A good chile relleno is hard to beat: crispy coating with a soft interior, the mildly spicy chile filled with unctuous melted cheese, a sauce tart with tomato with just a bit of kick. Of course, most chiles rellenos you order don’t quite measure up to the ideal form. Greasy, bland, and heavy are some unfortunate adjectives that come to mind.
One night in January last I was confronted with the decision between the traditional chiles rellenos and some chiles rellenos “frescas” which were stuffed with “Yucatecan beef” and topped with a “creamy tomato sauce.” I asked the server if the sauce was spicy. He said no. So I ordered one of each -the traditional and this “fresca” business – had he said yes I would have just gone ahead with the “frescas” in the spirit of adventure and not being afraid of a bad meal. But not spicy at all? I figured I’d try it in the spirit of professional curiosity, but I was prepared to be disappointed.
The “fresca” version was a hit – in my mouth and at the table. Such a hit that we all went back the very next night so we could eat them again. I vowed to my dining companions – my parents and their best friends – that I would figure out how to recreate these chiles. And, by the way, the server lied. The sauce was spicy. It wasn’t super spicy or painfully hot, but there were chiles in it of some sort lending a hand towards deliciousness.
I’ve come close. I used ground beef instead of chopped because, seriously, who among us wants to spend the afternoon chopping beef? Not I, and if I don’t want to do it I figure there are few others who do.
Be warned: the sauce is so good you will want to sop it up with something or just spoon it directly into your pie-hole. I’m thinking it would be completely and totally awesome on some huevos rancheros. It is also crazy easy to make – 20 minutes, tops.
So last night we had baked chiles rellenos in spicy creamy tomato sauce, with some beans and an escarole salad. Guess what I did with my salad? Yep, I poured some of the sauce all over it.
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