In honor of this month’s Fandom Foodie recipe takeover, of which I am the host and the theme of which is food based on Mexican literature and/or inspired by Day of the Dead – el Dia de los Muertos – as well as my adoration for this marvelous book Like Water for Chocolate, I decided to recreate the stuffed poblano peppers that Tita, the main character, makes for a wedding near the end of the book. This wonderful novel, which features a collection of recipes from turn-of-the-century Mexico, is also a sweet and tender love story, and also details the history, secrets, lies and loves of the De La Garza family.
I loved this book as much for the cooking and luscious food descriptions as for the familiar family problems outlined. The bossy, mean matriarch of the family, her three daughters who play the traditional roles – for awhile, anyway – and the absent father. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of my own family dynamic growing up, and though we didn’t grow up on a farm near the Texas/Mexico border and though my sisters and I took care of my mother during her last illness and though there was love between all of us, there was still a painful dynamic at work in our coming-of-age. I would characterize my late mother’s relationship with her three daughters as complex.
Back to the book. It’s a compendium of marvelous recipes such as quail with rose petal sauce, Christmas rolls stuffed with delicious ground meat, and a few other interesting variants. But for me, my ultimate, favorite recipe in this book (and my favorite food in Mexican cuisine) is the stuffed pepper. This particular recipe is called chiles en nogada. Here in my home state of New Mexico, stuffed peppers are called chiles rellenos, and different kinds of chile peppers can be used, which you stuff with cheese, then lightly coat in batter and fry.
“The chiles not only looked good, they were indeed delicious – never before had Tita done such a marvelous job with them. The platters of chiles proudly wore the colors of the flag: the green of the chiles, the white of the nut sauce, and the red of the pomegranates.”
What’s nice about this particular recipe is that it doesn’t call for frying and you really can play around with the stuffing and flavors. Roasting and steaming the peppers and removing their skins is time-consuming, so this is one of those things you make with an entire afternoon to while away and want to really enjoy the creative process of cooking.
Traditionally, this recipe uses only poblano chiles, but I wanted to honor my New Mexico heritage, so I threw a couple of Hatch green chiles into the mix, and made a few additional tweaks, which I will detail below. Serve with icy-cold Mexican beer or, my personal preference, a nice, sipping shot of good-quality tequila, or indeed, with a nice deep red wine. It really doesn’t get any better than this.
INGREDIENTS
4 poblano chiles
2 Hatch green chiles
3/4 lb of ground beef, preferably 90% lean
1 cup of walnuts, toasted in a dry, hot pan
Sea salt
Half a finely diced red onion
3 cloves of garlic, finely diced
1 cup blue cheese crumbles (my twist on flavoring)
1 cup Cotija cheese crumbles
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (use sparingly)
1 cup Mexican crema
1 cup pomegranate anils
METHOD
Turn on the oven broiler. When super hot, rub olive oil on the six chile peppers, put them on a flat baking tray, and roast them about 10-15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes so the peppers blacken on all sides. Remove from the oven and seal in an airtight plastic bag, and cover with a warm, damp cloth. The steam will further cook the peppers and make the skins easier to peel (in theory.)
While the peppers are roasting and cooling, cook the ground beef, seasoning with salt, a bit of black pepper and a bit of cinnamon. When cooked through, remove to a plate and cook the onions and the garlic with a bit more salt until soft and translucent. Add the cooked ground beef to the onions and stir to mix again. Let cool slightly, then add the blue cheese crumbles and the Cotija crumbles to the meat-onion mixture. Add a large tablespoon of the toasted walnuts to the mixture, and stir so that everything is well mixed.
Take the cooked, skinned peppers and make a slit down the middle. Rub some oil, grapeseed or olive, onto your hands like you’re putting on hand lotion. This will keep the seeds from burning your hands as you remove the stem and seeds from the chiles. Rinse and let dry.
Put the Mexican crema, half the toasted walnuts, the rest of the blue cheese, a spoonful of the Cotija cheese, salt, pepper and another small bit of cinnamon, into a blender and blend until you have a smooth, creamy sauce.
Fill the roasted, peeled chiles with the meat-onion-walnut-cheese mixture. Cover with the velvety white cream sauce, and garnish with pomegranates and the rest of the toasted walnuts. They are truly delicious, very subtle flavoring from the cinnamon which lightly offsets the tangy cheese and heat of the chiles.
Not to mention they are simply gorgeous to behold!
Food In Books 
I have always wanted to make chiles en nogada. But I never have because I read that the walnuts have to be steamed and the skins scraped off, or the cream sauce would have a bitter taste. What a pain, I thought. It’s good to know you don’t have to do that. Is the sauce bitter in any way? Thanks!
