Twisting my Favorites

The past few weeks have been emotionally funky, I'm not entirely sure why, there really isn't any reason for my mood to remain below the surface for prolonged periods of times. Perhaps one of these days I should try to find out why that happens and should seek try to fix it because it isn't pleasant. But today, while riding at the top of the emotional wave I decided to have some fun in the kitchen!

Last week I pushed myself to hit the farmers market closest to my house. It is a small one, and I got there late so a lot of the produce and fruits were already ripening, it was a hot day after all. Though two things caught my mind: Anaheim peppers, and summer squash.

I love chiles rellenos, it is my favorite food in the world, I grew up with them and it was always joyful when my mom made them. The way she made them though was battered and fried, which is great and extremely tasty. They were also filled with cheese and then the chiles are given a bath of red spicy sauce. It is a cheesy delicious thing.

Since it is summer though I wanted to do something fresher, and also lighter.

In Mexico there's another very popular way to do chiles rellenos that does not involve frying or covering in batter, the dish is called Chiles en Nogada, and pretty much they are stuffed chiles with ground beef and covered with a creamy sauce. And that's what I used for my inspiration, but I decided to use my summer squash, corn, as well as tofu.

I had also bought tomatillo from the farmers market, and I figured that the best way to flavor my tofu was to make a green sauce with tomatillo and jalapeño peppers and marinate my tofu with it. Then I'd stir fry some garlic and onions along with my marinated tofu and the squash with the intention to use it as the stuffing for my chiles. Once stuffed the chiles would be covered with the Nogada inspired white sauce.

And that is exactly what I did, and I must say I loved it. It is a somewhat twisted version of what is traditional, but I thought I was successful in producing a very delicious vegetarian dish that is based on my own roots while also taking into consideration the things that are grown by farmers around me here in California.

That is ultimately the approach I want to have for my cooking right now, make things that are in season around me and find a way to fit those ingredients into the dishes I grew up loving as a kid. Well, except for the margarita I accompanied my meal with, that is an exclusively adult love affair!

I really hope my mood stays up because there's a lot of yummy things I want to make soon, I think I see local fish in my future!

Stay tuned! And stay hungry!