Cooking: Chile Rellenos

As if attempting to cook my husband's pot roast dinner of his youth for a Sunday supper weren't enough (which turned out just okay), I also cooked Chile Rellenos for Mexican Monday.  Very labor intensive.  First I roasted two Anaheim and two Pasilla chile peppers and fried tortillas to make chips to embellish my dish.

After I roasted the peppers, I peeled off their black papery skins and removed the seeds and membranes after slitting them open.  I took out a block of Monterey Jack cheese, frijoles, red enchilada sauce, and chorizo leftover from huevos ranchero the week before.

I then layered the beans and salsa roja in the glass baking dish on which to lay the stuffed peppers on.  I also took two eggs out and separated the whites from the yolks.

I cut the cheese into smaller blocks and then stuffed them into the peppers along with leftover chorizo.  I used 3 toothpicks to skewer the peppers over the cheese and chorizo.  I had also turned my oven on to preheat it to 350 degrees.

Next I whipped the egg whites as stiff as I could get them and then folded in the yolks.  I then submerged the stuffed pepper into the beaten eggs.

And then the frying.  I heated a half an inch of vegetable oil in my cast iron pan and kept it at medium high heat.  The oil needed to be hot enough to hear a sizzle when I slid the stuffed pepper in, but not so hot that the egg batter golden browned too soon to burnt.  It's especially tricky turning the peppers over to its other side--a spoon helps and you can spoon hot oil over the egg batter to help it along.

We were pretty happy with how tasty the chile rellenos were, so happy that we ate them before I could take a picture of the completed dish though here's a shot before I submerged the tortilla chips in the sauce around the peppers and before they went in for 30 minutes in the oven to melt the cheese and crisps the tortilla chips some more.