Chiles Rellenos Norteños con Anaheim

This is a norteño dish. Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila, the long border country where the chile Anaheim, called chile verde del norte by the senoras who grow it in their backyards, takes the place of the poblano. South of Mexico City, the chile relleno is poblano. North of Zacatecas, it is Anaheim. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

The Anaheim is longer, narrower, thinner-skinned, and milder than the poblano. It demands a different hand. You cannot roast it as long. You cannot stuff it as densely. The capeado has to be lighter because the chile itself is lighter. And the cheese is queso Chihuahua, a melting cheese with deep northern roots in the Mennonite communities of the Cuauhtemoc valley, not the salty queso fresco the south uses for picadillo-stuffed rellenos. Use what belongs.

The caldillo is the other norteño signature. In Puebla and Mexico City you eat the relleno in a thick tomato sauce. In Chihuahua and Sonora the relleno sits in a thin, brothy caldillo barely thickened with a tablespoon of fried tomato puree. Lighter food for hotter country. The flour tortilla on the side, soft and warm, is also northern: cada estado, su propia cocina, and this one belongs to the kitchens of the desert north.

My mother was jalisciense and made her rellenos with poblano. The version in this recipe came from a senora in Delicias, Chihuahua, who watched me roast a poblano in her kitchen and quietly handed me a basket of Anaheims. She said: este es el chile de aqui. That is how I learned. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.