Cathy Katin-Grazzini
Cathy’s Kitchen Prescription LLC
www.cathyskitchenprescription.com
 
Three Sisters Roasted Chiles Rellenos with Red Mole Sauce
 
This isn’t your typical chiles rellenos, normally stuffed with cheese, breaded, and fried. Instead, a clean, bright sauté of aromatics, calabacitas, fresh corn, petite red silk beans, herbs, and tomatoes, wrapped snugly in roasted long bell peppers that’s been smeared with creamy vegan cheesy sauce. Best served with a velvety fruity, chocolatey, rich red mole sauce. Enjoy with some Peruvian choclo cornbread for a real treat.
 
Hint: The red silk beans are delightful, but if time is an issue, substitute with no-sodium canned red beans.
 
Prep time 90 minutes for the beans plus 30 minutes
Cook time 30 minutes
Makes 8 stuffed peppers
 
Peppers
8 mixed-color long bell peppers, roasted, peeled, seeds and veins removed
 
Filling
1 cup red silk beans (rojos de seda) or similar bean, cooked and drained
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons dried epazote leaves and twigs, crumbled finely
1 large white onion, small dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano, or to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin seed from 1 tablespoon cumin seed, or to taste
4 small calabacitas, chayote or zucchini, cut in a small dice
2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 ears sweet corn, scaped off cob
Juice and zest from 1 organic lime
Grinds of black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons shiro miso paste, diluted in 2 tablespoons tepid water, or to taste
 
1 cup Easy-Cheesy Sauce, cooled
 
1 cup Simple Red Chile Mole Sauce
 
Garnish with slices fresh jalapeños and cilantro
 
Rinse the red silk beans in water, cover with water in a saucepan and boil for 2 minutes, before turning off the heat, covering, and allowing the beans to steep until the beans swell and sink, about an hour. Drain and refill the pan. Add the bay leaves, and 1 tablespoon of crumbled epazote. Simmer until tender but intact, about 30 minutes depending on the age of the beans. Drain and set aside.
 
Grind the cumin seeds in a coffee or spice grinder into a powder. Set aside.
 
Zest and juice the lime. Set aside.
 
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment and roast the whole peppers for about 15 minutes, or until lightly toasted and puffed up. Transfer immediately to a paper bag, tightly sealed and placed in a plastic bag, tightly closed.  Allow the peppers to steam in the bags for 15 to 30 minutes, after which their skins should be easy to remove. Place in a bowl to recoup and reserve the peppers’ juices. Slice one side of each pepper vertically, moving its stem, seeds, and veins. The peppers will be limp and pliant. Gently open up each pepper and flatten into a rectangle. Set aside.
 
Heat a large skillet over medium heat for 3 minutes. Dry sauté the onion for a few minutes or until they become translucent and begin to darken the pan. Deglaze with the reserved juices of the roasted peppers, scraping up the caramelized onion sugars from the pan with a wooden spoon. Stir in the garlic, remaining crumbled epazote, oregano, and cumin. Cook for a minute and then add the squash and cooked red silk beans. Sauté, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes before adding the tomatoes, and after another 3 minutes, the corn. Cook for a final minute. Remove from the heat and season with lime zest and juice, fresh pepper and diluted miso, to taste. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
 
To compose the chiles rellenos, lay a roasted pepper flat on a board, spread on a layer of Easy-Cheesy Sauce, mound about 1/3 cup of the Three-Sisters sauté on the middle of the pepper. Flip over both remaining “flaps” of pepper over the mound to enclose it. Repeat to fill the remaining peppers.
 
To plate, either spoon a generous amount of red mole sauce on the plate, spread it with the back of a spoon in a decorative semicircle, and top with a couple of the chiles rellenos. Alternatively, smear on a thin coat of mole, place 2 chiles rellenos on top, and serve more on the side.