A couple of years ago, I had the lovely fortune of being in the Mexican town of Puebla when chiles en nogada were in season. The dish is associated with Mexican independence day (September 16 – not May 5!) because Diez y Seis falls during the season when walnuts are being harvested and can be found in every market. I was on this trip with my friend Natalie, and we were pointed to a particular restaurant in the Zocalo in Puebla in the lobby of the Hotel Royalty (that’s “roy-AL-tee”) where, our foodie friend informed us, the best chiles en nogada in Puebla were to be had.
The restaurant barely merited a second look – it was bland, not terribly well decorated, and (never a good sign), pretty empty. The chiles were, however, divine. Poblano chiles stuffed with a picadillo of ground meat and dried druit, covered in a walnut cream sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds – the dish with its green, red, and white colors is supposed to invoke the Mexican flag.
Earlier this week, Lisa at Homesick Texan, one of the food blogs I regularly read, posted an “easier” recipe for chiles en nogada. I sent the link to Natalie and said, “I think we should make these this weekend.” Natalie said, “I’ll bring dessert!”
I won’t repost the recipe here since it’s Lisa’s doing and I don’t want to steal her thunder (although I did add a quarter cup of dried cranberries to the picadillo).
Here’s most of the stuff that went into it. I forgot a couple of things, but by that time I couldn’t re-shoot the photo neatly.
I started with a bit of prep work (normally, I’m really lazy about these sorts of things). Natalie at one point asked, “Are you going to photograph the entire process?” Me: “yup.” Natalie: “You’re a dork.” Me: “I know. Would you have it any other way?”
So, we’ve got some chopped Granny Smith apple, garlic, tomato, and onion.
First thing I did was heat up the grill (yes, it needs a good scrub down), and set the chiles out to char. You can do this in the oven, but then the whole house smells like roasted chiles afterwards, and since it’s still too hot to open the windows in Texas, that’s not really a good thing. I find it easier to do on the grill anyway.
Chiles off the grill, nice and blackened. Into a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and leave them to sit for 20 minutes or so.
The ground pork goes into a pan to brown.
In the meantime, the walnuts that I’d put into the oven to toast come out. We have to let them cool, and then Ray and Natalie set to work peeling the skin off. There’s no really easy way to do that.
Onion, Garlic, and spices get added to the meat …
… followed by the dried fruit, some pecans, and tomato. This sits for a while and cooks down nicely.
In the meantime, I peel the chiles and seed them. I do not have enough experience in this area to seed roasted chiles and keep them intact enough to steam. Usually I wind up having to wrap the chile around the stuffing afterwards and set it seam side down. Clearly I need to go back to Puebla and enroll in a cooking class to remedy this.
Open the pomegranate and seed it. (Careful, the juice stains everything it touches!)
Quick assembly: Stuff each of four chiles with a quarter of the picadillo. The walnuts go into a blender with cream cheese, milk, sour cream, a touch of cinnamon and salt, and then pureed into a nice creamy mixture. Sauce goes over the chile, and then it gets sprinkled with pomegranate seeds, and you serve it right away.
The verdict? They weren’t the chiles en nogada I’d eaten in Puebla, but they were pretty damned good. This is definitely going into rotation in my house … but maybe as more of a special occasion meal. Or a cooking with friends kind of thing. Also, it uses every dish in the house …
Happy diez y seis everyone!
