Invasión de los chiles rellenos

One, two...this is the 3rd go at making chiles rellenos since our return from the islands which makes me think we should've made a pit stop in Cozumel right after Kauai. Look at these monstrous beauties - can you blame me for wanting to stuff them? This actually is the first time I've seen peperone corno di bue (bull's horn pepper) at Bennet supermarket so either they're new or I am just blind. Must be the latter, because these chiles were about 10 inches long and 2 inches wide at the top end. The large egg compares like a peanut.

As everyone knows, there are as many variations to chiles rellenos as there are cooks, but my favorite way of stuffing this long type of pepper is with cheese. Monterey jack does not exist here and my cheddar source went awol, so the next best thing is fontal, the ignoble cousin to fontina. After roasting the peppers and slipping off the skins, I gently open them up and add the fontal like making a sandwich.

I like my chiles rellenos with a substantial outer coating in order to soak up all that delicious enchilada sauce that I'll bake them in later on. The batter is an egg/flour/water mixture with a pinch of salt and maybe a 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. The consistency is quite like a medium-lite pancake batter - not too thin or thick - with enough body so it won't splatter to smithereens when it hits the hot oil. I use rice oil and do a shallow-fry....for me the end result is always much lighter on the palate and on the tummy.

My preferred pan to finish off the chiles rellenos happens to be a covered skillet that can only fit three maximum. Please do an enchilada sauce from scratch - there are plenty of recipes online - and make enough to have those cheesy stuffed peppers swimming. Bake, covered, for about 20 minutes at 400°F. I wait until it starts bubbling around the edges of the skillet.

Out of the oven and onto the plate. Is this not cheese and chile love? Done like so, they taste even better the next day rolled up in an italian piadina with mexican rice and refried beans. Chile relleno breakfast burrito es muy bueno!