After getting into the habit of sending pictures of what we're cooking up at our house, the overwhelming positive response, requests for recipes, and comments that we should have our own cooking show has finally convinced us to start our food & cooking blog. So here it is....
Being our first issue, we're still learning about how best to present things here online. For example, we had planned to photograph all of the ingredients before we got started, but forgot to do it. We look forward to your tips and comments on how to make this blog better. That said, LET'S GET STARTED!!
CHILI RELLENOS
The other day we were watching a cooking show on PBS that was featuring cooking with Chilis from around the world when we got the idea that it was high time for us to attempt to make Chili Rellenos. Roberto has watched his mother and grandmother make them many time over the years and although we both love them, we've never made them ourselves - so this is our first attempt.
THE CHILIES
THE FILLING
Getting ideas from the TV show I mentioned, we kind of made this up, and wound up with a bit more filling than we needed for six chilies. The leftover filling will go on to its second life inside quesadillas, but this is what we did:
The Filling - Phase I
1) Place 1/2 the onion, celery stalk, and 2 bay leaves in the bottom of the crock pot.
2) Peal and seed the roma tomatoes.
This was one of the things I didn't get pictures of this time:
3) Place the tomatoes, garlic, and oregano in a food processor. Our food processor recently gave out on us, so we're using the blender today.
4) Pulse a few times. This doesn't need to be smooth, but should look like salsa. This wasn't as easy in the blender as it would have been in the food processor, but we got the job done.
5) Pour 1/2 of the tomato mixture into the crock pot. (You can see the chicken thighs waiting in the background.)
6) Add the chicken thighs and then the rest of the tomato mixture and onion and put the lid on. We let this go on HIGH for about 3-1/2 hours. You can also go on LOW for 6-8 hours if you want to put this on in the morning and have it ready to go later on. It doesn't hurt if you do this the day before, which is what we did.
The Sauce
Remember when handeling HOT chilies, it's not a bad idea to wear food-safe gloves to keep from burning your hands. Even if the chilies don't burn your hands while you're handeling them, it's very easy to accidentally touch sensitive areas like face/eyes that will burn.
7) Break open the dried chilies and remove the ribs and seeds. The amount of seeds you allow to go into the sauce will determine how hot it is (more seeds more heat).
8) Place the chilies (with as many/few seeds you like) into boiling water. Remove from heat and allow to steep until the chilies soften. REMINDER: Do not put unprotected hands/fingers into liquid!!
9) Drain liquid from chilies. Notice how they're turned from black (when dry) to red.
10) Put chilies into blender (this step goes best in blender!).
11) Add garlic. You can add the cloves whole, because after the blender is done with them....
12) Oregeno. Roberto likes to grind it in his hand first.
13) Salt & pepper
14) Add water. We're making a smooth sauce, so you kind of have to eyeball this.
15) Blend until smooth, adding water as necessary.
This is about how we like it. You might want yours thicker/thinner - control this with more or less water.
16) Pour sauce into pan to warm before serving. If your sauce is too thin, simmering it will thicken it up.
[I know this picture came out a bit bright]
The Filling - Phase II
17) After removing the husks, cut corn from the cob. If you're using canned/frozen corn, then you're obviously going to skip this.
These zucchini came from our garden and were harvested moments before this picture was taken.
18) Dice zucchini.
19) Mince garlic.
20) Dice onion
20) Add olive oil to pan (we prefer to use a wok).
21) Corn, zucchini, garlic, and onion into the pan....
...saute lightly and set aside.
The Chilies
22) Roast the chilies until the skin is blistered and blackened. We do this over an open gas flame, but you can also do this on the grill or in the oven. Try to avoid blackening the stem - it makes for a handy handle later on in the process.
After each chili is roasted place it with the others in a paper bag. Close the bag and allow the chilies to 'steam' for 20-30 minutes. This makes the skin easier to remove. If the bag is big enough, they can all go into the same bag.
23) After the chilies are done steaming, remove them from the bag and removed the chared skin - it should slide right off. This usually goes best with a paper towel, but someone forgot them back at the store....
Here are our six chilies with their skins removed.
Remember, when you're going to come into contact with the interior parts of the chilies, you might want to consider food-safe gloves.
24) Make a slit down the side of the chilies to form a pocket for the filling.
25) Remove the seeds and ribs - the more of these you leave behind the hotter your finished product will be. Be careful not to make holes in the chilies so the filling doesn't leak out while frying. Set them asside until you're ready to fill them.
The Filling - Phase III
This is what the chicken looks like after 3-1/2 hours in the crock pot. While it's cooking there is no need to stir or anything.
26) Remove the chicken peices from the crock pot. They should parctically fall apart.
27) Dice/shread chicken.
