Chiles Rellenos de Queso

This is Puebla. Not generic Mexican food. Puebla. The chile poblano takes its name from the city, and the city built half its culinary identity on what its cooks do with that chile when it is roasted, peeled, stuffed, and battered.

There are two kinds of chiles rellenos in Mexico, and the difference matters. Up north they fill the chile with picadillo, ground meat with raisins and almonds. In Puebla, when the dish is rellenos de queso, the filling is cheese and only cheese. Panela for clean bite. Quesillo de Oaxaca for the long pull. The chile is the dish. The cheese makes it generous. The batter holds it together. The caldillo de tomate, clean, just barely seasoned, fried first so the salsa darkens and the fat separates, is what bathes the chile and turns three components into one plate.

My mother made these on weeknights when poblanos were cheap and she did not feel like making mole. She would roast the chiles over the burner of our stove in Colonia Roma, her hand inches from the flame, turning them with her fingers because she did not trust tongs to feel the blistering. Then she would sit at the table with the bowl in her lap and peel them slowly while I did my homework next to her. Her notebook had this recipe on a page stained with tomato. In the margin: 'no laves los chiles con agua, se va el humo.' Do not rinse the chiles with water, the smoke runs off. She was right. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.

Saber cocinar es saber vivir.