Monday Mystery Tour
February 13, 2012
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| Chile Rellenos with Beans, Rice and Chile Verde |
Will there be any guests for dinner? I’m making Chile Rellenos. There were some fresh New Mexican Green Chiles at the El Burrito Mercado in West St. Paul the other day. I picked up a few and went to work at home in the Spadoville cocina.
When the time of Los Dias de Los Muertos comes around, I buy many of the items I need from El Burrito. The Pan Muerto, or Dead Bread, and the sugar skulls come from this wonderful market.
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| Pan de Muerto |
West St. Paul, Minnesota is a city in its own right, but the Westside of St. Paul proper is called West St. Paul and is really part of St. Paul, MN. It’s a neighborhood directly South of Downtown, across the Mississippi River. The unusual “West” name for a place directly South comes from the fact it is on the West bank of the great river.
Back in the late 1970’s, I drove a furniture moving truck for a small local St. Paul company called Hirte Transfer. One of the accounts Hirte took care of was doing delivery for a Westside business called Henly’s Furniture. I remember going to that building just about every day to pick up a few pieces and make deliveries in the morning, then be dispatched to someone’s home to do a move job in the afternoon.
El Burrito Mercado took over the Henly building in the 1980’s and enlarged their market from the small store where they started their business in 1979. The original store was also located in the Westside neighborhood. This informative
Historical Narrative done by the Minnesota Historical Society will explain how this area of St. Paul became a Mexican neighborhood.
When I am in the mood for Mexican food, I visit the Mercado and resupply. This usually happens when I have exhausted my cupboards and freezer of all the ethnic foodstuffs I brought home from my last trip to New Mexico, which in this years case, was way back in September of 2011.
Incidentally, the green chile sauce, or Chile Verde, is good on enchiladas or smothered burritos and can stand alone served with some fresh warm tortillas. These green chiles come in different degrees of hotness. I use the Sandia variety. They have a good heat level to them, but there are mild varieties as well.
I’ll let the pictures tell you the story of how I prepare the Rellenos from fresh green chile peppers. If you would like the recipe, let me know via e-mail or in the comments section and I will assemble and send the recipe for both the rellenos and the green chile sauce, or Chile Verde.
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Fresh New Mexican Green Chiles
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Roasted on an open flame to blacken the skin for removal
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| I use the edge of a fillet knife to remove the blackened skin |
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| The Chiles, skin removed, ready to stuff |
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| A steaming crock pot of Chile Verde using some of the peppers chopped up for this delectable sauce |
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| The rest of the peppers, slit down the side, seed pod removed, then stuffed with cheese |
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| Dipped in a light batter, then fried in good quality oil |
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| A naked chile relleno as it comes out of the frying pan |
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| The rellenos are smothered with the chile verde sauce and served with beans, rice , sour cream, lettuce, tomato and cheese |
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| The end result of such a dinner |
It's great fun to cook, especially when you feel like cooking, and better fun to eat and enjoy with family and friends.
Much Peace
7 comments:
Mmmm! I would come, if I lived nearby!
I never longed for a gas stove more - I guess I could roast on the barby.
Looks delicious. I'd want to try yours before making it myself though 1. to see if I liked it well enough (probably)
2. to make sure I did it right when I did make it.
I don't know if we can get the varieties of chilis here that you do. I think there's a latino market downtown but I've never gone in.
Many years ago, I told my father that we haven't overcome, we have overrun!! LOL He liked that. As for Mexican food, well, I grew up with it, but my mother also made a variety of other foods. She hated making chile rellenos...called it a "fritanga," hard to translate, but she hated frying due to the mess it created!! Now she has the maid to make and clean up for her, so we get more chiles rellenos from Rosita.
Living on the border/stateline, with Mexico and New Mexico, has it's advantages. There's a store up the street that caters to the Mexican palette, they roast their long greens and jalapenos and all you have to do is take them home, wash off the little bit of skin left on them and remove the seeds.
Looks like you've got it down and how lucky you have a market that caters to your particular tastes. My daughter lives in Austin, TX and she said that a Mexican market opened up there recently and she took the kids...my grandsons were in heaven...she said they called it a "Meema market!" LOL
Have a great week.
Georgina
Welllllllll....we had Caribbean rice with beans for dinner.
Sounded good......until I got a mouth full.
*shudder*
It's a good plan to put cinnamon in with rice and beans?
Apparently the Caribbean folk think so.
Notsomuch my style.
But I love Cuban Rice and beans.
And red beans with rice.
And all things with corn tortilla's.....well, almost all things with corn tortillas...
These look good--but..... *sigh*
Darn gluten free jazz.
And he-who-worries with his ulcer--probably not a wise choice for him.
*laughing* But neither was the Caribbean rice with beans!
*gak!!!!!*
Thinking popcorn! :-)
It's a vegetable....sorta..... It counts!
delicious post!
all the way to the last savory bite.
(or plate licking if you can get away with it!)
thank you for igniting my hunger and for
"walking with me". your support means the world to me.
I like the idea of Mexican food and it was wonderful to see your cooking process but I fear the results would be far too hot for me.
It was neat too reading about your experience of your favorite food supplier over the years. It's nice knowing the place went from housing one good business to another.
For a moment there I thought you were here in NM! I use my propane torch to scotch my chilies!
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