Cook: Chile Rellenos/Chilaquiles

The peppers are starting to proliferate. We've got pasilla, jalapeno and serrano chile peppers in our garden, and they'll be ready to harvest next week. But I had bought pasilla peppers before my Kauai vacation and needed to cook them asap, and so last night it was chile rellenos night. I broiled the peppers on high for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, trying not to overcook them and make them impossible to stuff, and then peeled and de-seeded them when cool. 

I sliced planks from a block of Pepper Jack to stuff into the pasillas and also cut up corn tortillas to fry and eat with the guacamole I had made too. And then I floured the stuffed peppers, which I think makes the egg batter stick to them more.

Next I separated two egg yolks from the whites, and beat the whites until stiff.

Then I folded the yolks into the whites while trying to keep the beaten eggs still fluffy.

And then the battering and frying. I had heated a cast iron while prepping on medium low and then added the oil and amped the heat to medium high. I battered the peppers and even spooned some more of the batter onto the top of the pepper after sliding it into the oil, and you can see I had skewered the peppers containing the cheese close with toothpicks. To get the pepper to cook more evenly, I'll use a large spoon to scoop a bit of hot oil over the raw egg batter.

Once browned on the first side, I then remove the toothpicks to turn the pepper over to brown on the other sides and just constantly rotate the pepper in the oil until golden all over. And then I place the peppers on paper towel to drain off excess oil. I used short cuts of a can of refried beans and a can of red enchilada sauce, spooning half of the can of beans into a baking dish and ladled with half of the can of enchilada sauce.

While frying the tortilla chips, I stuck the toothpicks back into the chile rellenos and then nestled the peppers into the enchilada sauce. I then ladled the rest of the enchilada sauce over the peppers and grated Monterey Jack and sprinkled over the casserole. I also stuck the fried tortillas on the edge of the dish before popping into a 350 F oven for 25 minutes or until the cheese was golden and bubbling.

Time to serve. And refresh my mai tai.

Okay I should have just kept the chips separate on another baking pan, but was too lazy and thought the enchilada sauce would keep them from baking and kind of resemble a chilaquile casserole. No matter. Hubs said it was delish.