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Now, let's get down to basics.
(cheerful theme music)
All right, so first up in chiles rellenos,
which, I think that's how you pronounce it,
is a very basic, very rustic salsa.
I've got one small onion here
that I'm gonna chop in half and peel,
five big, beautiful Roma tomatoes,
and one jalapeno, whose stem I'm going to remove.
Now we wanna get some char on these vegetables.
You could do this under the broiler,
but if you have a pizza oven
capable of exceeding 900 degrees Fahrenheit,
why not use that?
I've got a nice cast iron griddle in here preheating,
and I'm gonna toss in my tomatoes, jalapenos, and onion
and give 'em a few minutes of loving by the fire,
just until they're starting to blister and pop
and get some nice, dark char marks.
This, as you can imagine, will translate to flavor.
Once they're nice and charred,
it's time to head on over to the stovetop,
where we're gonna dump these into a large saucepan
along with just enough water to cover 'em about halfway,
maybe two or three cups.
Oop, almost forgot the garlic.
I got four cloves of smashed garlic here
that I'm gonna scatter amongst the vegetables.
Sprinkle about a teaspoon of Mexican oregano over top,
cover it up, and bring it to a simmer,
and keep it there for no more than 5, 10 minutes.
This is a very bright, fresh salsa,
and we don't wanna cook out all the sharp vegetal flavor.
Give things a stab with a paring knife.
See if you garner any information from that.
We want things just soft enough to blend,
because that's where we're headed next:
to the jar of our favorite blender,
where we're gonna dump in all the vegetables
and maybe about a cup's worth of the cooking water.
Ope, I definitely did more than that.
That's okay.
And then, as you might imagine,
we're gonna top this up and blend it together
into a relatively smooth salsa.
You don't want tomato soup.
You want some nice, visible chunks and texture in there.
So before it's completely done blending,
make sure you season generously with kosher salt,
freshly ground black pepper.
Give it one last blitz, and you're good to go.
Make sure you taste for seasoning
before putting it back in the pot from whence it came.
Cover it up and set it aside while we contend
with the star of our chile rellenos show:
the chiles, specifically a whole bunch of poblano chiles.
These are pretty widely available,
packed full of flavor, and for that reason,
you definitely don't want
to substitute them with green peppers.
And just like with the vegetables,
we have to start by charring them,
but to a much greater extent.
We want their exteriors to be almost completely black
so that we can peel 'em off.
This can be accomplished one of two ways.
You can do it directly on your stovetop,
and when I say directly, I do mean directly.
Plop these guys right on the grate of your gas stovetop,
rotating frequently and keeping a long stick nearby
to silence your fire alarm,
which will be constantly going off.
Depending on the power of your stove,
this should take anywhere from three to five minutes.
You wanna make sure that little to no green skin remains.
If you don't wanna smoke out your kitchen
and freak out your neighbors,
this is another great application of your pizza oven.
You can try to do this on your gas grill,
but it just doesn't get hot enough.
You're gonna end up with baked peppers
rather than fire-roasted ones,
which, while plenty tasty, just won't work for this dish,
'cause you won't be able to peel off the skin.
Once these guys are nicely blackened all over,
it should only take about three to five minutes.
After flipping a couple times,
we're ready for the ol' peel-and-stuff.
And to make these guys easier to peel,
we're gonna pop 'em into a large bowl
and let them steam in their own heat
under cover of a plate.
After letting 'em sit for about 15 minutes,
their skins should jump right off.
You'll notice that I'm wearing gloves,
and that's because poblanos can vary wildly in heat.
Some can be quite spicy,
and you don't wanna find out later on
when you go to the bathroom.
Once you got all your peppers peeled
like a regular pepper-peeling Peter Piper,
it's time to stuff these guys full of delicious things.
Now, you can use chorizo, you can use ground beef,
but my favorite is Oaxaca cheese,
a Mexican string cheese
very similar to low-moisture mozzarella,
so if you can't find any, that's a fine substitute.
Now, stuffing the peppers is definitely
the trickiest and most tedious part of this recipe.
You gotta either find an opening
or make a small one with a paring knife
and take out the core veins and seeds
without completely destroying the pepper.
Then once you got those out,
you gotta stuff it full of cheese or your desired filling.
This process is kinda like making pancakes.
The first couple are gonna suck,
but you'll get in the rhythm
and start puttin' out perfect flapjacks,
or, uh, peppers.
If your peppers really fall apart,
you can secure them with toothpicks,
but it's a huge pain in the ass to take 'em out,
and inevitably one of your dinner guests
is going to get one caught in their tooth
and you're gonna be embarrassed.
Once we've got all these guys stuffed,
it's time to batter and fry.
And this batter is a pretty unique one.
We're gonna start by separating six eggs,
yolks in a little bowl, whites in a big one.
Tiny whisk those egg yolks together until they're smooth,
and then with a much larger electric-powered whisk,
we're going to beat the egg whites to semi-stiff peaks
so when you pull the whisk out, a little peak stands up.
Then, very carefully and gently,
we're gonna add the egg yolks back to the whites
in what I'm sure is a very confusing process
from their perspective and gently fold them together,
taking care not to knock out all the air
that we just got in the egg whites.
This should make a light, frothy kind of batter
that we're gonna coat our chilis with.
And to help it stick,
we're gonna start with a coating of flour.
Now, remember when I said that removing the core and seeds
from the peppers was the hardest part?
Well, I was lying.
This is the hardest part.
Your pepper might have multiple openings or slits,
and your goal here is to completely ensconce the pepper
in the batter so that none of the filling
leaks out during frying.
This is a tedious and delicate process,
and you might end up with some leaky peppers.
But once you feel like you've got it reasonably sealed up,
it's time to head over to the stovetop
where we've got some oil heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit,
where we're gonna fry our peppers
about two to three minutes per side,
just until they've turned a lovely shade of golden brown.
To help prevent the batter from splitting,
you can very carefully baste
the top of the pepper before flipping,
which can sort of parcook and solidify it
so it doesn't explode when you turn it over.
Once they're nice and golden brown,
we're gonna drain them on paper towels,
and then you get a couple options for serving.
You can either simmer them in the salsa for a few minutes
or my preferred method is to get the salsa piping hot,
spoon some out onto a plate, plop the peppers over top,
top those up with a little bit more salsa,
and then you can optionally garnish
with some crumbled cotija cheese,
which, if you can't find, feta is an acceptable substitute,
and some chopped fresh cilantro,
which, if you're like me and you have the genetic markers
that tell you that cilantro tastes like soap,
you can use chopped parsley or maybe nothing at all.
And there you have it: chiles rellenos,
a spicy, saucy, cheesy, smoky, peppery delight,
a favorite of Mexican, Texan, Tex-Mexican,
and extremely hungover people.
Poblano chilis are one of my all-time favorite flavors,
and they play so beautifully with this light, fresh salsa
and the rich, stretchy cheese.
Speaking of which, before I devour this,
let's get another stretch for the thumbnail.
There it is.
That's how you get the clicks.
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(easygoing jazzy music)