Help me make chile relleno's .

I’d love your thoughts on why I had such an impossible time peeling the last poblanos I worked with. 6 of them. Roasted in a 400 oven for not sure - maybe 45-60 minutes. Put them hot into a paper bag, folded the top, so they’d steam. Then paper into a plastic bag so it wouldn’t leak. Once they cooled down, I put them in the fridge and tackled the peeling next day. So hard. Only small sections of the skin had bubbled and separated. The rest was pretty stuck-on. And when I tried to pull it off, good amounts of the pepper came off too. It almost makes me not want to do this again, although the flavor was wonderful.

For me it’s like peeling boiled eggs. I have a hard time with a significant portion of my eggs. And I don’t have a clue why those are hard and others are easy[1].

With peppers (whether poblanos or others), I sear and then bag steam just like you said, and the majority of the time they peel easily. But a substantial minority of the time I have the problems you mention - only bits want to come off, flesh rips off with skin (to wax graphic for a moment), etc.

And I don’t have a clue why these are hard and others are easy. I mean, I’m doing it the same way each time but getting very different results sometimes. Like with peeling eggs. :angry:

[1] I have seen the thread on all the magic ways to peel boiled eggs.

I have a magic egg solution, but that’s a different thread :slight_smile: It’s turned a 40% good peel situation to a 90%. In short, I believe it was a Kenji solution. Put them on a rack (from fridge) over boiling water and steam them for 11-12 min. Then dunk in ice water for awhile. They peel very nicely after that.

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Believe me, I’ve tried that one and many more. My ratio is usually about 60-70% no matter what the method. (OTOH, bright side is that means I prep for the failures in advance and get egg salad sandwiches from the culls while I’m making the deviled eggs or whatever :grinning:).

Back to the poblanos - I’ve been thinking a bit since my earlier comment and I think I do get somewhat less failure from flame blackening vs. doing it in the oven. But it’s probably not a huge difference. Also wondering if age has an effect.

Age - could be. Fresh eggs supposed to be harder to peel. Maybe fresh poblanos as well. Although that would be measured on a whole different scale because peppers will show signs of age much sooner than eggs. I wish I had a flame. I have an electric stove/oven. No torch either, and probably would not buy one for this purpose.

If you have a broiler element, you might try that. It should be much faster and more like flame in terms of scorching and bubbling the waxy skin. But you’ll need to check very often and rotate a lot.

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Broil 'till charred, then place in ziploc bag to steam. After they’ve cooled they will be easy to peel.

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That’s very close to what I did. Do you think roast vs broil, and straight into plastic vs paper then plastic makes such a difference?

Yup!

Well I will give it a try.

All this talk.

I’d post a picture of it plated, but it was pretty disastrous. Looking - tasted great.

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I can see it’s looks delicious. My best meals look like a wreck.

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I think what you described means the pepper is cooked more, perhaps significantly more, then a faster broil or flame roast. The skins are black, but the pepper is still reasonably firm .
I wonder if it changes what happens between the flesh and the skin.

Looks great! I’m missing good Mexican food where I am. Did you use a recipe?

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Yes, the pepper was thoroughly cooked. I thought it was meant to be that way, but perhaps the idea is - unlike with roasted peppers - that the poblano is going to be stuffed and further cooked so that the pepper is firm. But I guess I don’t understand the science of why that should make a difference with peeling. In any case, my method didn’t work, so I am open to trying others.

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Is there bad Mexican, or no Mexican?

I did - it’s not complicated.

6 broiled poblanos, peeled, deseeded and slit open to lie flat. Sauce made from 14 oz canned tomatoes, half cup chopped onion, 1 minced garlic clove, salt, simmered 20:00 or so. 8 oz jack cheese in 6 slices, 1 c grated cheddar. Batter is 3 eggs, 1/3 c milk, 1/2 c flour, 1/2 t baking powder, salt.

Pour sauce into an 8” x 8” baking dish. Wrap each pepper around a jack cheese slice and place in sauce. Sprinkle half the cheddar on the peppers, pour in the batter, and top with the rest of the cheddar. Bake at 375 for 30:00.

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I’m not looking for Mexican, but son ordered something called “nachos” in Edam, and we thought it might be interesting, but no; quintessentially bad “nachos”. Restaurants advertising tacos. Didn’t try them, but why tacos in the Netherlands? There is a cooking show that seems to be attempting Mexican, but it’s in Flemish, so I’m not sure.

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My biggest issue with Mexican food is that it takes time (even though it is really easy, and doesn’t require a lot of ingredients). Check out Rick Bayless’ channel on YouTube or https://patijinich.com/

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Kind of a chili and cheese “sapo en un agujero”, no?

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