Chile Relleno Souffle -- one of my Most Favorites

I always reserve the last post of the year for one of my favorite recipes.  This year I am sharing with you a recipe I have been making since the early 1980s!  It is quick and easy to assemble, and tastes great.

This particular recipe isn't the specific one I've used because I seem to have the habit of acquiring a recipe for it, then losing it, then acquiring another one and losing it, again and again.  I'm not sure why this keeps happening, but it never mattered because every one of them has been good!

A thick book with about 600 recipes, I'd estimate

This recipe I found in one of my Ladies' Group cookbooks; that is, one published as a fund-raiser for the group.  My aunt JS gave this book to me from her collection; it is from the Volunteer League of San Fernando Valley, published in 1976.  It is called "More of Our Best" because their first edition was published in 1968.  From the Foreword:

It contains recipes selected from hundreds of favorites submitted by Volunteer League members, their families and friends.  Over a 4-year period, members of the League tested all recipes so that we could present to you what are, in our opinion, the very best of the lot.

Most of the recipes in our collection are easy to prepare.  Because Volunteer League members are busy being wives, mothers and homemakers as well as active participants in community activities -- and in some cases also students or wage earners -- we appreciate the shortcuts to good cooking that mixes and prepared foods provide.

This is what I love about the ladies' group cookbooks:  They all contribute and they only contribute their best.  In this case, they also tested their best to find the best of the best!  You can rely on their recipes to be good.  My aunt was one of those wives, mothers, homemakers, and wage earners.  She also did community service.  I don't know if she was a member of the League or not, but she would have appreciated the recipes no matter what, and she loved San Fernando Valley.

The versions of the souffle I've made over the years had some different ingredients, like a bit of baking powder to fluff it or salt-and-pepper, and they had different ratios of the ingredients.  But still, they were all very tasty!

Chile Relleno Souffle (page 211)

"Can be served hot or cold (we like it hot best) as an appetizer, or cut in larger squares and served for lunch or as an addition to a Mexican dinner."

2 small cans diced green chilies
1/2 lb grated Jack cheese
1/2 lb grated Cheddar cheese
4 eggs
1 small can evaporated milk

Four ingredients, if you count all the cheese as one.

Grease bottom and sides of an 8 inch square pan.  Spread chilies on the bottom and sprinkle cheese over chilies.  Beat eggs with milk and pour over casserole.  Do not stir.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.  This dish will puff up and be golden brown on top.  Cut into squares.  Serves 8 as an appetizer or 4 as a main dish.  -- Mrs. Patrick C. Ross


My Notes

Drain the chilies, even if there is only a little liquid in the can with them.  These chilies are often labeled as "Ortega chilies."

Spread those chilies across the bottom.

I had a block of mixed Jack and Cheddar cheese, but it wasn't quite a pound so I included some more Cheddar, too.

The cheese filled the deep dish pan!

Beat the eggs well before adding the milk.  I used a 12 ounce can of evaporated milk.  This is probably bigger than what the recipe is calling for; it is okay to put in two more eggs to make sure it firms up well.  I used four eggs this time.

One pound of cheese is A LOT of shredded cheese!  I used a deep dish pie pan and then pushed the cheese down into the egg mixture before baking.

With the egg and milk mixture poured over it, and pressed down a little.

This made a very moist souffle, so it took 40 minutes to bake it to a clean knife.  I let it sit and cool a bit before I cut it to serve it so it could solidify.  There was still liquid around the edges of the souffle.

If I cooked it any more, it might have burned or been over-cooked.

I served it with some salsa and sour cream over the top.

The Verdict

This is so very good, always, and this particular recipe has more cheese in it than most.  If that bothers you, I think it would be fine to use less.

The cheese makes it rich, the chilies (which are not spicy hot) give it an exotic twist, and the milk-and-egg mixture, which cooked like a custard, ties everything together and yet also adds a depth of savory flavor, probably from the milk being condensed.  The salsa and sour cream just bring the flavor combinations to a peak, especially with the coolness of the sour cream as a counterpoint to the hot souffle.

It is rich, so a small piece can be very satisfying.  However, the taste is so good, you will probably want a second piece.  The leftovers are good, too!

A close up of the cut-away view.

I made this for a party appetizer once, so I used a bigger pan -- this makes it thinner -- and 6 eggs to make sure it was firm and more like a fritatta.  Once cool, I cut it into small squares so that the party guests could get two or three bites from each piece as a taste.  I served it with a salsa-and-sour cream mixture they could spoon over the top.  It worked well.

The extra liquid is sometimes worrisome, so I have drained it off before serving the souffle.  This is especially helpful when serving it at a party -- cut the pieces and let them drain a bit, then put them on a serving platter.  That makes it easy (not sloppy) to serve.

