Stuffed Chiles

These are inspired by a dish I tried in Oaxaca a few months ago, which was chiles de agua stuffed with a fresh mixture of chopped vegetables. The chiles were barely toasted, almost raw.

Supposedly these chiles are only found in southern Mexico, but when I saw some chiles at my local market (in Mexico City) that seemed to resemble chiles de agua, I thought I’d give it a try.

This recipe is approximate.

I toasted the chiles just a few minutes – leaving them still crunchy – then cut a lengthwise slit in the sides and gutted them (removed the seeds and as much of the veins as possible).

I chopped finely approximately equal volumes of the following:

• plum tomato
• onion
• cilantro (fresh coriander)
• plantain, first boiled African style
• lightly toasted pecans

I could have added some finely grated cheese, but since I wanted try a vegan version, I added about

• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

and mixed it all together, salted to taste.

Then I stuffed each of the chiles with the mixture – and that’s all there was to it.

The chiles (I still don’t know whether they were chiles de agua or not) turned out very variable. Some were as mild as poblano chiles, some were too hot to eat, and some were in between. The filling was excellent, and the chiles that weren’t too hot to enjoy were very good with the filling.