and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Finally, sprinkle a little flour over the meat mixture and stir to blend. Simmer a little longer to allow the flour to soak up and thicken the juice in the meat. You want the meat to be moist but not runny or it will seep out as you are frying your chiles. Stuff a liberal amount of the meat mixture into each chile.
Finishing the Chiles. Use your hands to dredge each chile in flour. Try to compact each chile with your hands so that they don't come apart while cooking. Set the chiles aside. Put 1/2 inch Wesson oil into a medium size skillet over high heat. Separate the egg whites into a large bowl and reserve the yolks. Beat the whites until stiff using an electric hand mixer. With a dry hand, reach into the flour container, grab a fist of flour and blend into the egg whites. Repeat with a second fistful. Hand-mix the reserved yolks into the egg mixture. Spoon 1/12th of the egg mixture into a smaller bowl. Add one of the chiles to the small bowl and use the spoon to coat with the egg mixture. Carefully slide the coated chile into the hot oil. Fry for a minute or two on each side until light golden. Splash the oil onto the exposed top side of the chile as you cook. Be gentle so as not to break the batter crust as you turn and handle the chiles. Repeat for all the chiles. Remove each chile to a baking dish. Pour Salsa Roja over all and top each chile with a dab of sour cream. Heat for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven before serving.
Salsa Roja. There are 3 parts to Salsa Roja that ultimately come together in a large skillet: (1) the cooked part, (2) the blender part and (3) the chopped part. First, start the cooked part. Cover 3 whole tomatoes and the 3 jalapenos with water and boil for 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Put the vegetable oil in a large skillet over high heat. In a blender, combine the quartered onion, the quartered tomatoes, the whole garlic cloves, 1/2 bunch cilantro and the Jugo de Pollo (chicken stock). You will have to make at least 2 trips to the blender. Pour each batch of the blended mixture into the hot oil in the skillet. Add salt and pepper to taste. Next, chop the cooked tomatoes and jalapenos and add them to the skillet. Finally, add the chopped onion, the chopped garlic and 1/4 bunch chopped cilantro to the skillet. If the salsa tastes too hot, you can add canned chopped tomatoes at this point. Finally, season with the cider vinegar, 1/4 bunch chopped cilantro and salt and remove the skillet from the heat.
Our comments: Awesome! These are the real thing. Santa Maria gets credit for this recipe. Leftover meat filling is great in tacos!
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