Quarantine Life: Chile Rellenos

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, and I had remembered to buy a corned beef, carrots, and potatoes plus the husband brought home Napa cabbage from our garden.  However, I had grilled pasilla peppers earlier in the week for chile rellenos I had intended to cook a couple weeks ago.  I hate for food to go bad, and so I wanted to cook and eat it ASAP.  First things first though:  a Moscow Mule because I had no tequila for a margarita though I did have limes and ginger beer.

I had also eaten a few nights ago at a local Mexican restaurant my favorite coleslaw, which I've been itching to re-create.  Only I had Napa cabbage instead of green cabbage.  That's okay.  I made a dressing of a 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, the juice of a whole lime, a teaspoon of sugar, a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and half of a jalapeno pepper, finely minced, and a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  I then chopped two scallions and 1/3 of the head of my Napa cabbage and added them to the dressing, folding and combining with a spatula to coat the cabbage with the dressing and to leach out its water to drain off later.

I had taken a chub of beef chorizo from my freezer and fried it up in a pan--no need to oil it because there's so much fat--to also stuff into my pasilla chiles.  However, it seemed a shame to throw away the oil because it's so flavorful, and so I saved it in a jar to use in sofrito.  

 

I also had leftover black beans and enchilada sauce in my fridge on which to embed and embellish my chille rellenos and because I hate to waste food.

I guess my dish is not how traditional chile rellenos are served but are rather my one-dish version of a chile rellenos casserole that's a bit more labor intensive.  I had grated queso on hand and stuffed it along with the chorizo into my already grilled pasilla peppers which I then sealed up with toothpicks.

My stuffed peppers were then ready to be battered and fried.  Next I separated the whites and yolks of two eggs and beat the whites with an electric hand blender.

Two eggs did not seem enough for 4 chiles though I could probably have stretched it.  And so I added another egg and then put the yolks into the frothy whites.

After I folded and combined the yolks into the whites, my batter was ready for the chile peppers.  But first get your cast iron pan hot enough so that a half inch of oil is shimmering and starting to smoke.

 This is also a good time to get your oven preheated.

Next plunge the stuffed peppers into the egg batter until coated all over.

And then slide the battered pepper into the hot oil.

 Fry until golden on all sides, which is tricky.  Some cooks will take a big spoon and ladle the hot oil over the battered pepper in order to cook it further and turn it over with the spoon or a spatula.

When the peppers were golden, I spooned them into the casserole dish of black beans and enchilada sauce and drizzled more enchilada sauce on top of them and sprinkled more cheese on top before sliding into a 325 degree oven for 40 minutes.

While my chile rellenos were heating more, I continued folding the chopped Napa cabbage into the spicy dressing along with some chopped cilantro.  Before storing the leftover Mexican slaw, I drained it of the water that collected in the bowl.

My chile rellenos casserole may not be pretty, but it was pretty delicious though a bit spicy (the hubs needed to add sour cream to temper the fiery bite).

I did like how it looked plated though it was clumsy and a bit messy.  The slaw was pretty tasty too.

I'm pretty sure I've blogged before about cooking chile rellenos, and that's okay.  I like to change up my rotation even just a little bit, and the black beans were not the usual for this dish.  And since I'm out of pinto beans, but do have more black beans in my pantry, I'm pondering making mollettes next with frijoles negros because I've got telera rolls too in my bread drawer.