LAST EDITED ON 03-16-10 AT 07:57 AM (EST)Yes, I'm early, but I couldn't wait! After really sweating over what I would post, I finally come across this recipe. I made it for the first time last week. The main dish came from a Better Homes and Garden speciality magazine. The side dish I found while googling recipes to go with my main dish.
Stuffed Chiles in Two Sauces
1 pound ground pork, uncooked ground turkey, or uncooked ground chicken
1/3 cup chopped onion (1 small)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups chopped peeled apples and/or pears (2 large)
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
6 large fresh poblano peppers
Walnut Sauce (recipe to follow)
Mole (recipe to follow)
For filling, in a large skillet, cook ground meat, onion, and garlic until meat is brown. Drain off fat. Stir in apple, tomato sauce, raisins, salt, cinnamon, and cumin. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Stir in almonds.
Meanwhile, cut a lengthwise slit in the side of each pepper; remove seeds and membranes. Cook peppers in boiling water for 5 minutes or until crip-tender. Drain well. Cool slightly.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spoon meat mixture into the peppers. Place peppers in a 3-quart rectangular baking dish. Cover with foil. Bake about 25 minutes or until heated through. Meanwhile, prepare sauces.
To serve, spoon Walnut Sauce and Mole onto serving plates. Place stuffed peppers atop sauces. Makes 6 servings.
Walnut Sauce
1/2 cup walnuts
1 3-ounce package cream cheese, cut up
1/3 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Cover and blend or process until smooth. Makes about 1 cup.
Mole
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 large tomato, chopped
3 tablespoons canned diced green chile peppers
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt.
In a small saucepan, cook onion and garlic in hot cooking oil over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Stir in tomato, green chile peppers, cocoa powder, chili powder, and salt. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Cool slightly. Puree in a blender or food processor until smooth. Makes about 1-1/2 cups.
For this, I used the ground pork and 2 granny smith apples.
I am rather inept in the kitchen, proven by the results of the first task - toasting the almonds:
I was pretty sure the almonds weren't supposed to look like that, so I sent my DS off to the store for more almonds. He came back with sliced almonds instead of slivered, so I used that instead.
Stuffing ingredients and peppers:
Stuffing cooking, after adding apples, etc, to meat-onion-garlic mix: (OMG! this smelled so good!)
Stuffed peppers going into the oven (I completely forgot to cover with foil until 2 seconds before the timer went off):
and coming out:
Walnut Sauce ingredients before and after blending:
Mole sauce before cooking for 10 minutes:
And after being blended:
The recipe for the Calabacitas was for two servings, and I increased everything to make 6 servings. I will list the amounts from the recipe first, and my amounts in parentheses.
Calabacitas
1/2 cup corn, fresh or frozen (12 ounces)
1 Tbsp olive oil (3 tbsp)
2 Tbsp chopped onion (6 tbsp)
2 Tbsp Chopped bell pepper (roughly 1/3 red bell pepper)
1/2 small summer squash, cut into 1/2" rounds and quartered (1 medium summer squash and 1 small zucchini)
1/2 cup chopped tomato (2 roma tomatoes)
1 small jalapeno pepper, finely chopped (1 medium jalapeno)
1 - 2 tsp chile powder (4 tsp)
1 - 2 tsp ground cumin (4 tsp)
Salt and pepper (I accidently left these two out)
Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat (since I tripled, I obviously used a large pan).
Add all ingredients and sauté for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring frequently.
Ingredients in pan, cooking:
I had originally planned to use all fresh ingredients, but because I'm not good at multi-tasking and am incredibly slow at chopping, by the time I got to the mole, I was using the jar of minced garlic instead of getting a clove from the bulb. The peppers were ready to come out of the oven before I had even started the mole. The mole was ready to blend before I had the ingredients for the calabacitas ready, and I was using frozen chopped onions by that time.
I would make this again, but I would not do it on a week night after working all day. I would make the sauces ahead of time, and just nuke the mole. And I would definitely have everything chopped before even starting to cook anything. I would also just make the stuffing and enjoy it without the peppers.
The final results, plated:
I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did!
