Kapes' Kitchen: Chile Relleno (Much tastier fried!)

Lately, I have been watching my figure... well, expand. With all the tastiness in Austin, and MikeDub's newfound talent for frying up his own Chinese food, it is difficult to maintain any sort of waistline. Before the realization that one of my belts needed a new hole, I had picked up a few poblano peppers to cook up some chile relleno. I was saddened as I noticed them starting to wilt, but didn't have the heart to fry up my dinner in oil. That's when a friend suggested baking them... Looking online, I found a recipe for a relleno casserole! The original recipe is here, however I modified the hell out of it.

I have my own thing going on with the chile relleno, and I've developed my own stuffing. And just to notify y'all that this little white girl has some cred in the area of Mexican cooking, the first time I prepared this dish (fried) my Mexican student told me that it tasted like her mom's. SO THERE! Here I present to you the baked casserole I tried tonight (with pictures) and the fried recipe, just because it's soooo yummy! Happy cooking...

THE INGREDIENTS:
3 Poblano Peppers
1/3 lb. Ground Beef
Red Onion
1 Carrot
1 tsp. Chili powder
Cheddar and/or Jack Cheese (I once found a block at HEB where they were premixed. Soft and crumbly and easy to work with--I believe the brand was Kraft)
4 eggs
Flour
Salt
Pepper
1 Tbsp. Butter (for the baked dish)
Oil for frying (for the fried dish)

There are a few steps to making successful relleno. For both recipes, many of them are the same. The "to do list" includes (1) pepper prep (2) stuffing prep (3) batter (4) baking or frying

PEPPER PREP
Roast the peppers. Place them under the broiler until the skins blister and blacken, rotating so that all sides are blistered. Remove from oven and wrap the peppers in foil. Leave them in the foil to "self-steam" until they're cool enough to handle. Once cooled, slit the pepper down the side and remove most of the seeds. If I forget to bring home latex gloves from work, I wrap my hand in a plastic sandwich bag to remove them. Trust me, these little seeds are spicy! Protect your hands!


STUFFING PREP
I like beef in my relleno. This is not the traditional way to do it, but I love it. Combine the beef with diced red onion, thinly sliced carrot (I prep these with the peeler), chili powder, salt, and pepper. Brown the meat on medium heat. Drain. You may choose to mix the cheese with the meat at this point for more even distribution. Stuff the peppers; be certain that they will close if you intend to fry them.


BATTER PREP
Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Beat the whites until they are fluffy and full of air (see picture). I use a wire wisk, but imagine a hand mixer would revolutionize this process for me. Once the whites are light and fluffy, mix the yolks back into the whites in small portions, while continuing to beating vigorously. I only reintroduce about half of the yolks to try to be healthy.


THE FRIED DISH
Preheat the oil on medium-high heat. Dust the peppers with flour on both sides, and dip generously in the egg mixture. Be certain to get the fluffy mixture into the slit; it will help it to seal back up. Using a spoon (so you don't burn yourself), transfer the pepper into the heated oil. I like to begin slit-side down; I think it seals them up better. Fry until the egg just begins to brown. Rotate the pepper and fry the other side. Transfer to a paper towel to drain and cool.

THE BAKED DISH
Grease (I used Pam) a shallow ~8 x 8 baking dish and place the peppers in the dish. Add the butter (melted, but not hot) to your egg mixture and pour it over the relleno. Bake for 18 min on 375 º or until egg mixture sets. I did not do this, and I'm not sure if it would ruin the fluffyness, but I think the egg mixture would taste better with some salt added to it.