28) Add corn & zucchini mixture to chicken.
29) Mix. You can add as much/little corn as you like. Remember, I said that we had about 1-1/2 cups more corn/zucchini than we needed. We used all the chicken and the remaining vegetable mixture is going to be used to fill quesadillas for another meal.
30) Grate the cheese. We used pepper jack but regular jack cheese would be good, too.
31) Fill each chili with chicken mixture....
...and cheese. Do not overfill the chilies and be careful not to break them.
Our six chilies with filling. If they don't want to hold together you could pin them closed with a tooth pick. We decided we didn't need this and everything turned out okay.
The Coating
32) Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form and add 2-3 tbsp flour. The flour is already in the bowl on top of the whites, that's why it looks kind of powdery. Continue to whip until flour is incorporated.
33) Beat the egg yolks and slowly fold them into the whites. DO NOT USE THE MIXER! This has to be done gently or the whites will collaps.
34) Dredge the chilies in flour. This helps the coating stick to the chilies.
This is what the eggs look like after the yolks are folded in.
35) Holding the chili by the stem (this is why you don't want to char the stems when roasting the chilies) dip it into the eggs to coat it.
36) And into the pan with about 3/8" hot canola oil. We found this to also go better in the wok. After the chili has been in for half a minute, give the pan a shake so the chili moves around and doesn't stick. Before you turn the chili, tilt the pan to get hot oil up onto the sides of the chili to help the coating set and stay on the chili.
37) After a few minutes and the coating is golden brown, give the chili a turn. I found it easiest to give it a 1/3 turn using two spatulas.
Here they are. The sideways one at the bottom of the picture came apart a little but we were able to keep it together. We decided to put them into a warm oven to make sure the cheese was nice and melted inside.
Dinner is served, with a side of Spanish rice and sauce!
Being our first issue, we're still learning about how best to present things here online. For example, we had planned to photograph all of the ingredients before we got started, but forgot to do it. We look forward to your tips and comments on how to make this blog better. That said, LET'S GET STARTED!!
CHILI RELLENOS
The other day we were watching a cooking show on PBS that was featuring cooking with Chilis from around the world when we got the idea that it was high time for us to attempt to make Chili Rellenos. Roberto has watched his mother and grandmother make them many time over the years and although we both love them, we've never made them ourselves - so this is our first attempt.
THE CHILIES
- 6 large fresh poblano chilies - 6-7" long and 3" wide at the big end
THE FILLING
Getting ideas from the TV show I mentioned, we kind of made this up, and wound up with a bit more filling than we needed for six chilies. The leftover filling will go on to its second life inside quesadillas, but this is what we did:
- 3 boneless/skinless chicken thighs
- 2 roma tomatoes, seeded and pealed
- 1 celery stalk, cut into pieces
- 1/4 yellow onion, roughly chopped (crock pot)
- 4 bay leaves
- 2 cloves garlic (crock pot)
- 1-2 tsp. oregano
- 2 cobs of corn, shucked from the cob
- 4 small zucchini, diced
- 1/4 yellow onion, diced (filling)
- 2 cloves garlic (filling)
- 2-3 tbsp Olive oil for frying (filling)
- 8 oz. pepper jack cheese, grated
- 5 eggs, separated
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- more flour for dredging
- canola oil for frying
- 6 large oaxillo [sp?] chilies, dried, with the ribs and seeds removed
- 2 cloves garlic
- salt & pepper to taste
The Filling - Phase I
1) Place 1/2 the onion, celery stalk, and 2 bay leaves in the bottom of the crock pot.
2) Peal and seed the roma tomatoes.
This was one of the things I didn't get pictures of this time:
- Make an "X" shaped cut in the bottom (non-stem end) of the tomatoes.
- Drop them into boiling water and remove from heat and allow to stand for a few minutes.
- Carefully removed them from the water and the skin will just slide off.
- Cut them up separating the seeds from the flesh.
3) Place the tomatoes, garlic, and oregano in a food processor. Our food processor recently gave out on us, so we're using the blender today.
4) Pulse a few times. This doesn't need to be smooth, but should look like salsa. This wasn't as easy in the blender as it would have been in the food processor, but we got the job done.
5) Pour 1/2 of the tomato mixture into the crock pot. (You can see the chicken thighs waiting in the background.)
6) Add the chicken thighs and then the rest of the tomato mixture and onion and put the lid on. We let this go on HIGH for about 3-1/2 hours. You can also go on LOW for 6-8 hours if you want to put this on in the morning and have it ready to go later on. It doesn't hurt if you do this the day before, which is what we did.
The Sauce
Remember when handeling HOT chilies, it's not a bad idea to wear food-safe gloves to keep from burning your hands. Even if the chilies don't burn your hands while you're handeling them, it's very easy to accidentally touch sensitive areas like face/eyes that will burn.
