Chiles Rellenos...Isla Style...

I got a craving for some good Mexican food the other day. Living in Texas, there is no shortage of Mexican restaurants. In fact, you'll find numerous "mom and pop" places all over the place down here. I mean that literally...there's at least one on every block. But after you've been to a few, you find out that they're all pretty much the same. Once you've been to one...you've been to them all. Maybe there's a special one out there, but I haven't found it yet. They all have the soupy refried beans...the Velveeta cheese on top of the enchiladas...etc., etc. Then you have places like Mamacita's which is more of a higher-priced TexMex kind of restaurant with generic dishes like fajitas and Spanish rice with, again, the soupy refried beans. They do nothing for me.

So, I pulled out my copy of recipes from restaurants on Isla Mujeres which I downloaded from the Isla Chatter Board a few months ago, and decided to make the Chiles Rellenos recipe from La Lomita. Here are some of my ingredients.

And here's the recipe...

And here's La Lomita on Isla. Strangely enough, I have never eaten here. It's either been closed when I've gone by, or I just haven't been hungry enough to eat there. Maybe one of these days.

So, onto the recipe. Saute some onions, garlic and tomatoes...

Char some poblano peppers on the stove so that you can take off the skins. (Having a gas stove really comes in handy for this.)

This isn't in the recipe, but I've read that you should put the peppers inside a sealed plastic bag for awhile after charring them...it makes peeling them easier.

Here's Jared peeling the peppers...

Puree the tomato/onion/garlic mixture and heat again...

I forgot to get pictures of the flour and egg part of the recipe. Mix flour, salt and pepper in one dish and combine a frothy mixture of egg yolks and whites together. After stuffing the peppers with the Mexican cheese, dip the pepper in the egg mixture, then the flour, then the egg mixture again...and the flour again...then place in hot oil.

And here's the result...muy bueno! Poblano peppers are very mild, so there was no spiciness to this dish at all. I think next time I make it, I will put some jalapeno peppers into the tomato sauce for a little kick.

It's a pretty time-consuming dish and my kitchen was a mess at the end, but it was well worth it. Would I make them again? Definitely! They were better than any chiles rellenos I've ever gotten in the states.