Chili Relleños! It's what's for dinner!

I love Southwest food.  If I had to pick any culture of food that I could eat every day, that would be it. One of our favorite dishes is Chili Relleños.  I have a recipe that I got in an old out of print book about 30 years ago that I've tweaked over the years.  Since I was making it tonight, I thought I'd write it up to share.  I love the combination of the somewhat spicy Poblano peppers, the soft melted cheese and the airy omelet like coating.  It's a mix of textures and tastes that is most appealing to me.

Chili Relleños

Ingredients:

• Poblano peppers--one for each relleño.  I always get the biggest ones I can find
• Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack cheese.  Plain is more traditional but I like the extra kick from the pepper Jack.
• Eggs--one for each pepper plus one extra.  Since I make 4 at a time, I used 5 eggs.
• Flour
• Water
• Cooking oil

You will need to peel the peppers.  Place them on a cooking sheet under the broiler until they are blistered.  Turn over, making sure they are blistered all over.  You will need to watch them but figure about 5 minutes or so on each side.

When you take the peppers out of the oven, place them in a paper or plastic bag for 10 or 15 minutes to steam.

This will make the peppers easy to peel.  The skin should pull right off in big pieces.

Slit the pepper open and clean the seeds and inner membrane out.  Sometimes it's easy to just rinse them then blot dry.

Cut an oblong block of cheese for each pepper and put inside the pepper, wrapping the slit opening around to enclose it.

While preparing the coating, place about 1/4 - 1/2 inch cooking oil in a non stick frying pan to heat on medium heat.  The oil must be hot when you begin cooking.  Separate your eggs, placing the whites in a medium to large bowl and the yolks in a small bowl.  Beat the whites until stiff peaks form.  Then beat the yolks and add 1 tablespoon of flour for each egg and 2 teaspoons of water for each egg.  Since I was making 4 relleños, I used 5 eggs, 5 tablespoons of flour and 10 teaspoons of water.  Beat the yolk mixture until blended, adding a pinch of salt.  Basically, you want it to be the consistency of pancake batter.

Gently fold the yolk mixture into the beaten egg whites.

You will prepare 2 relleños at a time.  Place two big blobs of egg mixture on the oil, a little bigger than the peppers and let it cook for a few minutes.

Gently lay a cheese stuffed pepper on each blob of egg batter.

Carefully spoon a thin layer of batter over the top of the pepper, completely covering it (except the stem).

Here's the tricky part.  You need to turn the relleños by gently rolling them over.  Put your spatula under and roll toward the side of the pan.  You will basically be folding it in half.

You will need to roll them over at least once more, cooking until golden brown.

Repeat with the remaining chilis.  Drain them on paper towels.

I served these topped with fresh Pico de Gallo. 

Easy Pico de Gallo

Ingredients:

Roma tomatoes

Red or yellow onion

Cilantro

jalapeño pepper

lime juice

This is easy!  Dice equal amounts of Roma tomato (seeded), onion and cilantro.

If you decide to add jalapeño, seed the pepper and dice finely.  Be sure to wear gloves or wash your hands well after handling hot peppers.  I used one large jalapeño to 1 cup each tomato, onion and cilantro.

Mix well, add a splash of lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.  You may end up tweaking the ingredients to your liking by adding more or less of any one of them.

The meal consisted of the chilis, topped with the pico de gallo and a dollop of sour cream.  It was accompanied by our favorite Mexican slaw which can be found here.  I substituted green cabbage for the red cabbage called for in the recipe.

Yum!  My favorite Mexican dish!

An Indian Treat!

I am in love with Indian food! Nothing warms my innards more on a cold winter day! Lately I've been really enjoying some ready made frozen entrees containing Paneer which is a fresh cheese cut into cubes and put into one of a variety of sauces. I was looking online for sources to purchase Paneer and found comment after comment about how easy it is to make and how much better it is. So I embarked on a cheese making adventure. Here is a little tutorial.

