Chiles Rellenos de Mariscos a la Veracruzana

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal for roasting poblanos and tomatoes
• •Wide clay cazuela or heavy skillet for the Veracruz sauce
• •High-powered blender
• •Wide frying skillet
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
• •Wooden toothpicks for closing the chiles

Instructions

1. 1

   Roast the poblanos

   Roast the chile poblano directly over a gas flame or on a hot comal, turning with tongs until the skin blisters and blackens in patches. Do not cook the flesh to mush. You want the skin to release while the chile still has enough backbone to hold seafood. Put the roasted chiles in a bowl and cover for 10 minutes.

2. 2

   Peel and clean

   Peel off the loosened skin with your fingers. Do not rinse the chiles under water. Water steals flavor. Cut one slit down the side of each chile and remove the seeds carefully, leaving the stem attached. Pat them dry inside and out. A wet chile makes the batter slide off, and then everyone blames the eggs. The chile was the problem.

3. 3

   Roast the sauce base

   Set a dry comal over medium-high heat. Roast the halved jitomate de bola, the rough-chopped onion, and the unpeeled garlic until the tomato skins blister and the onion has brown edges. Peel the garlic. Blend the roasted tomatoes, onion, and garlic until smooth. Veracruz sauce begins with tomato, but roasted tomato has a deeper voice than raw tomato.

4. 4

   Cook the Veracruz sauce

   Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a wide cazuela over medium. Pour in the blended tomato base. It will sputter, so stand like someone who has cooked before. Add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, dried Mexican oregano, olives, capers, chile guero, chile brine, and salt. Simmer 18 to 22 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce thickens enough to coat a spoon and the oil glints around the edges. Taste. Add the sugar only if the tomatoes are too sharp.

5. 5

   Make seafood filling

   Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and the butter in a skillet over medium. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and chopped jitomate de bola and cook until the tomato gives up its juice. Add the white fish first and cook 1 minute. Add the shrimp and cook just until it turns pink at the edges. Fold in the crabmeat, hoja santa, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Pull the pan off the heat. Seafood keeps cooking from its own warmth. Overcook it now and the filling will taste tired before it reaches the chile.

6. 6

   Stuff the chiles

   Let the filling cool until warm, not hot. Divide it among the six poblanos, closing each chile around the seafood without forcing it. If you pack them like suitcases, they will tear. Secure each chile with one or two wooden toothpicks if needed. Dust lightly with flour, shaking off the excess. The flour is glue for the egg batter, not a winter coat.

7. 7

   Whip the batter

   Beat the egg whites with 1/2 teaspoon salt until they hold firm peaks. Beat the yolks in a separate bowl, then fold them into the whites gently. This capeado should be light but stable. If it runs like soup, keep beating next time. If you crush the whites, the chile fries heavy. No me vengas con atajos.

8. 8

   Fry the chiles

   Heat the vegetable oil or pork lard in a wide skillet to 350F. Dip one floured chile into the egg batter, coating it completely. Lower it seam side down into the hot fat. Fry 2 to 3 minutes per side, spooning hot fat over the top, until the batter is golden and set. Work in batches. Crowding the pan drops the temperature and gives you greasy chiles. Drain on a wire rack, not paper towels, so the bottoms stay crisp.

9. 9

   Bathe and serve

   Spread warm banana leaves in a clay cazuela or deep serving platter if using. Spoon a layer of Veracruz sauce into the bottom, settle the fried chiles over it, then ladle more sauce around and partly over the chiles. Do not drown the batter completely. You should still see the golden capeado. Serve with warm corn tortillas and black beans. Flour tortillas belong to the north. This is Veracruz. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •Buy the seafood the morning you cook. Shrimp should smell clean, crab should be sweet, and white fish should be firm. If the seafood smells tired, no sauce will save it. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
• •Use chile poblano with broad shoulders and intact stems. Skinny poblanos are fine for rajas, not for stuffing. The chile has to hold the filling without tearing.
• •Hoja santa, called acuyo in Veracruz, belongs here. If you cannot find it, cilantro works, but understand the compromise. Hoja santa gives an anise-green flavor that ties the seafood to the Gulf coast.
• •The sauce needs green olives and capers. Leaving them out because they seem unusual is how you erase Veracruz from the dish. The port cooked with what arrived on ships and what came from the water. That is the point.
• •If the tomatoes are not ripe, use good canned whole tomatoes instead of hard supermarket tomatoes. A canned tomato at its peak is better than a pale tomato pretending to be food.

Advance Preparation

• •The Veracruz sauce can be made two days ahead and refrigerated. Reheat it gently before serving; the olive, caper, and tomato flavor deepens overnight.
• •The poblanos can be roasted, peeled, and seeded one day ahead. Keep them covered in the refrigerator with a towel underneath to catch excess moisture.
• •The seafood filling can be made up to 4 hours ahead and chilled. Do not stuff the chiles until you are ready to batter and fry, or the poblanos will weep and the batter will not hold.
• •Fry the chiles as close to serving as possible. Chiles rellenos wait badly. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, but only if you respect the timing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 440g)