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Oaxaca's own chile de agua, roasted and peeled, stuffed with hand-pulled quesillo, cloaked in a cloud of beaten egg, and fried golden. Spooned into a light tomato caldillo that holds everything together on the plate.
This is an Oaxacan dish. Not a Pueblan one. Puebla has its chiles rellenos de poblano, and they are fine, but this is something else entirely. The chile de agua is a chile that grows almost exclusively in Oaxaca's Valles Centrales, in the fields between Ocotlan and Zaachila, and if you haven't been to the mercados in that region, you may never have seen one. It is light green, thin-skinned, about the length of your hand, with a clean vegetal heat that sits between a poblano and a jalapeno but tastes like neither. It is its own thing. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
The stuffing is quesillo, Oaxaca's string cheese, pulled apart into threads and tucked inside the roasted, peeled chile until it is full but not bursting. When the chile hits the hot oil inside its egg batter, the quesillo melts into long, stretching strands that pull when you cut into it. That pull is the signature. If you use mozzarella or Monterey Jack, you will get a melting cheese, but you will not get quesillo's particular lactic tang or its texture. The cheese matters as much as the chile.
The capeado, the beaten egg coating, is where the cook shows her hand. You separate the eggs. You beat the whites until they hold stiff peaks. You fold the yolks back in gently. You dust the stuffed chile in flour so the batter grips. Then you lower it into hot oil and do not touch it until the bottom sets. I learned this from a senora in Etla who made twelve of these every Friday for her family, and she told me the secret was patience. "No lo toques," she said. Don't touch it. Let the oil do the work.
The caldillo is not a sauce. It is a broth, a light tomato bath made from roasted tomatoes, onion, and garlic, just enough liquid to cradle the chile on the plate and give you something to spoon over each bite. Some cooks in the Valles Centrales add a sprig of hierba santa to the caldillo. If you can find it, do. If not, the tomato speaks for itself. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
The chile de agua (Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum, sometimes classified simply as a local landrace) is an heirloom variety cultivated almost exclusively in Oaxaca's Valles Centrales, where the specific altitude, soil composition, and irrigation patterns produce a chile that has resisted commercial cultivation outside the region. The capeado technique of coating food in beaten egg batter arrived with Spanish colonial cooking in the 16th century, adapted from the Iberian tradition of rebozado, but Oaxacan cooks married it to their own chiles and cheeses in a combination that has no Spanish precedent. Quesillo, Oaxaca's signature stretched-curd cheese, follows a pasta filata process similar to Italian mozzarella but uses different acidification and produces a distinctly drier, tangier cheese; its origins in Oaxaca are debated, but production was well established in the Etla Valley by the late 19th century, and the Etla market remains the benchmark for quesillo quality today.
Quantity
12
Quantity
1 pound
pulled into thick threads
Quantity
5
separated
Quantity
1/3 cup
for dusting
Quantity
1 cup
for frying
Quantity
1 pound (about 5 to 6)
roasted
Quantity
1/4 medium
roasted
Quantity
2
roasted
Quantity
1 sprig
Quantity
1 cup
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh chiles de agua | 12 |
| quesillo (Oaxacan string cheese)pulled into thick threads | 1 pound |
| large eggsseparated | 5 |
| all-purpose flourfor dusting | 1/3 cup |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo) or vegetable oilfor frying | 1 cup |
| Roma tomatoesroasted | 1 pound (about 5 to 6) |
| white onionroasted | 1/4 medium |
| garlic clovesroasted | 2 |
| hierba santa (optional) | 1 sprig |
| chicken broth or water | 1 cup |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
Place the chiles de agua directly over a gas flame or on a very hot comal, turning them with tongs every thirty seconds or so. The skin will blister and blacken in spots. You want about 70 percent of the surface charred, not 100 percent. If you burn them all the way through, the flesh underneath will be mushy and will tear when you try to peel and stuff them. This takes about three to four minutes per chile. Work in batches if your comal is small.
Transfer the roasted chiles to a plastic bag or a bowl covered tightly with a damp kitchen towel. Let them sweat for ten minutes. The trapped moisture loosens the charred skin. Peel each chile gently under a thin stream of running water, rubbing the blackened skin away with your fingers. Do not scrub. Leave a few dark spots. They add flavor and tell you the chile was roasted properly, not boiled.
Make a small lengthwise slit in each peeled chile, about two inches long, just enough to reach inside and pull out the seed cluster and the veins. Work carefully. The chile de agua is delicate and you do not want to rip it open. Leave the stem attached. Take a handful of quesillo threads and tuck them inside each chile, pressing gently to fill the cavity without overstuffing. The chile should close back over the cheese naturally. If it won't close, you put too much in. Pull some out.
While the chiles sweat, roast the tomatoes, onion quarter, and garlic cloves on a hot comal or under a broiler until they are soft and deeply charred on at least one side. The tomatoes should be collapsing. Transfer everything to a blender with the chicken broth and salt. Blend until smooth but not perfectly uniform. A little texture is fine. Pour the caldillo into a wide saucepan, add the hierba santa sprig if using, and bring to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat. Let it cook for ten minutes. Taste for salt. The caldillo should be light, tomatoey, barely thick. It is a bath for the chile, not a sauce to smother it.
Place the egg whites in a large, very clean bowl. Beat with a hand mixer or a whisk until they hold stiff peaks. This takes two to three minutes with a mixer, longer by hand. In a separate small bowl, beat the yolks lightly with a pinch of salt. Fold the yolks into the whites with a spatula, using slow circular motions from the bottom up. You want a fluffy, pale yellow cloud that still holds its body. Do not overmix or the batter will deflate. Spread the flour on a plate.
Pat each stuffed chile dry with a clean towel. This is not optional. Wet chiles will not hold the flour and the batter will slide off in the oil. Roll each chile in the flour, turning it to coat evenly, then shake off the excess. The flour is the glue between the chile and the egg. Hold the chile by the stem and dip it into the beaten egg batter, spooning the batter over the top to coat it completely. Lower it gently into the hot oil.
Heat the lard or oil in a deep, heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it reaches about 350 degrees, or until a small drop of batter sizzles and floats immediately. Fry two or three chiles at a time, no more. Crowding the pan drops the temperature and the batter absorbs oil instead of crisping. Cook for about two minutes on the first side, until the bottom is golden and set. Flip once with a slotted spoon. Another minute and a half on the second side. Lift out and drain on a wire rack, not paper towels. Paper towels trap moisture against the batter and make it soggy.
Ladle a shallow pool of the warm caldillo into each plate or wide bowl. Set two fried chiles side by side in the caldillo. Spoon a little more caldillo over the tops, just enough to moisten the batter without drowning it. The chile should sit in the broth, not swim in it. Serve immediately. The quesillo inside is melting and stretching right now, and in five minutes it will begin to firm up. This dish does not wait. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
1 serving (about 300g)
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