Chiles en Nogada

The walnuts skinned one by one after a night in milk, which is the only way the sauce comes out white.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains cream cheese whose setting agent the source does not name, lard, pork.

Ingredients

the walnut sauce

• 200 g fresh walnut halves
• 400 ml milk, for soaking
• 150 g fresh goat's cheese or cream cheese
• 100 ml double cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• a splash of sherry

the filling

• 500 g minced pork
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 300 g tomatoes, chopped
• 60 g raisins
• 60 g blanched almonds, chopped
• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• 1 ripe plantain, diced
• 1 pear, peeled and diced
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons lard

to assemble

• 6 large poblano chillies
• seeds of 1 pomegranate
• a handful of flat-leaf parsley

Method

1. THE WALNUTS ARE SKINNED ONE BY ONE AFTER A NIGHT IN MILK, and there is no way round it. The brown papery skin on a walnut is bitter and it is beige, and a sauce made with the skins on is both -- speckled grey-brown and faintly harsh, when the entire visual point of the dish is a white sauce. Twelve hours in milk swells the skin and loosens it, and then it rubs off between finger and thumb, nut by nut. It takes half an hour for two hundred grams and it is the single biggest determinant of whether the dish looks like the thing it is supposed to be. Boiling water loosens them too and also cooks the nut, which turns the sauce gluey.
2. THE MILK IS THROWN AWAY AFTERWARDS. It has drawn the bitterness out of the skins and now carries it; the sauce is made with fresh cream and cheese. Blending the soaking milk in puts back exactly what the soaking removed.
3. THE POBLANOS ARE SKINNED UNDER A CLOTH AND NOT UNDER WATER. Charred black all over, then piled in a bowl with a cloth over the top for fifteen minutes: the trapped steam lifts the skin and it slips off in sheets. Held under a running tap instead, the skin comes off and takes the charred flavour with it, and the chilli waterlogs.
4. THEY ARE SLIT DOWN ONE SIDE AND THE STALK IS LEFT ON. One cut from just below the stalk to the tip, the seeds eased out through it with a teaspoon. The stalk holds the top together and is how it is served. Cut in half, there is nothing to stuff.
5. THE SAUCE IS NOT COOKED AND THE DISH IS SERVED AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. Nogada is blended raw and poured on cold over warm chillies. Heated it splits, and the pomegranate goes dull and weeps. The filling is made ahead and the whole thing assembled within a few minutes of eating.
6. The walnuts covered with the milk and left OVERNIGHT, at least 12 hours, in the fridge.
7. Each nut taken out and its brown SKIN RUBBED OFF between finger and thumb, one by one. The milk DISCARDED.
8. The lard melted and the pork browned with the onion and garlic, 10 minutes.
9. The tomatoes, raisins, almonds, apple, plantain, pear, cinnamon, cloves and salt added and cooked 25 MINUTES until thick and almost dry. Cooled a little.
10. The poblanos charred black all over on a dry griddle or over a flame, 10 minutes, turned often.
11. Piled in a bowl, COVERED WITH A CLOTH, and left 15 MINUTES. The skins then rubbed off in sheets -- NOT under water.
12. Each chilli SLIT down one side, stalk left on, and the seeds eased out with a teaspoon.
13. The skinned walnuts blended with the cheese, cream, sugar, cinnamon and sherry to a smooth white sauce. NOT cooked.
14. Each chilli filled generously with the warm picadillo and laid on a plate.
15. The cold nogada spooned over to cover each one, and pomegranate seeds and parsley scattered on.
16. Served at room temperature, at once.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes