How To: Quickly Roast Peppers

I figured I'd set up my next post with a quick how to on roasting peppers. It's a snap, and it makes all the difference in the world for having those lovely layers of flavor to add to almost any dish. In this case I made possibly the most typical form of roasted peppers, stuffed poblano, but this can be used for any kind of pepper out there.

And yes I KNOW, a true, lovely and silky roasted pepper comes from the oven, baked luxuriously for over an hour until charred and filled with flavor. But in this case, I'm doing a quick roast, then stuffing and baking. So if you have time, check out this post from Luisa... if anyone understands and can really impart the importance of taking your time with food its her. But if it's a Monday night, you've worked all day and then run errands all night, sometimes this will just do.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

So now that we all know how to quickly roast some peppers, it's time to move on to the meal. Poblanos stuffed with Mexican spiced shredded chicken and smokey cheddar cheese and topped with a tomatillo salsa, there's something just so... home... about this dish. And it's so easy, an excellent Monday night meal.

 

And the beauty of roasted stuffed peppers is, there is no right way to make them. I just happened to have chicken and cheddar in my fridge that needed to be used before I left, but this could easily be vegetarian or vegan, you could use pork or beef or any even seafood, with a nice spicy red sauce or even mole. Any number of vegetables like mushrooms, eggplant, corn, zucchini, spinach, huitlacoche, etc could be used. You can skip cheese altogether and go for a Mexican crema or sour cream. And one of my absolute favorite versions if a traditional Mexican dish called chile en nogada, a recipe I usually defer to the experts when I visit home instead of attempting on my own.

Tex-Mex Round 2

As promised I've gotten my fill of Tex-Mex on this Houston trip. What originated as an idea to hit up the taqueria around the corner for some breakfast tacos turned into hitting up the Tex-Mex joint down the main strip, due to typical girl procrastination.

Spanish Flower, which apparently Lady Gaga has been to, was where we ended up munching on some Tex-Mex for round 2. It was ok. The chips were great and the salsa, for being mainly a smushy pico de gallo, was nice and spicy, but the tortillas fell a little flat. And even though we saw them preparing the dough balls and tossing them expertly onto the tortilla maker... they just weren't fluffy and floury. But they're open 24/7, which I guess this food at 2am would be pretty darn tasty.

Anyways, enough fluff. Below are the pictures. Judge for yourself, but personally I'm sold on Teotihuacan for Houston main strip Tex-Mex cuisine.

The tortilla maker. I can't tell you how fascinated I was by this as a little girl