chile rellenos

one of my all time favourite foods. i actually did most of the work last night with grilling and peeling the chiles, but didn't feel like frying. so i left them in the freezer for tonight, which is a great trick for making chile rellenos anyway. even if you're planning on eating the chiles that night, throw them in the freezer for twenty minutes after stuffing. they hold their shape much better and are much easier to work with when battering and frying. it takes a lot of the pressure off when making that surgical incision to deseed the peppers as you can cover up any mangling. here's the play by play for assembly:blacken chiles over flame. i used a grill topper on my range, i used to use a steamer basket or you can just put them right on there, or you can use a barbeque, or broil them. after they're completely blackened put them into a paper bag to steam out of their skins. this makes me think of how the rhino got his skin, i wonder if the peppers are itchy?
after about 10 minutes (or longer) take out the peppers and peel off their skin. then make a small incision on the side near the top and carefully scoop out the seeds (the one on the right is perfect, the one on the left suffered overmuch, but this will be fixed by our freezing trick). you can trickle some water into the incision to get all the seeds out.
stuff the chiles with whatever you like (i like just cheese) then close up the incision and wrap in plastic wrap to keep them closed. throw them in the freezer for 20 minutes before cooking. if you're going leave them there longer you'll need to defrost them a bit before battering and frying. some people recommend closing them up with a wooden skewer threaded through but this always ends up mangling the pepper more when i do it.
the batter is deliciously simple. you take an egg. you separate it. you beat up the white (to stiff peaks), then you beat up the yoke (with a little salt, pepper, cayenne), then you beat them back together, done! dip the peppers in flour, then in the batter, then in hot oil. fry until golden brown on all sides. everything else was leftovers.