November 22, 2011 Lunch Chabacango Dinner – Chile Rellenos

November 22, 2011 Lunch Chabacango  Dinner – Chile Rellenos

We woke up hungry so I chopped up some of the fresh papaya and ate cereal with papaya. Then when Suzette awoke she was hungry so we chopped some onion, garlic, roasted chicken and potatoes and tomatoes and avocado and scrambled them with eggs.  Then, we drove to Puerto Vallarta in the morning and walked around looking at art galleries and pricing silver bracelets.  We loved walking on the newly refurbished Malacon with its exquisite mosaics of fanciful shapes executed in black and white stones and through the new and old town areas.  We went to the market that lies between the two, but did not see anything of interest, also.  A gallery on Mina Street had lovely ceramic and steel sculptures.   Finally, I was getting hungry and tired and after taking a look at the menu at Maxmillano’s we decided to look for the small café that I love called Las Ollas across the street from the school in the old town.  It was closed on Tuesdays, but we found a new seafood bar at the end of the street named Bargalao’s.  I saw that they had Chabacango coctel so I ordered one.  Chabacango is my favorite with its octopus, scallops, shrimp and fish ceviche.  This one was served in the typical large parfait glass with finely chopped cucumber, red onions, and tomatoes in a catsup and seafood liquor and garnished with one-half of an avocado beautifully sliced and fanned across the top like a little green island in a red and white sea. Very Japanese.  Simple, yet beautiful.

We stopped at the new Mega super market just south of Bucerias on our north, back to Sayulita and did some more shopping (948 pesos).  We found beautiful poblano chiles that are used locally to make chile rellenos.  The poblano is not very hot and has a very thick flesh so it makes an ideal pocket for stuffing. The ones we found were about seven to eight inches straight, not twisted.  We saw a prep stand where there were freshly cut nopales, so we decided to make a green tomatillo sauce for the chiles and so we bought tomatillos, and a bag of the nopales.  When we asked the lady at the deli counter what cheese to use for rellenos, she handed us a bag of Oaxacan string cheese for the stuffing.  We also saw beautiful pasta shells, so we purchased some Mexican Chipolte flavored goat cheese and fresh mushrooms.  We then saw our favorite Mexican beer, Noche Buena, which is only made in the Holiday season, so we bought a 12 pack of it.  There was also another prep station where a man was squeezing fresh fruit juices, so we bought a liter of orange and a liter of strawberry juice. After the usual selection of whiskey, rum and brandy, flattened bolillos and mustard and mayonnaise, plus coke, ham, cheese for sandwiches, we were off.  

I looked up several recipes on the internet and found one that looked great.  Since we did not have baking soda or powder to bind the coating, we decided on the traditional method of beating the egg whites until stiff and then adding the egg and flour mixture to it. 

I started cooking the sauce, by chopping and sautéing one onion, five tomatillos, one of the cooked jalapenos from our chicken dinner and about a pound of nopales.  After those ingredients cooked a bit, Luke and I added a handful of cilantro and I chopped and tossed in two cloves of garlic and bit of water to make the sauce looser. 

While I charred the skins of the 6 chiles on the gas burner on top of the stove and threw them into a plastic bag to steam loose, Suzette started working on the sauce.  Apparently the one jalapeno pepper was about one-half too much, so Suzette chopped up an avocado to thicken and make the sauce milder.   We realized that we had used chicken stock before to make the sauce milder and also then realized that we had used crema to soften and make the sauce milder, also.  We had considered buying some crema, at the store, but rejected that idea as too much dairy.  She blended all of the ingredients into a thick sauce.  After the sauce was made I peeled and de-seeded the chiles and then whipped four egg whites until they were stiffened until the peak stood (See picture).

I then whipped the egg yolks and flour into a thickened paste and folded that in with the egg whites to make a fluffy batter.

While I was charring, deseeding, and whipping Suzette made the stuffing with rice and chicken and got the cheese ready.  She then stuffed and battered the chiles, three with rice, cheese and chopped chicken and three vegetarian ones without chicken.  Suzette used mayonnaise to bind the ingredients together since we did not have toothpicks to seal the chiles. 

She then sauteed the battered chiles in olive oil to cook and brown the batter and we lit the oven and baked them for a few minutes to warm the ingredients fully.

We then each took one of the chicken and rice ones, put a scoop of the green tomatillo sauce on it and garnished the chile relleno with some dry flakes of cojita cheese we had bought at the Mega store.  We ate them with a Negra Modelo outside on the patio in candle light.  They were delicious, although we all agreed that it took a lot of prep time and it would have been far easier to buy them at a restaurant for 90 pesos, even considering the fact that the other three vegetarian ones we made will be like gifts from the Gods.  The Chile Rellenos can be cooked and then stored for several days.  When we go to the market restaurants in PV and in Albuquerqaue, I always see plates full of already prepared chile Rellenos that are just waiting to be heated and served.  Also, Suzette and I made my favorite kind last year in Albuquerque with beef picadillo and raisins and pecans.  The thing to remember about chile rellenos is that they are never perfect and they don’t have to be because they always taste great and folks will love you for making them.   

For dessert, I drank a Lala yogurt drink flavored with pineapple and coconut.  Slightly sweet, but it dispelled the ill effects of the fried chile.

Bon Apetit

    

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