Fast Food Friday brings version of Chiles Rellenos

Once a week, on average, Jamie and I have what I nicknamed Fast Food Friday, and sometimes it actually comes on a Friday. That is the night when I thaw refried beans and we have nachos or tacos for supper, or I try to make pizza, or we even get it from the store down the road. Or sometimes it is baked beans and hot dogs, and I will throw together a coleslaw to go with. We have had fish and chips (oven roasted potatoes cut like french fries with frozen fish filets. And sometimes I make this version of Chiles Rellenos (pronounced ree-AAY-nos) and have a salad on the side.

Relleno is the Spanish word for stuffed. I got this recipe from my friend Bobbi Pendleton when she still lived on island. The idea is to use whole roasted green chile peppers, in Maine available canned, unfortunately in tiny cans of two or three chiles per can. What makes it fast is the canned chiles, the canned enchilada sauce and how quickly you can whip it together and stick it in the oven. The stuffed part is when you stick a bit of cheese inside the chili and then you pour a batter over it and bake it. It is a little like Yorkshire Pudding meets Tex-Mex.

I have even used chopped chiles and just dumped them into the baking pan with some enchilada sauce on the bottom, and some jack cheese sprinkled on top of them before the egg batter is added. They would not make a half bad appetizer, cut into tiny squares, and passed warm. Look for a medium sized can of enchilada sauce, and don’t expect to use all of it at one time. I found the extra freezes nicely until you need it.

Sometimes I see long, pale green peppers in the produce section, and a couple of times I have purchased those, roasted them over the gas flame, scraped off the charred skin and then proceeded as I would with the canned ones. But that process disqualifies them as fast food.

Chiles Rellenos

Serves four as a main dish.

2 to 3 cans of whole chile peppers

1 can of green enchilada sauce

Jack cheese

3 eggs

1/3 cup of flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup of milk

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut a few sticks of jack cheese about 1/2 inch wide by a 1/4 inch or so. Pour a little green enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9-by-9 baking pan. Drain the chiles and lift them out of the can, and stuff the sticks of cheese into them, and lay them on the enchilada sauce. Using an egg beater or whisk, beat together the eggs, flour, baking powder, milk, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper until it is quite smooth. Pour over the chiles. Sprinkle some more jack cheese grated on top. Bake for 30 minutes or until it is puffed up, firm, and golden. Serve with more enchilada sauce on top if you wish.