We love to use the poblano peppers from our garden to make stuffed peppers, but sometimes the peppers are too small or tear when I am peeling them. I wrote about that process here. I decided to see if I could change a recipe for stuffed peppers into a casserole.
If you have read much of our blog, you know that I like to make some easy dinners to toss in the freezer for busy workdays. I had a bunch of poblanos peeled and ready to go, so off I went.
Walt started some rice in the steamer. The recipe called for beef, so I cut the meat into chunks, added some water, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and chili powder. I covered it and cooked it for about 20 minutes. We pulled it out of the pan and let it cool a bit. Walt the cut it into bite size pieces.
In the meantime, I sautéed a chopped (medium) onion in a little olive oil. While that was cooking, I chopped up some tomatoes. Walt put the other ingredients – olives, raisins, and almonds – in a small bowl so they would be ready to add.
The original recipe called for some vinegar to de-glaze the pan, so I added a tablespoon or so. Then I added the tomatoes and cooked it for a few minutes longer. The meat was then added along with the chopped poblanos.
After letting that cook together for a few minutes, I added the olives, raisins and almonds. I added about 1/4 cup of half and half, as the original recipe called for pouring warm cream over the stuffed peppers.
We stirred in the rice and transferred it mixture to a greased casserole dish. I sprinkled a shredded cheese blend over the top. We then baked it for about 2o minutes at 375 degrees.
The results
The experiment turned out quite well over all. We ended up adding a sprinkle of salt to the dish, and some sour cream as the peppers were fairly hot this time. The next time I make it, I will probably add more tomatoes to give it just a bit more liquid.
We also did an experiment with a chicken and cheddar stuffed poblano recipe with good results.
Sherrey
Sounds like two great cooks in the kitchen!