Chile Relleno

My dad made me my first Chile relleno when I was a kid. He had learned about this dish when he was a college student at New Mexico. I have had this dish in various restaurants and have had various issues with them including - too many seeds left in / too spicy , too soggy , the sauce being sour , the batter tasting too eggy etc . I looked for recipes and used two different recipes ( recipe 1 , recipe 2 ) and improvisation to make this dish at home and it turned out to be one of the best chile rellenos I have ever tasted 

Ingredients: 

Poblano peppers - 2 

Filling : 

Shredded Cheddar cheese - 1/4 cup 

Shredded Mexican cheese blend - 1/2 cup

Cream cheese ( softened ) - 1/2 cup 

String cheese mozzarella - 1 split into two vertically 

Mix all the cheeses except for the string cheese and set aside 

Egg- 1 

Baking powder - 1/4 tsp 

Separate whites and yellow in different bowls 

Beat the white into stiff peaks ( used electric hand mixer)

Beat the yellow with the baking powder 

Fold the yellow into the whites and set aside in a shallow bowl ( easy for dipping) 

All purpose flour- 1/4 cup 

Panko bread crumbs- 1/2 cup  ( mix in 1 tsp of cumin powder and 1 tsp taco seasoning to give it some flavour ) 

Place these in shallow bowls or plates 

Assemble a dipping station - with flour first , then egg, then bread crumbs 

Oil - 2 cups for shallow frying 

Instructions: 

1. Preheat the oven’s broiler ( high setting). Take the poblano peppers and place them on a foil lined baking sheet and broil them for 8-10 min until the skin is blistered and blackened 
   
   
   
   
2. Take the peppers out and place in a bowl and cover with a lid. This traps the steam /moisture in there and softens the skin more for about 10 min 
3.  Now peel off the skin and slit the peppers vertically and remove the seeds. 
   
   
   
   
4. Fill the inside with cheese mixture and place some string cheese in the middle to get a nice gooey center . Close the peppers up with toothpicks. Make sure to count the number of toothpicks you placed so you can ensure all of them come out later!!! 
5. 
   
   
   
6. Now dip the stuffed pepper in the flour first and dust off excess flour.
7. Then dip in the egg mixture
8. Finally dip into the seasoned breadcrumbs
9. Heat up oil in a pan to shallow fry the peppers ( start this prior to assembling the peppers so it’s ready to go )
10. Once hot ( 350F) turn down the heat to medium and let cool a little , gently place the peppers in the oil taking care not to splash hot oil on your hands . Fry each side until golden brown. 
    
    
    
11. Take the pepper out with a slotted spoon and let the oil drip out and then place on a paper towel lined plate to blot excess oil . Once slightly cool pull out the tooth picks.
12. Chile relleno is now ready to serve with a red sauce.

Sauce 

Can of tomatoes ( Rotel or similar with stewed tomatoes )- 1 ( can use fresh tomatoes or paste as well) 

Onion - 1/2 chopped 

Garlic - 2 cloves minced

Vegetable broth - 2 cups 

Dried oregano - 1 tbsp

Cumin powder - 1/2 tbsp

Pepper - 1/2 tsp 

Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste 

Cayenne pepper - small pinch ( optional) 

Taco seasoning - 1 tbsp 

Brown sugar - 2 to 3 tbsp ( enough to make the sauce not sour ! ) 

Oil - 1 to 2 tbsp 

1. Grind the tomatoes in a blender to a purée ( if using paste dilute with water to make a purée )
2. In a sauce on medium heat add oil and sauté the onions until translucent and then sauté the garlic 
   
   
3. Now add all the spices ( except brown sugar ) and sauté for 30 seconds 
4. Then add in the tomato purée and stir well. Add the broth and mix it to desired thickness ( can add more broth or water )
5. Taste it and add salt to taste 
6. Taste it and add brown sugar one spoon at a time mixing it in and tasting to get to desired taste ( I like my sauce slightly sweet and not sour ) 
   

Now chile relleno is ready to serve 

On a plate place some sauce 

Then place the Chile relleno on top of the sauce ( instead of pouring the sauce on top I do this to prevent it from become too soggy ) 

Garnish with some sour cream 

Vegetable tempura

In keeping with my Japanese theme I decided to make vegetable tempura to go along with my sushi. I followed a food network  recipe for the batter and went rogue on the vegetables/ fruits I used to make tempura. I’ve always thought that tempura was similar to Indian pakoras without the heavy batter on the vegetables. Looking at the history I noted that tempura was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese living in Nagasaki in the 16th century. Per my Wikipedia research - ‘The name "tempura" originates from the Latin phrase quatuor anni tempora, which refers to the Ember days, during which no meat is consumed’ 

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup 

Cornstarch - 1 tbsp 

Seltzer water - 1.5 cups 

Salt - to taste 

Vegetables: any cut into desired thickness and length 

I used : onion, carrot, sweet potato , avocado, green beans , asparagus, broccoli , mango and pomegranate

Vegetable / canola Oil 1 cup - 2 cups for deep frying 

Sauce :

Soy sauce - 3 to 4 tbsp

Brown sugar - to taste 

Apricot jelly - to taste 

Water - to dilute to desired consistency 

Instructions 

1. Mix all the ingredients of the batter together in a large mixing bowl 
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Dip the vegetables or fruit in the batter to coat them thinly and then deep fry them until golden brown. 
   
