Experiments in my New World Kitchen and Garden

Like most of us in California, I grew up eating battered and fried chile rellenos, stuffed mostly with gooey cheese but occasionally with picadillo. I recently found a rare copy of the out of print Los Chiles Rellenos en Mexico by Mexico City’s brilliant Ricardo Muñoz Zurita and was inspired to think beyond deep frying and experiment with poblano chiles.

Preparing chiles for stuffing is easy enough, especially after you’ve done it a number of times. The Rancho Gordo website has instructions written a few years ago but they’re still valid. Nowadays I tend to roast the chiles in a hot dry skillet and finish off any little crevices with a blow torch.

This first chile filling was made by sauteing an onion and a chopped serrano chile with some oil and Mexican oregano. When soft, I added some cubed zucchini and frozen corn kernels. It’s April and to be honest, I’ve been buying seasonal for so long it was a little odd buying zucchini and corn at this time of year.  I got over it. I then added a cup of cooked Flor de Junio beans and tossed the mixture gently.

This would have been a lovely little dish but who wants lovely when you can have glorious? I packed the opening with grated Manchego cheese and then popped the chiles into a toaster oven until the cheese had melted.

Readers, this was just great! And it opens doors about stuffing chiles. You might even try this inside a bell pepper, but I’d just suggest you get a ripe red one rather than a watery green pepper. It will taste better and imagine the beauty of a stuffed red pepper chock-a-block full of summer vegetables.

To be continued.

Here’s a tested salad from my friend Leslie in the great Pacific Northwest:

My recipe came from Food & Wine (click for their write up and photo Here).
I doubled the recipe for our group, and for the tuna I used 1 can of  Ventresca tuna in oil which comes from the belly and 1 large can
of As Do Mar Tuna In Olive Oil (from Chefshop & The Spanish Table).
But any good quality tuna will work. And also used a good Italian olive
oil in the dressing that I just picked up at Chefshop, which is
currently on sale for just $10 (walk-in price), reg. $30 (they are
still moving last year’s oils out at these discounts).

This
salad is a make ahead dish and tastes even better the 2nd day after
flavors have melded, but I served it the same day as made.

Lemony Tuna and White Bean Antipasto Salad  – Serves 4

Ingredients:

* 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons fruity extra-virgin olive oil (I used a tad bit more olive oil than this to cut the lemon)
* Two 6-ounce cans olive oil packed tuna, drained and broken into large chunks
* 2 cups cooked white beans such as Cassoulet or Alubia Blanca (original recipe calls for cannellini beans)
* 24 pitted Calamata olives, coarsely chopped
* 2 cups thickly sliced celery hearts
* 2 tablespoons capers, drained, or if packed in salt, rinsed
* 2 heaping tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
* 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* Freshly ground pepper
* 2 roasted red peppers from a jar or 4 piquillo peppers from a jar, cut in strips
* Kosher salt

Directions:

Pour the lemon juice into a large bowl and slowly whisk in olive oil. Add the tuna, cooked beans, olives, sliced celery, capers, parsley, piquillo pepper strips, lemon zest and garlic and toss gently. Season with salt & pepper.

To prepare beans: Follow instructions on the Rancho Gordo web site Here. After they are cooked, drain and rinse off the mirepoix for this salad.