Mmmm, Mexican!

We had my mom over for a late lunch/early dinner yesterday afternoon (why is there no word like "brunch" for that meal?). SO TASTY.

(That picture makes me crave a new camera as much as I'm craving drunken noodles right now. Mad kudos to my mom and The Mr. for putting up with me photographing the food all the time.)

The cheese enchiladas with green sauce were just amazing. I accidentally left the sour cream out of the sauce, which must be why it came out so thick, but the taste was still amazing.

• Be sure to have extra cheese on hand to sprinkle over top of the enchiladas before baking. A cup and a half just isn't enough to make it nice and gooey.
  
• 1/2 cup of chopped onion? What were they thinking?! That needs to be at least 2/3 cup, minimum.

The rice came out of a bag. In the chaos that was my kitchen, I threw it away to make more room. Sorry!

I got the chiles rellenos recipe from a cookbook and adapted it to cut the prep time. Here's what I did:

Ingredients

• 1 Anaheim chile for each person
• Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 2 eggs, separated (put the whites in a large bowl)
  
• Flour, lightly seasoned with freshly ground black pepper
• Vegetable oil
• Red sauce
  

Process

• Cut a slit down the side of each chile (I cut along the wide side). Cook them over a dry skillet, turning occasionally, until the skins are blackened and blistered.
• Immediately put the chiles in a heavy-duty freezer bag for 20 minutes. Close the bag tightly!
• Use a hand mixer to beat the egg whites until they are stiff and form peaks. Beat the yolks until they turn pale. Fold the yolks into the whites.
• Put the egg mixture in a shallow dish and the flour on a work surface.
  
• Remove the chiles from the bag and peel off the skins.
• Remove the seeds through the slit
• Lay the chiles on a work surface. Stuff them with the cheese until they are quite full but still close. Really smoosh that cheese down and pack it in!
• Heat the vegetable oil in your skillet until a scrap of tortilla fries quickly.
  
• Coat each chile in the flour, then in the egg. Fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
• Plate the chiles, then top them with red sauce to taste. I used Old El Paso chipotle sauce, because it looked good in the store (it tasted good on my plate, too). It's a little bit strong, so use it sparingly at first.

The chiles were pretty good, but I thought they were missing a little something. I think they would have been better with a stronger cheese. Asiago would be ideal, but it's ridiculously expensive. Next time, I'll try a cheddar-Jack blend like the enchiladas or grab a bag of pre-shredded "Mexican blend."

Happy eating!