La Platicona Habla: Tastes, Passions and Pursuits

I have made some guacamole dips in my life, but I've never made it with Italian parsley and poblano peppers until today. I found this recipe in a Rick Bayless cookbook, but I was shocked to find that the recipe did not contain any onions. I cheated and added some anyways, although it would taste just fine without any. The recipe presented here doesn't reflect all of the ingredients Rick uses, including a hard queso fresco and raddish, but you can add these ingredients at the end.

Poblano peppers are also called pasilla peppers and are located in your grocer's produce aisle where the jalapenos and serrano peppers are. They come in a deep green color and are about the size of a small hand. They require some prep that you may want to do the day before if you plan on serving this at a BBQ or on the fly after work.

You will need:
- 2 poblano peppers
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 plum tomatoes
- 3 ripe avocados
- 2 key limes or 1 lime, juiced
- handful of chopped Italian parsley
- salt to taste
- 1/4 white onion, diced (optional, just mix in at the end)
- chips for dipping (I suggest blue corn)

Step One: Turn the oven to broil. Place a piece of foil on a cookie sheet and place the poblano peppers, tomatoes, and garlic cloves (with their skins still on) on top. Roast these for a few minutes and turn them so they blister on all sides. This takes only about 5-7 minutes if your oven is preheated. Remove the ingredients from the oven. Place the tomatoes and chiles in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Place a dish towel around this to retain the heat. Let rest for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel the garlic and set aside. When chiles and tomatoes are done resting, remove the skins from the poblanos and tomatoes. Chop the tomatoes up and place them in a bowl. Remove the seeds from the chiles; chop the chiles up finely with the garlic and place in the bowl with the tomatoes. You can set this aside overnight if you want to serve this dip the next day.

Step Two: Take the avocados, cut in half and remove the pits. Scrape the flesh into the bowl with the tomato mixture. Using two spoons, gently mix the ingredients together until well incorporated and the avocado is mush. Add lime juice, italian parsley, and salt to taste. Eat this up!

This alternative recipe for guacamole had a deep smoky flavor from the roasted chiles and is especially delicious to folks (like my mom) who hate cilantro. I prefer the dip with onion, but it is not necessary here.

Labels: avocado, guacamole, Italian parsley, pasilla peppers

Chile comes in many varieties called Capsicum. Chile is native to the Americas and was first cultivated in Mexico over 5000 years ago. Chile is really a hollow fruit that encloses seeds coated with the chemical capsaicin that escapes into the inner wall of the chile and gives the chile its heat. The amount of capsaicin increases when that chile is grown in hot places with little water (like New Mexico), and decreases when the chile turn from green to red. Capsaisin suprisingly does not create ulcers, but rather, has many health benefits for the body, including increasing our metabolism, decreasing appetite preventing overeating, and inducing our body to sweat, causing us to burn more calories. So eat up!

The poblano peppers used for this dish are large, dark green peppers that require some intensive preparation. I propose that you prep them the night before you eat them so that you won't slave for hours over this dish. You can also put some beans in the crock pot the night before too (see blog post 10/18/05) and then "refry" the beans the day you want to eat this dish.

You will need: 2 c of shredded jack cheese; 4 poblano peppers; toothpicks; 3 eggs; medium skillet (castiron is best) and 3/4 c of vegetable oil for frying.

Step One: Turn the oven on broil. Place your peppers on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven. Cook these for 4 minutes, turn the peppers so each side is cooked. The skin will blister and turn black. Remove from the oven after each side is cooked and place immediately into a grocery bag or bowl and cover with saran wrap. Cover the bag or the bowl with a dish towel to retain the heat.

Step Two: After 10 minutes, remove the chile and peel the skins off. Gently make a long slit in the chile and remove the seeds.

Step Three: Stuff each pepper with cheese and close the slit by threading a toothpick into the chile. Refridgerate until you are ready to cook these.

When you are ready to cook these, start here:

Step One: Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs. Place the whites in a mixing bowl and whip or beat on high with a mixer. When the whites stiffen, then fold in the yolks. This is the "batter" for the rellenos.

Step Two: In a castiron skillet or medium skillet, place vegetable oil in pan and warm over medium heat.

Step Three: Dip the stuffed peppers into the egg mixture using your hands. Remove and immediately place in frying pan with hot oil. Cook on each side for 4 minutes or until egg mixture turns golden brown. Place each cooked pepper on a paper towel to drain off excess oil before serving.

Step Four: Serve the rellenos (stuffed peppers) with a side of refried beans. You can use the beans you cooked in the crock pot (see blog post 10/18/05) and simply place them in a skillet with 3 tbslp of hot vegetable oil. Let the liquid cook off and mash. Add salt to taste and serve.

Labels: cheese, eggs, fried, pasilla peppers