7) Break open the dried chilies and remove the ribs and seeds. The amount of seeds you allow to go into the sauce will determine how hot it is (more seeds more heat).
8) Place the chilies (with as many/few seeds you like) into boiling water. Remove from heat and allow to steep until the chilies soften. REMINDER: Do not put unprotected hands/fingers into liquid!!
9) Drain liquid from chilies. Notice how they're turned from black (when dry) to red.
10) Put chilies into blender (this step goes best in blender!).
11) Add garlic. You can add the cloves whole, because after the blender is done with them....
12) Oregeno. Roberto likes to grind it in his hand first.
13) Salt & pepper
14) Add water. We're making a smooth sauce, so you kind of have to eyeball this.
15) Blend until smooth, adding water as necessary.
This is about how we like it. You might want yours thicker/thinner - control this with more or less water.
16) Pour sauce into pan to warm before serving. If your sauce is too thin, simmering it will thicken it up.
[I know this picture came out a bit bright]
The Filling - Phase II
17) After removing the husks, cut corn from the cob. If you're using canned/frozen corn, then you're obviously going to skip this.
These zucchini came from our garden and were harvested moments before this picture was taken.
18) Dice zucchini.
19) Mince garlic.
20) Dice onion
20) Add olive oil to pan (we prefer to use a wok).
21) Corn, zucchini, garlic, and onion into the pan....
...saute lightly and set aside.
The Chilies
22) Roast the chilies until the skin is blistered and blackened. We do this over an open gas flame, but you can also do this on the grill or in the oven. Try to avoid blackening the stem - it makes for a handy handle later on in the process.
After each chili is roasted place it with the others in a paper bag. Close the bag and allow the chilies to 'steam' for 20-30 minutes. This makes the skin easier to remove. If the bag is big enough, they can all go into the same bag.
23) After the chilies are done steaming, remove them from the bag and removed the chared skin - it should slide right off. This usually goes best with a paper towel, but someone forgot them back at the store....
Here are our six chilies with their skins removed.
Remember, when you're going to come into contact with the interior parts of the chilies, you might want to consider food-safe gloves.
24) Make a slit down the side of the chilies to form a pocket for the filling.
25) Remove the seeds and ribs - the more of these you leave behind the hotter your finished product will be. Be careful not to make holes in the chilies so the filling doesn't leak out while frying. Set them asside until you're ready to fill them.
The Filling - Phase III
This is what the chicken looks like after 3-1/2 hours in the crock pot. While it's cooking there is no need to stir or anything.
26) Remove the chicken peices from the crock pot. They should parctically fall apart.
27) Dice/shread chicken.
28) Add corn & zucchini mixture to chicken.
29) Mix. You can add as much/little corn as you like. Remember, I said that we had about 1-1/2 cups more corn/zucchini than we needed. We used all the chicken and the remaining vegetable mixture is going to be used to fill quesadillas for another meal.
30) Grate the cheese. We used pepper jack but regular jack cheese would be good, too.
31) Fill each chili with chicken mixture....
...and cheese. Do not overfill the chilies and be careful not to break them.
Our six chilies with filling. If they don't want to hold together you could pin them closed with a tooth pick. We decided we didn't need this and everything turned out okay.
The Coating
32) Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form and add 2-3 tbsp flour. The flour is already in the bowl on top of the whites, that's why it looks kind of powdery. Continue to whip until flour is incorporated.
33) Beat the egg yolks and slowly fold them into the whites. DO NOT USE THE MIXER! This has to be done gently or the whites will collaps.
34) Dredge the chilies in flour. This helps the coating stick to the chilies.
This is what the eggs look like after the yolks are folded in.
35) Holding the chili by the stem (this is why you don't want to char the stems when roasting the chilies) dip it into the eggs to coat it.
36) And into the pan with about 3/8" hot canola oil. We found this to also go better in the wok. After the chili has been in for half a minute, give the pan a shake so the chili moves around and doesn't stick. Before you turn the chili, tilt the pan to get hot oil up onto the sides of the chili to help the coating set and stay on the chili.
37) After a few minutes and the coating is golden brown, give the chili a turn. I found it easiest to give it a 1/3 turn using two spatulas.
Here they are. The sideways one at the bottom of the picture came apart a little but we were able to keep it together. We decided to put them into a warm oven to make sure the cheese was nice and melted inside.
Dinner is served, with a side of Spanish rice and sauce!
Looks yummy! The pictures are very clear and concise! I would love to try this dish and found the detailed recipe very helpful. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteMuch to hot for me. Looks very tasty though. I think I'll adapt the recipe an do a version suited for sissies like me ;-)
ReplyDelete