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I didn’t find it to be bitter at all. A good method to try and get skin off walnuts is to put them dry inside a cloth of some kind and rub and roll them around and the skins should loosen and come off. You might have one or two, but truly they’re not gonna make it that much of a difference.
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Thanks a bunch! That’s a good tip.
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Another post to make my mouth water! Back in the 1990s I was thoroughly smitten by Like Water For Chocolate! I read and re-read the book, and loved the movie as well. I remember experiencing the story as a sensual, magical, emotional rollercoaster ride. I wonder if it would touch me the same way today?
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Yes, I just love that book as well. I’ve read it so many times and tried to recreate a few other recipes, though this is the prettiest so far. 🙂 I say reread it and see how it affects you. My guess is that it will still have the power to make your mouth water and your heart sing. I know it did mine.
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…since I can only imagine, never having tasted… what differences between poblano and usual bell? (I’m imagining a stronger flavor, less sweet, more pronounced… corn and leaf.) To make a similar here, not the usual stuffed peppers. The use of pomegranate with meat in the stuffing cool, great idea (use it a lot with pork) … but for the cheese and cream… it’s a harder fit, seeing as it would be sweet on already sweet. The wallnut-blue cheese is of course a classic here, to (zola with wallnuts). For the book and movie…. odd: they’re connected to the… thing (el gato) you saw. Same person, 6 months earlier, (but after a 5 year pause. As mentioned, long story.)
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A poblano is both sweeter and has more heat. They are also sturdier so very useful for stuffing. Normally, chiles en nogada have a fruit-meat mixture which I don’t care for at all, so I made this version savory, other than the pomegranates, but those are as much for color and contrast as anything else. And being that they are more tart than sweet, they were a perfect offset to the rich sauce.
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What a beautiful job you’ve done with this! Gorgeous. My mouth is watering and I feel a craving coming on!
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I really appreciate that period was fun to make. The pomegranates, in particular, were very cheering.
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🙂
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Mmmmmm…. These look fantastic! I still haven’t read “like water for chocolates” I was going to do a whole “water theme” week a whole back (weirdly enough I have 4 books all with water in the title that I want to read… This was going to be one of them…) hopefully I’ll get to that soon!!
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Thank you! There are lots of references to tequila drinking in the book, just so you know. 🙂 Not to give you ideas or anything.
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Ha ha!!! Hmmm… My brain is already off and running.. 🤔🤔 Something with Mexican chocolate and Tequila, perchance?? 🤔
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Mexican hot chocolate with spices!
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That’s pretty much EXACTLY what I was thinking!! Way to spoil it for everyone!! 😂😂
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Thank you Vanessa, this is a great post. The thing I loved most about the book was the way magic was conjured up in the cooking process – causing all kinds of mischief, mainly involving flaming hot passions … I can just picture you in your kitchen smoothing oil into your hands for the peppers and creating waves all around you! I’d like to try your recipe but cheese crumbles and crema are things unknown to me … can I just use grated cheese and some kind of cream? It’s not always easy to get large chillies either but I’ll look out for them. I love any recipe that includes walnuts. And a nice cold beer!
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Hi Helen! In traditional chiles en nogada, you can really use any type of cheese you’d like. If you would like to substitute, I’d suggest sour cream in place of the crema. As far as the blue cheese crumbles, I’d think you could use any type of blue cheese found where you are. I just got a container of crumbles because I’m lazy. Shredded cheese would likely be just fine. I must also be honest and say that most traditional chiles en nogada recipes have some type of dried fruit as part of the chile pepper stuffing. I chose to omit that, as I really dislike dried fruit in meat recipes. I say go for it and let me know how it turns out!
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Thank you, I’ll give it a go – but possibly with beans instead of meat, if that isn’t too far away from the original to be meaningful. In which case I might reintroduce dried fruit … this is how recipes become unrecognisable I guess!
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I think that’s how we learn how to cook, and how recipes become our own. I also think that’s how we invent new recipe. I’d consider yours an homage to the original. You’re going to have to let me know how it comes out. Beans sound like they would be really good!
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Thank you Vanessa. I’ve just read your star-biscuit post and it’s lovely. I hope your tears turn to joy through the season.
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Oh this post is delightful and I can see Salsa dancing in my future after eating such pleasures you put on the plate… Will yet again give this wonderful dish a try and I’ll also be on the lookout for this book … Thank you for the suggestion to your post here Like water for Chocolate
Hugs, from Laura
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I definitely think you will love this book. Let me know what you think.
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I sure will do that Vanessa and will let you know how the dish turns out too..
Laura
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Tremendous recreation – beauty.
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Thank you, Jade! It was a joy to make and to eat!
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