Tex-Mex Fiesta

It's hatch chile season here in Colorado, and we ended up with a big pile of them.  With too many for us to use up in the near future, I roasted and froze several, so we can have fresh-roasted chiles anytime we want.  I kept a few out of the freezer to use for dinnner tonite.  I had a few jalapenos in the pantry, too, so I roasted those as well.  The kitchen has smelled like roasted peppers for two days!

Rio Zape Bean-and-Rice Cakes
with Roasted Jalapeno Cream Sauce

The jalapenos got made into a roasted jalapeno cream sauce to go over some Rio Zape bean and rice cakes that I made for dinner yesterday.  I was excited to finally get to use my Rancho Gordo beans, and the Rio Zape didn't disappoint.  I thought they went really well in the bean and rice cakes.  I guess my husband and guests liked the cakes too, because after making 14, I only have 2 left.

This evening for dinner I continued the Tex-Mex theme and made a few of my roasted hatch chiles into rellenos.  I have never used hatch chiles for rellenos before, and it turned out to be quite a chore.  Unlike peppers I have used in the past, the hatch chiles I had really started to fall apart after roasting, and I had to be very careful whenever I handled them to make sure they retained their shape.  I stuffed each one with a large wedge of queso enchilado, and made a very thick batter to coat the stuffed peppers.  I usually don't make a batter quite as thick as this one, but since the chiles were so fragile, I wanted to make sure I had a thick batter to coat the whole thing so that the cheese wouldn't fall out into the hot oil.

It's key to have very hot oil to fry rellenos so that the batter seals up quickly to keep the cheese in, and also for the rellenos cook quickly so that they don't absorb too much oil.  Despite the difference from the batter I would normally use and the delicate chiles, the rellenos came out great, golden brown and of course cheesy. 

To go with the rellenos I made a Vaquero bean and avocado soup.  The Vaquero are yet another fabulous bean from Rancho Gordo, with a beautiful black and white mottled skin.  I made a tomatoey broth with onions, garlic, and freshly-toasted cumin.  The beans retained most of their interesting coloring and tasted great in the broth.  I poured the soup over small cubes of avocado and garnished it with fresh cilantro.  I wish I had a picture for you, but we ate it all up before I could grab the camera! 

The Rio Zape bean and rice cakes, roasted jalapeno cream sauce, Vaquero bean and avocado soup, and chile rellenos all got two thumbs up from the hubbie.  Now, I think I need to rest...

Happy eating!