Christopher's Remix

Brent and I love Christopher's in College Station. It's basically the only nice restaurant in College Station, and it's actually really, really delicious. We look forward to going there once a year during opening weekend for football. They have an awesome menu, but we always get the house filet. I kind of want one right now. We took this year's trip in September, and they had a new appetizer on the menu. It was a "chile relleno" - basically a poblano pepper stuffed with beans, cheese, and shrimp and then deep fried. OMG it was good. Brent immediately started plotting how he could get me to make them at home, but I told him there was no way that was going to happen!

When we got home I was flipping through an old Everyday Food magazine, and I stumbled upon this just as delicious but WAY healthier version of a chile relleno: stuffed poblano peppers. I've made this dish twice now, and it is amazing. The Everyday Food recipe is completely vegetarian. That version was good - I made it according to the recipe the first time. But then we thought about Christopher's and how they had stuffed theirs with shrimp. So we decided that the next time we made them, we'd add shrimp.

I made the shrimp version tonight, and it did not disappoint. You get the rich tomato sauce, semi-cruncy pepper, beans, cheese, and spicy shrimp. And it's not fried! So you can have two! Here's how to make this super easy dish that will make you feel like you're at a Mexican restaurant.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers
Adapted from Everyday Food, April 2008

Sauce:
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 jalapeno chile, roughly chopped (seeds & ribs removed)
1 small onion, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves
Salt & pepper

Mix all sauce ingredients in a blender until pureed. Spread sauce on the bottom of a Pyrex dish.

Filling:
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 package fresh pre-cooked chipotle shrimp from Whole Foods (in the seafood section), chopped
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
Salt

Combine all filling ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix.

Halve four poblano peppers and remove seeds & ribs. Stuff each pepper with filling and place pepper halves filling side up in the tomato sauce.

Sprinkle the whole top with about 1 cup of shredded monterrey jack cheese. Cover with foil and back at 425 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover and broil until cheese browns (2-4 minutes). Serve with Mexican rice. (Serves 4)