CHILE RELLENOS AFTER A BAKING BINGE

Chile rellenos gained new status around here after a dinner at Santa Fe’s ‘LaFonda.’

Me: Dinner for two?

Maitre d: Do you have reservations?

Me: No.

Mait: As you can see we are very busy, but we can seat you in the hallway?

Me: Hallway? Is it a nice hallway?

 

And that’s how we found ourselves, wife and I, sitting on stools at a tall table with a commanding view of the entire dining room.

The hallway was more of a door way and the hall was an extension of the lobby.

Even so, the wait staff took pity and put us first on their rounds.

 

Me: Could I start with a beer, then another one in five minutes. How are the chile rellenos.

Waiter: They are the best you’ll ever eat.

Wife: That’s what I’m having.

Me: Me, too.

Wife: And a gin and tonic please. Do you have Beefeaters?

Waiter: Yes we do.

 

It was an evening of questions and answers, with every answer better than the last.

Nothing was out of stock, off the menu, and hearing about the best chile rellenos I’ve ever had before I see them got me pumped up.

Somehow the chile plate had replaced the Philly cheesesteak plate in finding one standing out from all the others.

I wrote a post called End Of The Cheesesteak Trail in Oregon.

The cheesesteak search replaced the Reuben sandwich search.

Food searching is a good hobby since you’re going to eat something anyway.

 

The Chile Relleno Search

Boomerpdx could be a cooking blog, or a foodie blog.

I searched for cooking and got one hundred and forty posts. Yikes. 

After hours of baking three different sets of cookies, with a side trip to the store for molasses, and beer, I was agreeable to anything.

Do the chiles? Let’s go.

Roll chiles in flour, dip it in some goo, and fry them up?

That was my plan.

It excluded roasting the peppers on a cook top, sweating them for ten minutes, then peeling the blackened crust off.

It excluded separating room temperature eggs, whipping the whites into a peaked froth before adding one yolk at a time.

After the precision of baking cookies, this was a piece of cake.

It felt like real cooking with an expert: my wife.  (Hey baby)

 

Peel the skin, roll in flour, immerse in whipped egg.

After that, into the pan with a cup and half of avocado oil.

From the looks, it could be a fish, a hushpuppy, or a mouse.

It’s not a mouse.

While not visually striking, or  looking like something you want on a plate, things turned out better than expected.

My food searches have gone from the perfect Reuben, which I never expect to match my memories of Rose’s on NW 23rd, to cheesesteaks.

I ended the Reuben search after making a reuben casserole, which was way too good.

The cheesesteaks ended when I made a bunch of them here and decided it would never get better.

So what about the chile rellenos?

 

Home Cooking Ends Food Search. Again

This was the culmination of cookie baking day.

My only regret is not making more.

If you want to go through the process of baking and cooking, why not get after it with all the gear out.

Break out the huge mixer used once a year.

Assemble all of the measuring stuff from cups to spoons to pinches and dashes.

Amaze yourself with all of the tools; so many spatulas and scrapers and spoons.

Ask yourself if you’re a kitchen hoarder? You’re not.

If you can find what you’re looking for, if it’s not lost in the shuffle, then you just have doubles of things, not a hoard of crap.

I’m sure we’ll find the missing molasses I went to the store for.

We won’t find the Breakside Wanderlust beer I brought home to celebrate later.

Was it worth all the fuss and trouble?

Yes, and we didn’t burn the house down.

Only one smoke alarm alert.