   
   
3. Tempura is ready to serve. I made a quick sauce with soy sauce , water, brown sugar and apricot jelly mixed together to use as a dipping sauce which was quite tasty 
   
   

Tip: if you have left over tempura you can heat it up in the air fryer at 350 for about a minute to two to get tempura that tastes just like when you pulled it out of fry pan ! 

Sushi- vegetable roll

I love sushi even though I’m vegetarian.  I love the various vegetable rolls and I use cream cheese instead of crab meat. I love using fresh vegetables and tempura vegetables as filling.

I got a sushi making kit which had these plastic inserts etc. to make fancy sushi but it didn’t really work very well for me. So I just decide to use my mat and roll it old school and they turned out great ! 

Sushi rice (recipe)

1 cup sushi rice 

1 cup water 

1 tbsp rice vinegar 

1 tbsp sugar 

1/2 tbsp salt 

Wash the rice really well until water is clear. 

Place water and rice in a pot and let it come to a boil.

once it comes to a boil reduce the heat to low and cover the pot and let the rice cook for about 15-20 minutes.

Take off the stove and let it cool covered for about 15 minutes 

Now add the vinegar , sugar and salt and use a fork to mix it in and coat all the rice without making the rice mushy.

Sushi rice is ready ! 

Filling 

Carrots - julienned into thin slices 

Avocado - cut into thin strips 

Cucumber ( remove seed) - cut into thin strips 

Mango - cut into thin strips 

Cream cheese ( block of Philadelphia ) cut into strips

Sushi nori packet ( seaweed) 

Wasabi

Pickled ginger 

Soy sauce 

Instructions 

1. Place a sushi mat ( bamboo mat for rolling on the counter) 
2. Place the nori on the mat 
3. Then place some rice and flatten it with hand to spread it across the nori leaving the edges clean 
4. Now place the strips of vegetables/ cream cheese ( whatever you want for filling on the rice ) in the middle 
   
5. Now roll the sushi with the mat and make sure to stop and make the roll tight. Then cut into pieces ( typically 6-8 pieces depending on how thick you want the roll )
   
   
6. Sushi is now ready to serve with wasabi, pickled ginger and soy sauce on the side. 
7. You put a little bit of wasabi on the sushi and dip in soy sauce and eat it . Eat ginger in-between to cleanse the palate.
8. I made four types of rolls -  

• mango, cucumber , carrot , avocado and cream cheese 
• Tempura asparagus, tempura sweet potato, carrot and cream cheese 
• Avocado , tempura avocado ,cucumber, cream cheese and crushed peanuts 
• ‘California roll’- carrot , cucumber, avocado and cream cheese 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Air fryer bajji ( pakora)

I posted another recipe for pakora in my blog which is made traditionally by deep frying in oil .

This recipe just goes over how to do this in the air fryer with much less oil ! 

Ingredients for the batter:

Besan flour (chickpea flour) - 1/2 cup

Rice flour - 1/2 cup

Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Asafoetida- a pinch

Baking soda- a pinch

Water

Vegetable - of choice sliced in to slices ( 2 inches ) 

I used plantain for this recipe 

Instructions 

1. Mix all the batter ingredients in a mixing bowl

2. Add water ( take a cup of water) to it slowly some at a time and mix the batter. You want the batter to be a little on the thick side and not runny . You should be able to coat the vegetables in it. For the air fryer batter i do make it a little thicker so it doesn’t drip. Take the cut vegetables and coat with a thin layer of batter 

3. Place aluminum foil on the air fryer pan and spritz with oil generously . Place the coated vegetables on the foil .

4. Cook in the air fryer at 350 F for about 8 minutes ( you can pause once and spritz with oil ). At this point the pakora / bajji is half cooked and the batter is not drippy anymore . So the foil can now be removed and the pakora placed directly on the fryer basket.

4. Cook for 8 more minutes until golden brown at 350 F. Spritz the bajji / Pakora with oil and flip them over halfway so that each side is uniformly cooked / browned.

5. Air fryer bajji is now ready to serve.

Here it is shown with tamarind sauce but ketchup or 

chutney can be used as accompaniments as well.  Enjoy!