unintended cinco de mayo meal

I recently decided that I wanted to make stuffed chiles. I'm not sure, but I think it's because I had chile verde the other day (my dad's default Mexican restaurant order), which made me think of chile relleno (my mom's default). I went to the store and got myself some pasillas, only to later do research and discover that most recipes use poblanos or some other chiles. Oh well.

I'm not sure if I used larger peppers than are normal or what, but I thought the peppers didn't have a whole lot of stuffing inside and used a lot more cheese to fill in some of the gaps. They tasted pretty good. The most interesting part of the process was that I had never used tomatillos before and didn't know that they were sticky underneath the husks, which was sort of gross.


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Pasilla Chiles Stuffed with Potato
(Chiles Pasillas Rellenos)

Ingredients:
1 pound New potatoes
12 Pasilla chiles
6 ounce 'queso fresco'; feta cheese or cream cheese, crumbled
salt
0.333 cup Vegetaable oil

TOMATILLO SAUCE
2 pound Tomatillos; husked and rinsed
2 tablespoon Coarsely chopped white onion
2 Garlic cloves finely chopped
1 Heaped tablespoon dark brown sugar
salt
1/2 cup Chicken stock or water
1998
Prescription:

The following are from the April 1996 issue of Food & Wine in an article by Diane Kennedy.

Senora Maria Herrera Redondo de Williams

1.In a large saucepan of boiling water, cook the potatoes until fork-tender, aobut 20 minutes. Drain, cool slightly and peel. Transfer to a large bowl and mash roughly.

2.Using a small sharp knife, slit the chiles lenghtwise, leaving the stems intact. Carefully remove the seeds and veins. Place the chiles in a bowl, cover whit hot water and let soak until just beginning to soften, about 20 minutes (depending on how dry they were in the first place). Drain.

3.Add the cheese to the potatoes, season with salt and mash together well.

Stuff the chiles fully with the filling, but leave enougfh room so that the seams almost close.

4.Heat the oil in a large nonreactive skillet. Gently fry the chiles in batches, rolling them over from time to time so that they cook evenly without browning too much, about 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to darain. Reserve the oil in the skillet.

5.Make the tomatillo sauce: In a large nonreactive saucepan, cover the tomatillos with water and simmer until soft, about 10 minutes. Drani and transfer to a blender. Add the onion and garlic and blend until almost smooth (but still textured)>

6.Preheat the oven to 350. Heat the reserved oil iln the skillet. Add the brown sugar and fry for a few seconds. Add the tomatillo sauce, season with salt and cook over high heat until reduced, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chicken stock.

7.In a baking dish large enough to hold the chiles in one layer, arrange the chiles side by side. Pour the tomatillo sauce over the chiles and bake until heated through, about 15 minutes. Serve warm.