Delicious and eaten at any time of the year, rajas de chile poblano con crema, cebolla, y elote (strips of poblano chile with cream, onion, and young tender corn) is the perfect dish for a Lenten Friday!
The mild-to-not-so-mild chile poblano is one of the most commonly used fresh chiles in Mexico's kitchen. A very large, fleshy chile, it can measure as much as seven or eight inches long. The stem end is much wider than the point, and the color ranges from dark green to almost black-green. Shopping tip: if you buy chiles poblano that are flat on all sides, they will roast more quickly than if they are deeply creased in spots. The flat sides will evenly touch the roasting surface.
The chile poblano is commonly used for preparing main dishes such as chiles rellenos, including the seasonal and festive chiles en nogada. It is also used for making rajas de chile poblano con crema (strips of chile poblano with cream), a marvelously flavorful vegetable side dish. All photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.
Chiles poblano roasted with skin removed, showing the interior of the opened chile (left) and the exterior (right). These are two of the four chiles I used to prepare this dish. To prepare chiles poblanos for use in any recipe, wash and roast them. Don't try to use them with the peel on; the peels will be as tough as trying to chew through plastic. Mexico Cooks! uses a cast iron comal (griddle) placed over a high flame to roast as many as four to six chiles at a time. Other cooks prefer to roast these chiles one or two at a time over an open flame, or on a broiler pan in a slightly open oven. No matter which roasting method you use, the roasted chiles should look like the ones in the above photo.
Once the chiles are roasted, put them in a plastic bag, twist it shut, and allow the chiles to 'sweat' for 10 to 15 minutes. You'll easily be able to remove the blackened peels. It's best not to rinse them--or rinse them only a little--as rinsing removes a good bit of the delicious chile poblano flavor.
The slit-open chiles with the seeds still inside. At the foreground of the photo, you can see that I removed the stem with the bulk of the seeds. Simply cut around the stem and pull it and the seeds out of the chile.
Two of the chiles still on the cutting board, with one of my 60+-year-old Sabatier carbon steel knives.
All four chiles, seeded and cut into rajas (strips about 3" long and less than 1/2" wide).
Half of a large white onion, thinly sliced and ready to sauté. The ingredients include half a white onion, sliced very thin, and about half a cup of fresh (or canned) white or yellow corn kernels.
Sauté the onions in oil first, until they are soft and translucent. Then add the rajas and continue to sauté until they are soft, but still have a bit of crispness.
Add the corn and continue to sauté briefly.
Add Mexican crema de mesa (table cream, not sour cream) if you can find it. Crema Aguascalientes is the one I prefer to use. If Mexican table cream isn't available, use sour cream instead.
Salt to taste and let the cream and vegetables simmer briefly. The cream will become a thick sauce for the vegetables. The chile poblano is generally quite mild and flavorful, but once in a while you will come across one that is surprisingly spicy. There's no way to tell by looking at them whether they are mild or hot, and either way they're delicious and not overly 'hot'.
The recipe as you see it written here, using four large chiles, will serve 3 to 4 people as a side dish. It's excellent served hot or at room temperature. I've never met anyone who doesn't love rajas de chile poblano served this way!
Provecho! (Good eating!)
Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.
What a wonderful dish. I don't rinse any peppers that I roast, whether chilies or red bell peppers. You remove all the good char flavor, and a little bit of charred skin doesn't hurt anyone. One trick that I use is to take an old credit card or a plastic bench scraper and use that to scrape the skin off and seeds out. I split the pepper along one long side and lay it out flat, then use the card to scrape away seeds and ribs on the inside, then flip and repeat with skin on the outside. You end up with very clean peppers, very quickly
Posted by: Rob Handel | April 03, 2022 at 10:30 PM