Sunday, December 5, 2010

Rosie Makes Chile Rellenos With An Avocado Cream Sauce And A Cilantro Garlic Sauce.

On our travels throughout the southwest United States, we ate at plenty of Mexican restaurants. One of my favorite dishes was the chile rellenos. Chile rellenos, literally stuffed chile, vary from restaurant to restaurant, depending on the stuffing. I've had some with just cheese. I've had some with potatoes. Some with zucchini. Some with corn. I'm making mine today with shrimp.
First, I'm making an avocado cream sauce. This was a staple at many of the restaurants we went to.
Avocado Cream Sauce Ingredients:
1 avocado juice of two limes
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup sour cream
 1/2 cup creme fraiche
milk to thin puree
 granulated garlic
 salt and pepper to taste
f you don't have your own creme fraiche,
you can substitute sour cream.
 If you'd like to make creme fraiche,
see here. It's well worth your time.
Juice the limes into a processor.
Peel and pit the avocado.
Add the avocado, the creme fraiche, and the sour cream to the processor.
Yogurt in. Process away until smooth. Add a little milk to get the puree nicely blended.
Salt, pepper, and granulated garlic to taste.
Gotta taste test this.
Wait. I need another taste just to be sure. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the cream and refrigerate. Next, I'm making a cilantro garlic cream sauce.
Cilantro Garlic Cream Sauce Ingredients: 2 TB butter 2 garlic cloves 2 TB flour 1/3 cup cream 1/3 cup milk 3-4 TB chopped cilantro 1/2 tsp granulated garlic salt to taste
Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add minced garlic.
Saute garlic for about 1 minute.
Add flour and cook, whisking constantly, to make a roux.

Add cream and milk gradually, whisking for about five minutes, until ingredients are well blended.
Add more milk, if necessary, to adjust the consistency of the sauce.
Add granulated garlic, salt and pepper to taste, and the cilantro.
Simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes. Now for the chiles rellenos.
First, prepare the chiles - poblanos for this. Heat over direct flame until thoroughly blackened.
Keep heating.
Instead of putting the peppers in a paper bag and letting them sweat the skin off, I plunge them immediately into ice water.

Just rub with your fingers and the skin comes right off.
Ingredients for stuffing: 1/2 can corn 1 small squash, peeled and diced 1 small zucchini, peeled and diced 1/2 onion, diced 1/2 red bell pepper, diced 4 garlic cloves, minced butter cilantro
Prepare the veggies.
Pretty poblanos.

Slice the poblanos about 2/3 of the way down.
Remove the seeds.

Wipe with a paper towel to remove any of the remaining charred skin.
Veggies are diced and ready. Peppers are peeled and seeded. Eggs are separated.
Melt 3-4 tablespoons of butter in the pan.
Add in corn.
Cook for about a minute, then add in pepper and garlic.
Oops. I hate those stickers.
Add in squash and zucchini.
And onion.
Heat through.
About a pound of shrimp into the pan.

Cook until just barely pink. Do not overcook.
Here's the cilantro garlic sauce. I added a little more milk to it to thin it out a bit more.
Heat through.
I tasted and added more cilantro. Pour cilantro garlic sauce over shrimp mixture.
I sprinkled in some Cotija cheese for good measure.
Stir stuffing to mix well.
Ready for stuffing.

Stuff away and secure with toothpicks.
Whisk yolks ...
... until light, foamy, and lemon colored.
Beat whites until stiff peaks form. Notice I used the beaters for the whites and the whisk for the yolks. Whenever you're beating whites, you need a clean, dry beater. Any trace of yolk or water on the beater and your whites won't beat properly.
This is poorly designed. The burst button should be at zero and the eject button should be where the burst button is.
When the whites form stiff peaks ...
... stir a little bit of the whites into the yolks.
Pour the yolks into the whites ...
... and gently fold.

Dredge the poblanos in flour ...
... then in the egg mixture.

Heat oil and fry peppers one at a time.

Puffy!
Drain on paper towels.
Serve with avocado cream sauce over top
and a side of rice with salsa and cilantro.
This was excellent. Now Mr. Hawthorne wants to try his hand at chile rellenos. I look forward to that.

4 comments:

Marilyn said...

I've never had a chile relleno before. That does look good, though.

I do hate those stickers. At least they are edible. Just don't make the mistake of washing the pepper before realizing that you forgot to remove the sticker because they are a bear to remove when they are wet.

You know, it's funny. I hate beans, but I actually like refried beans. Go figure.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Mar, hie thee to a Mexican restaurant ASAP and get you a chile relleno.

Marilyn said...

Hie thee I will I wili indeed.

zzzadig said...

Alternate method: Dip pepper in beaten yolks then flour, place large dollop of tufted whites in pan. Lay pepper on whites, top with second dollop of whites, fry bottom, turn and fry top. Really puffy and light.