How to make Paneer

1. Gather your ingredients: 1 half gallon of whole milk (do not get milk that has been ultra pasteurized) and 1 or 2 lemons.
Equiment: large heavy saucepan, strainer and cheesecoth.


2. Put the milk in the saucepan and heat, stirring so the milk doesn't stick to the pan. Squeeze the juice out of one lemon and
put aside.


3. Prepare your strainer. Place a double layer of cheesecloth in the strainer and a bowl underneath to catch the whey when
the cheese is drained.


4. Bring the milk to a boil and remove pan from heat quickly before milk bubbles over.


5. Stir in the juice from 1 lemon. You will see curdles begin to form right away and the whey will separate. Stir gently for a
minute or two then let the pan sit for about 10 minutes.


6. Pour the cheese into the strainer. Twist the cheesecloth tightly around the cheese and squeeze out as much moisture as you can.


7. Keep the cheesecloth tightly twisted and press the cheese into a disk about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Place on a plate.


8. Place another plate on top and weight it with cans or heavy books.


9. Leave weights on the cheese for 30 minutes or so then unwrap cheese and use or wrap in plastic and refrigerate.


10. You may choose to keep the whey to use in soups or baking. It should be used within a week or two or it may be frozen for future use.


Check out the cubed fresh cheese!


Here's the finished meal! The paneer was lightly browned in ghee and simmered in Korma sauce. It was served over a Basimati/Wild rice pilaf accompanied by a spinach lentil dal. Mmmm Good!

Catching up . . .

I've been bad. I need to stay current here and I have no excuse seeing as I am off for the summer! I've got some swap projects to do. I'm participating in a Puck This swap (hockey fans) and a Tea Towel Swap with two Ravelry groups. I received my package in the Puck This Swap:


Some gorgeous lampworked beads in Washington Capitals colors and some goodies from Wisconsin--coffee, popcorn, jam and chutney! Good stuff!

I also started the Botanica Medallion Cardigan. I really need to finish my Musica Gloves but I couldn't stand it! I have the medallion done:

I'm please with it. It measures about 15 inches in diameter and it is blocked. I've started the outer band:

I've actually done twice as much as the photo shows. I'm intrigued with the design. The designer chose stitch patterns with different gauges so that the band actually curves and will form a circle around the medallion.

Other stuff that's been going on--I need to do some sewing. I have to finish a skirt I'm working on and then I'm doing another. Here are the patterns I'm using:


I'll post photos of the finished skirts when I can model them with decent shoes!
I made a new wreath for the front door. We decorate our house with Patriotic bunting and we have our flag out. I thought I would do a seasonal wreath for the front door:


Tomorrow I get my foot checked! It seems to be healing well. I've cut way back on taking the Advil which is a good sign. I'm still wearing the velcro shoe thingie when I go out. I am painfully reminded that my foot isn't all together healed when I step on a tree root or some other irregular spot of ground! I will also steam up some fresh veggies tomorrow. A few weeks ago, I ate lunch at Bonaparte's and they served a salad which was a bed of Romaine with lightly steamed green beans, zucchini spears, carrots, and beets plus tomato wedges and pitted Kalamata olives. It was topped with a delicious lemon vinaigrette. Here is my version of it:

The recipe I used for the lemon vinaigrette can be found here. The only change I made was to add 2 tsp. of sugar instead of 1/2 tsp. and I didn't use pepper. It is really good stuff!

I've finally gotten all my planters done! I'll leave you with some photos of some of them:






Kitty Cam: Two couch potatoes--Harley and Mikey!

Finally!

