Every year, I attempt to grow peppers in my garden. This year, though, nobody was more surprised than I when I succeeded. Among the harvest is a big, beautiful Anaheim chili pepper, about 6-8 inches long.
Now, normally, what few hot peppers I get from my garden, I dry and use in assorted recipes over a long span of time. But those are usually tiny little peppers, and this one is so big and beatiful and juicy-looking (I didn’t even know they got that big), I’m thinking I want to eat it fresh. But an Anaheim is a bit too hot for me to just munch straight, so I’d want to make something with it.
And so I turn to you folks. What tasty dish can I make with a single, big hot pepper?
Roast it (i.e., blacken the skin all over by putting it under the broiler or on a charcoal/gas grill, then put it in a paper bag until cool; when cool, pull the blackened skin off.)
Make a slit down one side and do the best you can at extracting the seeds without mangling the whole thing.
Stuff it with anything you’d put in any other Mexican dish: seasoned ground beef and cheese, seasoned shredded beef or chicken, cheese alone, cheese and shrimp (my favorite - YUMMY!).
At this point, you can batter and deep-fry it. Or you can grill it (my preference, although my Latino brother-in-law insists this is anathema).
Serve it with flour tortillas, and, if you know the Anaheim is hot, mild salsa fresca, sour cream and guacamole. The fat in the sour cream and guac. will offset the heat.
Take a bite-size portion of the chile relleno and wrap it in a quarter or less of a tortilla. Adorn with salsa, etc.
I cannot stress enough the importance of the seed removal portion of the instructions previously posted for Chile Relleno.
Just last week, I was craving Mexican food, so Mrs. Dewgrrl and myself drove to our nearest restaurante. We each ordered a combination plate that included Chile Rellenos, which Mrs. Dewgrrl had never tried befor.
We saved them till last, since it was what I was looking forward to the most, and Mrs. Dewgrrl was dubiously hesitant. I was horrified to discover that I had a mouthful of seeds with my first bite. It’s not that they taste bad, they’re pretty much tasteless, but they’re small and hard as hell and you just don’t want a mouthful of them when you’re trying to savor the cheesy yummyness of a good stuffed chile. I tried a second bite, hoping that the chef had just missed a few at the tip. Nope. Another mouthful of seeds.
Needless to say, the expression on my face and the spitting of the seeds onto my plate wasn’t exactly filling Mrs. Dewgrrl with cullinary anticipation for her chile. Now I’ll probably never get her to try one, which is a shame.
So yes…make Chile Relleno with your Anaheim. Savor it. Enjoy it. And think of us transplanted Californians living in Georgia, where one is more likely to get struck by lightening than find decent Mexican.
Well, that didn’t go entirely according to plan. First, I had a hard time blackening the pepper (the durned thing kept wanting to roll over), then I had a hard time peeling the blackened parts off (in some spots, it blackened clear through, not just the outer surface). Then, I had over-estimated the size of the pepper, so it turned out to be less “pepper stuffed with shrimp and cheese” than “pepper amongst shrimp and cheese”. And I don’t have the means to grill or deep-fry, so I instead pan-fried it in some butter (but that part seemed to work OK). After frying it, I served it with more cheese, a tomato (also from my garden), and some salsa (that part was according to plan).
All in all, though, it came out OK. I probably won’t do it again any time soon, but that’s largely because I don’t anticipate getting any more Anaheim peppers this season.
Well, I don’t find Anahiems all that hot, so what I would do is cut the top off, carefully dig the seeds out and stuff it with a cheese, onion, mushroom, tomato or whatever and plug it with a garlic clove or an olive and roast it on the barbie. Alternatively, microwave the pepper for about a min, then stuff and renuke. Hmmmmmmmmmm