Reheated, with toppings.  Not soggy; firm and easy to serve

Success, as always!  I hope you try and enjoy one of my Most Favorite recipes.

Makin' Bacon, Again!

You know, when you have a big bag of Basic Dry Cure just sitting around in the cupboard, well, you have to do something with it...

I acquired a ten pound slab of pork belly, which I cut into three about-equal pieces.

My first attempt at making bacon at home is posted here.

The first thing I did was see just how much 30 grams of dry cure looked like -- and it was much less than a 1/4 cup scoop!  No wonder my first attempt at bacon was too salty!  I put on probably close to 50 grams of cure the first time, then another 50 grams after I accidentally dumped the liquid.

I decided to do the flavored bacon, and I chose to make one sweet and two savory.

Sweet:  The sweet one used a mixed of basic dry cure (30 grams) and 125 grams of brown sugar, as suggested by the authors of Charcuterie.

Savory 1:  The first savory had 30 grams of the dry cure mixed with approximately 5 garlic cloves, crushed in a mortar along with 3 bay leaves.  I also put in 10 grams of peppercorns some of which were lightly crushed between two cast iron skillets.  Note to self:  Roll the skillet that is crushing.  Don't pound with it!  Unless, of course, you want to have tiny peppercorns flying all over like popping corn.

Savory 2:  The second savory one had 30 grams of the dry cure mixed with approximately 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, and 7 springs of fresh marjoram. This mixture was wonderfully fragrant, as was first savory mix.

I put them each in their own big bag and popped into the little refrigerator.  I made a note on the calendar to "overhaul" them every two days:  this is turning the meat over and allowing the cure to redistribute around the meat.

The first time I went to overhaul them, I found a large puddle of sticky liquid all around the outside of the refrigerator.  I was surprised because I made an effort to make sure all the bags were zipped closed.  It turns out the sweet cure mixture's bag had one little part that was not fully closed, and so it leaked all over.  Grrr.  I decided to just close up the bag and not add anything else.  I still overhauled it every other day as directed.  The other two bags were fine.

I left them to cure for 14 days this time.  The book recommends a week but I have read in other places that it is okay to keep curing it longer.  The bacon might be salty from this length of time, but I am willing to find out.

On Day 14, I pulled them from the cure, rinsed them well, and patted them dry.  The meat was firm, so they seemed properly cured.  (I hope!)

The two savories, pre-smoking.

The sweet, sitting atop the savories, pre-smoking.

A friend was willing to smoke them for me.  He used charcoal, got the smoker to 200 degrees F, and slow smoked them until their internal temperature was 150 degrees F.  He used applewood chips, and it took 2 hours and 10 minutes to get the bacon to temperature.

Oh, the scent!  It was lovely!  They looked good, too.

In order, left to right:  Savory 2, Brown Sugar, Savory 1

The Verdict

I tasted them while they were still warm from the smoker.

Savory 1 was strongly peppery -- the peppercorn flavor was dominant, and while I couldn't distinctly taste the garlic and bay leaf, I could tell there was an undercurrent of "other" flavors playing with the pepper.

Savory 2 was mildly peppery.  Actually, it blended with the other flavors nicely to give a pleasant savory flavor that went well with the smoke flavor.

Brown Sugar was mildly sweet--remember that a lot of the cure leaked out--but still flavorful.  I would like to try it again without a leaky bag!

I liked them all, as they were.  Next up:  frying up the slices to see how those taste.

I did try to cut off the rind but found that I was cutting off meat, too.  I decided that the rind was really just fat and I didn't need to worry about it.  Why waste tasty food?  I am not sure what the rind actually should look like and what was there was not chewy.  Perhaps I will find out about it some day.

The taste test for fried bacon was conducted by me and one guest taster.

Top two:  Savory 2, next: Brown Sugar, bottom: Savory 1

I found it hard to cut the slices reasonably thin, so I slow-cooked them to make sure they were cooked all the way.

We both liked all three flavors, although we agreed the brown sugar version was unremarkable.  I would like to try it again some time without a leaky bag.  I thought my guest taster's favorite would be Savory 1 because its flavors were so bold, but he liked Savory 2 best, as did I.  I liked the boldness of Savory 1 (the garlic and pepper really stood out) but thought Savory 2 had a better balance of flavors.  No one ingredient in Savory 2 stood out; it was all just a lovely blend.

None of the bacon flavors were too salty, for which I was grateful.  I would do all of these again and look forward to experimenting with other flavor combinations.

Success!

Now I have about 5 pounds of home-cured bacon in my freezer, and the person who did the smoking has 3 pounds.  Yes, I got about 8 pounds of cured bacon from a 10 pound pork belly.  I think this was a good result, and I am happy to have it all.