Snow! Real snow! Typical snow average in this area is about 12 inches over the winter. So far we had gotten 2 inches. That was it! I guess Mother Nature figured that she better get on the stick before winter ended. It looks like we've gotten about 6 inches. I'm happy to report that school was cancelled today. I'm also happy that the snow held off until last night as DH and I went downtown to the Caps game at 3:00 yesterday. We typically drive into DC on the weekends, but we were afraid that they would call a snow emergency which means that you cannot park on main roads. If you are parked on one and don't move your car, you get towed and a hefty fine. We drove to Greenbelt and took the metro in. Everyone on the train had Caps jerseys on which was nice. Unfortunately the game totally blew. The Caps are #2 in the Eastern Conference and #4 in the league. They got spanked royally, losing to Florida 6 - 2. Ouch! How can an ice hockey team from the deep south do that!!!

I haven't been up to too much these days. I have been working on my two projects a lot. My Chunky Cabled Tam is going to hibernate until I figure out what to do with it. Here it is in it's current state:


I love this hat on the cover of Knit 1. Mine looks a lot bigger. It is very bulky--two strands of Manos held together on size 11 needles. The pattern called for 3 skeins of Manos and I have run out of yarn! 4 skeins will amount to one expensive hat! When I try this on, the slouchy part of the hat literally hangs down to my shoulders. I think it is just too big. I'll have to take it to my stitch 'n bitch group on Wednesday to ask for advice. I don't know whether I should get another skein and finish it, or to frog back and do one less repeat of the cable to make the top smaller. That would also keep me from having to get another skein. So I've put the tam aside to finish the Opulent Raglan. I am now on the hip increases below the waist.

I love this sweater! It fits like a charm and the yarn is like butter on the skin! It is Bristol Yarn Gallery King George which is 45% merino, 45% alpaca, 10% cashmere. My row gauge is off though. I'm getting more rows per inch. I'm a little worried that this sweater will grown in length when it is blocked. Alpaca has a tendency to do that. Merino has good memory so I'm hoing it will balance out the alpaca. At any rate, I ended up ordering two more skeins of this yarn. I am on the 5th now and only have 3 left. I can see using at least one more on the body so the 8 I bought won't be enough. I hope to get this finished by the middle of March.

I ordered the yarn for Sylvi. According to the yardage, I will need 10 skeins of the yarn I chose. I ordered 11 but Webs only had 10 so I got what they had. I'll have to make sure that my swatch is accurate. I want to do some modifications which might require more yarn. The color I got is called Valentine and they have another red, so I may get some of that and do a dye job.

Cold weather makes me pull out the crock pot. We've had some good stuff from the slow cooker in the last few weeks. Our favorite so far has been Pepperoncini Beef.

Here's the recipe:

1 - boneless chuck roast (mine was 3.5 lbs.)
2 - 14 oz.cans low sodium beef broth
1 - 16 oz, jar pepperoncini
3 or 4 peeled garlic cloves

Make some cuts into the surface of the roast. Slice the garlic cloves and put the slices into the cuts in the beef. Place the beef in the crock pot and pour in the broth and the pepperoncini with the juice. Cook 6 - 8 hours on low. After cooking, pull out the beef and shred with 2 forks. I also pulled out the pepperoncini and removed the stems. Return the pepperoncini and beef to the crock. Serve on crusty rolls. Top with Provolone cheese and put under the broiler for a couple of minutes.

Here is the finished sandwich, served with Provolone and broiled on a Chiabatta roll with some spicy Chipotle mustard!

Good stuff!

Samantha has found her old toys! There is this particular toy that she loves and I can't find them any more. I've bought her a bunch of them over the years and they eventually get destroyed. We found 2 of them in the house. She is like a kid with a security blanket with these things.


She carries it around the house. I'll hear her meowing repeatedly and there she will be with the toy in her mouth. The other day, I noticed this:

Her toy was on the piano stool! Of course the next morning I saw this:

She basks in the sun every morning on the piano stool so I guess she needed her toy to keep her company!

I will leave you with photos of the snow, taken from inside the house!




Kitty Cam: Greg is a little more greedy with his toys. He collects a number of them and puts them in his favorite box.