In Mexico, there are many dishes that are distinguished by their delicious flavours. Depending on the region we can find combinations of sweet, bitter, spicy or all three flavours combined.
In Puebla, one of the Mexican cities best known for its great gastronomic variety, there is a peculiar dish that has its roots in the 19th century, when the first emperor of Mexico, Agustín Iturbide, passed through the city in 1821.
It is said that the emperor went with a large army to Mexico City to sign the Cordoba Treaty declaring Mexico's independence, but at the same time, in August his birthday was commemorated. The convent of Santa Monica in Puebla, known for having a gastronomy group composed of very skilful nuns, decided to take charge of the gastronomic commemoration of the great emperor's birthday and created Chiles en nogada (This dish represented in the colours of its ingredients the colours of the Mexican flag)
Today, I can say as a Mexican that it is one of the most complex and delicious dishes that anyone can taste in the country.
In this post, I will describe the recipe for 25 Chilis and the elaboration process so that anywhere in the world if they have access to the ingredients, they can prepare it.
Ingredients
- 20 Poblano Chilis or Capsicum annuum
- ¾ cup of Cooking oil
- 5 garlic chopped
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 Kg. of ground meat (can be ½ of beef and ½ of pork)
- ½ kg. of tomato without seed and chopped
- 4 apples without skin, preferably striped or in small cubes
- 4 pears, peeled and cubed
- 4 peaches, skinned and diced
- 2 bananas in cubes
- ¼ almond peeled and chopped
- 200 grams of raisins
- 1 bunch of parsley, disinfected for garnish
- 4 pomegranates also shelled for garnish
For Nogada Sauce
- 1 cup skinned castilla nut (or pecan)
- 150 grams of fresh cheese or panela
- 1 cup of milk
- 3 cinnamon slices
- 2 spoonfuls of sugar
Elaboration process
For the elaboration process, we are going to require patience and dedication. This process consists of six steps.
First Step
The first thing we have to do is to chop the garlic, onion and tomato.
Later we put them in a frying pan and fry them with a little cooking oil since there we will add the meat for its cooking.
Second step
In this step we are going to add the ground meat and salt to the pan.
We move constantly, covering the pan until the meat is well cooked.
Third step
Now it is time to prepare the fruit ingredients. Let's take the apples first and with a knife remove their skin. Once we have all our apples skinned, we will cut them into cubes.
Then, we will take our pears and we will do the same process as with apples. We remove their skin and cut them into cubes.
For peaches we apply the same process mentioned above.
Since we have the fruit chopped, we are going to fry it together with the raisins in a different frying pan taking care not to lose the solid consistency of the fruit, i.e that the cubes remain whole.
Note: Banana is also chopped into cubes and fried in a separate frying pan, as it takes a little longer and it should be more cooked than the fruit.
Fourth step
In this step, we will remove the skin of the almonds and chop them. Later we will put water to heat for approximately 2 minutes and a half and as soon as it is warm we will put the almonds on it to let them for an approximate time of 30 seconds there.
Now add these almonds to the ground beef together with the other ingredients and add salt to taste.
At this point we will have ready the delicious stuffing of the Chiles en nogada.
Fifth step
We take the poblano chiles and put them in a frying pan. The chiles should be toasted for approximately five minutes, taking care not to burn them.
Once they are toasted they are put in a bag to sweat to be able to remove the skin perfectly and the seeds.
At this point, we're going to open the chillies and fill them with the stuffing we made in the first four steps.
Sixth step
To make the nogada sauce, we will take all the ingredients mentioned at the beginning and we will grind them in a blender until we have a thick sauce.
Result
Now is the time to enjoy this delicious typical Mexican dish from the State of Puebla. A delight for anyone in the world who tries it.
