Recipe Oven Roasted Chile Rellenos with Chipotle Asado Sauce

medtran49

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This is a recipe originally posted by The Food Network from the SantaCafe. I have changed it to fit our tastes and to use pantry items already on hand. It looks like a lot of ingredients and work, but it's really not and is easily broken into short segments of time that you can work on as you wish. It is vegetarian as written.

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INGREDIENTS:

Chipotle Asado Sauce

3-4 ripe on-the-vine tomatoes or 5-6 Roma tomatoes
1/4 of a small yellow onion, sliced thickly and separated
2 large cloves of garlic, halved
3/4 tsp ground thyme
1-1/2 Tbsp EVOO
Salt and Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2-3 Tbsp Chipotles in adobo or 3 dried chipotle chiles rehydrated (can add more of either to taste)
1 cup heavy cream
Vegetable stock as needed to thin sauce
salt and black pepper to taste

Chile Rellenos

5-6 dried shiitaki mushrooms
Small handful of dried porcini mushrooms
4 good size Poblano chiles
1-1/2 cups quinoa - rinsed well OR 1 cup couscous
1 Tbsp EVOO
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup grated Queso Fresco
1/2 cup grated Queso Blanco
2 large eggs, beaten

Additional salt and black pepper to taste

See SERVING TIP below regarding adding black beans and crema.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Chipotle Asado Sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Slice the on-the-vine tomatoes in half horizontally and get rid of the worst of the seeds, then slice again to quarter and core. Do the same thing with the Roma tomatoes.

On a foil or parchment covered baking sheet, place the prepared tomatoes, onions, and garlic. Sprinkle with thyme and salt and pepper. Drizzle with EVOO and toss to mix. Place in hot oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until the tomato and onion start to show some signs of char. Remove from oven and allow to cool some.

Place the partially cooled vegetables into a food processor blender, along with the chipotles and 1/2 cup cream, and blend until smooth. Add the remaining cream and process. If sauce is too thick, add some vegetable stock. Pour into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat for about 10 minutes until warmed through. Taste and adjust seasonings. Keep warm.

Do-Ahead: Make the sauce up through adding the cream and then refrigerate or simply pour into the saucepan, cover and hold if it's not going to be too long.

Chile Rellenos

Place the dried mushrooms in 2 cups of very hot water, weigh them down with a small lid from a plastic container or jar so that the mushrooms are completely submerged. Allow to soak for at least 30 minutes.

Roast the poblano peppers under the broiler until skin is blackened and charred. TIP: If you have a plumber's torch, use that outside as it keeps the flesh of the pepper fairly firm. Place peppers in a plastic or paper bag and allow to steam and cool down. Remove blackened skin. Using a small sharp knife, make a slit lengthwise in each chile, then make small very short slits to make a T at the stem end. Clean out the seeds and the worst of the ribs of the peppers.

Once the mushrooms have soaked long enough, remove them from the liquid, reserving the liquid, and allow to drain on a paper towel.

Use the reserved mushroom liquid to cook the quinoa or the couscous per package directions, adding water or chicken stock as needed, and making sure to discard any debris in the bottom of the mushroom liquid. Add some salt and pepper as directed on the package or to your taste. Allow to cool some.

In a skillet over medium-high heat, add the EVOO, the thyme and the onions. Add the 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Reduce heat to medium and cook until onions start to become translucent. Remove any woody/hard stems from the shiitakis and chop all the mushrooms. Add the mushrooms and the butter, cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes more. Allow the vegetable mixture to cool.

Mix the cooled quinoa OR couscous with the cooled vegetable mix and the eggs and cheeses. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Carefully stuff the peppers with the quinoa OR couscous and vegetable mix, making sure not to split or tear the peppers, but fully stuffing them. Place each of them on a foil or parchment covered baking sheet. Once all are stuffed, place in the hot oven for about 20 minutes or until heated through.

To serve, ladle a pool of sauce on a large dinner plate or large bowl, place a pepper in the middle and drizzle with sauce.

SERVING TIP: You could also place a bed of black beans on the sauce, then the peppers if you wanted a more substantial meal. You could also drizzle with some crema or thinned sour cream if desired.
 
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I have never seen a Chile Relleno done that way before. The poblanos look black in the photo, but not burnt, is that how they look in person?

CD
 
Very dark green. They were really dark ones to begin with and the way the plumber's torch chars the skin, I take paper towels and rub the char to get it off (it doesn't peel, just flakes), which leaves extremely fine black residue.

And I think it was supposed to be a "healthy" recipe, i.e. no battered and fried stuff.
 
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I have never seen a Chile Relleno done that way before. The poblanos look black in the photo, but not burnt, is that how they look in person?

CD

I use a hand held torch to blacken the skin. That gets wiped off, leaving a firm texture to the pablano. The pepper remains a dark green, but the lighting makes it look black. We like them better than lightly battered.
 
Nice combinations of ingredients and flavors!
 
The chiles Poblano I bought last time in Mexico were pretty dark green; almost black. Whilst the picture perhaps doesn´t do the dish justice, the Poblano is a perfect chile for stuffing; thick flesh, not really hot at all, and a good size.
A lot of Mexican recipes look complicated, and perhaps they are, but I suppose if you´re well organised in the kitchen, who cares? THe end results are glorious.
 
The chiles Poblano I bought last time in Mexico were pretty dark green; almost black. Whilst the picture perhaps doesn´t do the dish justice, the Poblano is a perfect chile for stuffing; thick flesh, not really hot at all, and a good size.
A lot of Mexican recipes look complicated, and perhaps they are, but I suppose if you´re well organised in the kitchen, who cares? THe end results are glorious.

A lot of traditional Mexican dishes take time to make, but aren't all that complicated. Some can take all day. Chilis relleños are not difficult, but aren't a quick after-work dinner, either.

CD
 
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