GROWING—AND COOKING—BETTER PEPPERS

One of my garden’s major star turns is a Poblano pepper plant which has been producing quite a few hearty peppers ever since mid-July. A lot of times the plant was growing too much than my dad (who started this garden a few months back) or myself knew what to do with! So, after a suggestion from a friend, I decided to find a recipe to put these to good use. 

The growing process for the Poblanos was long and required patience. All the way back in March, it was started from seed and raised into a young seedling under a LED grow light. 

Come early April, the Poblano seedling was moved into the outdoor garden where it was protected under a tarp until the last frost passed. The plants seemed to be struggling at first. 

However, looking back, it makes more sense that they were probably just getting used to going from an indoor environment to an outdoor one.

They had a yellowish color and were still very small at the beginning of June. By the fifth of July, though, they had become a strong, leafy green color, bearing tiny flowers where peppers began to grow. 

This week, after contemplating for a while what recipe I would do to use up the peppers, I found a tasty recipe to try out. I attempted to make Chile Rellenos (stuffed peppers in English,) which are roasted Poblano peppers with pepper jack cheese stuffed inside. After being stuffed, they are fried with a fluffy egg and flour batter. I’ll be the first to admit, I haven’t made anything like this before, so the turnout was far from perfect. However, I had lots of fun, and would definitely do it again as a different way to use the Poblanos!

Here’s a brief preview of the steps making this recipe would entail:

• Broiling and peeling peppers

• Slicing cheese (or making a cheese mixture) to stuff the pepper

• Coating the peppers in flour and whipped eggs

• Frying the peppers in oil in a medium saucepan

• Serve and enjoy!

The first thing I had to do, of course, was go out to the garden and pick a few of the biggest peppers. This was easy, as almost all of the peppers were just about the size in the picture shown below or a little smaller.

Next, instructions called for the peppers to be broiled in the oven until they turned a wrinkly blackish color. If it was done right, the outer glossy skin of the pepper should be able to be pealed off. This makes it easier to eat.

In my case, I think my peppers should’ve had a little longer to broil because I had a hard time peeling some of them. It was meticulous and took longer than it should’ve for me, so make sure if you try this out that you broil the peppers until they are very dark-colored and wrinkly.

After the long and partly annoying task of peeling the peppers, you are to make a slit (not all the way to the bottom of the pepper) and put in your cheese. I found that some people made a cheese mixture to put inside and used a variety of different chopped cheeses to stuff the peppers.

I used sliced pepper jack cheese, personally, to give it a little extra spice.

While some of the peppers were a little difficult (it was hard to keep the slit from tearing all the way down), most were easy to deal with and I had them prepped within 15 minutes!

Now, as I had to do with the few that ripped, you may find using toothpicks to seal the peppers shut while coating and frying them easier. However, no toothpicks will also work!

Finally, the last steps: coating the peppers and flour and a whipped egg mixture.

First of all, I coated the peppers in flour and then moved onto making the egg mixture. To do so, I used a hand mixer to whip the egg whites until they became stiff and afterwards, slowly added the egg yolks to the batch. You may add a little bit of flour into this egg mixture if you want, however, you don’t need to!

After heating oil in a medium saucepan to a medium low heat, your next step is to dip the flour coated peppers in the egg, and then put it straight into the pan. Cook both sides of the pepper until they are crispy brown color!

Once they are done and have cooled, they are ready to eat!

After making this entree, here are a few things I would’ve found useful to know before I started:

• If the outter glossy skin of the pepper doesn’t remove easily, they haven’t been broiled for long enough

• Leaving a longer stem on the Poblanos (if you grew them like I did) makes it easier to flip them while they’re frying.

• If you put toothpicks in your peppers…remember to take them out.

Overall, I would rate this dish a 7/10 (at least for what I was able to make with my limited skills.) It was tasty, but not something I would crave and want to make all the time. I think it a good occasional treat to make, though. Even Koda agrees (he got some of the cheese!)