Why Chile Relleno

I wanted to use this blog for posting thoughts about the food I grew up with in California. It's hard to come up with a name for that so I chose the food that has always been my favorite and that I don't get enough of since I moved to the eastern half of the US. The stimulus for remembering California food during the 50s, 60s, and 70s was a 1997 cookbook that I ran across in the library yesterday called California Home Cooking: American Cooking in the California Style by Michele Anna Jordan. It's funny that I never saw it before since I work in the library (although in the IT Department in the basement so I don't really "handle" books) but I always peruse the TX shelves. It appears that the library didn't add it to the collection until 2006 so it wasn't ever on the new book shelves.

It's an interesting book with "sidebars" that tell tidbits of history but a quick thumbing through gave me the impression that it really had little of what I remember during my 30 years or so growing up in Southern California. Specifically, there is no mention of Chiles Rellenos! Instead she has a Monterey Jack Soufflé with Parmigiano-Regiano instead of chiles. Perhaps this Alice Waters influenced author is trying to distance California home cooking from Cal-Mex and it is true that Chiles Rellenos are difficult to make and more likely to be eaten in Mexican restaurants than cooked at home. But when you live in Pittsburgh, you've got to make your own. And as far as I've seen, Jordan makes no mention of Sunset Magazine which we always had in the house and which is a very good indicator of California food - the good and the outrageous (as in some of the reader contributions).

When I speak of Chiles Rellenos, I'm referring to the California type: deep fried egg battered green chiles stuffed with cheese. It is my acid test for a Mexican restaurant and no "Mexican" restaurant in Pittsburgh has ever passed it. The chiles have to be anaheim or poblanos and not unpeeled bell peppers. The cheese has to be white cheese (Oaxacan or Monterey Jack) and not processed and not cheddar and not mozzarella. Oaxacan or a similar string cheese with some acidity is the best. The cheese needs some acidity - maybe to counteract the deep-fat frying - that's why Monterey Jack is good, although it is hard to get plain Monterey Jack in our local supermarket because people here think that it's supposed to have jalapeño peppers in it.

And, of course, it is nice when the chiles have a little bite to them. These days the US seed growers are breeding all of the heat out of the chiles and pretty soon they will all taste like Bell Peppers. I remember as a child ordering chiles rellenos that were full of seeds and really unbearably hot. There is no danger of that anymore unless you grow your own. If you do, don't grow the hybrid varieties because they have lost their heat but go for the plain no named variety seed packets of poblanos.