Fish Tacos and Chilies Rellenos

As usual, I start preparing a large meal and everyone leaves the house! I had planned on my daughter and her boyfriend and us but it just turned out to be the three of us instead of 5. I knew I would be the only one touching the chilies but to my surprise, they were not hot at all! This was also my fist successful attempt at making them. My friend at work suggested I use egg whites, and that did the trick!

I began preparing the peppers around three. I first put them over an open flame to blister the skin. Turn the pepper using the stem and be careful not to burn your fingers!

From there they can go into a paper bag. I used a pan and covered it with tin foil. This makes the skin fall off easily. Cover them for about 10 minutes and then begin to peel the skin off the pepper. I start from the top and work my way down.



Next make a slit in the peppers and add the cheese. I used Queso Fresco cheese and cut a slice and put it in each pepper. I then secured the slit I made in the pepper with a tooth pick. Remember when serving you have toothpicks in there. They get covered with the batter and then you find one unexpectedly.

I had mentioned that this was my first successful chilies. I had used the whole egg last time and my girlfriend had suggested to use just the 2 egg whites. I also used self rising flour, 1/4 tsp salt, and a dash cumin. To that I added about a cup of buttermilk. I didn't happen to have buttermilk on hand so I made my own. All you need to do is add a TBSP. of either vinegar or lemon juice to milk and let it sit for about 5 minutes. The milk then forms into buttermilk. I mixed the buttermilk in with the dry ingredients with a whisk and then dipped the peppers in one by one letting the excess drip off. (Please note I made the peppers last. I didn't want my fish to be spicy just in case the peppers were really hot)_The peppers were first dipped in some flour and then the wet batter.

The oil. I preheated about a half of a bottle of vegetable oil in a sauce pan. Once I saw ripples forming on the bottom of the pan, I added the peppers. I used a slotted spoon and another spoon to help me flip the peppers over. They cooked really fast, in about 5 minutes total. I drained them on a paper towel and kept them in a warm oven.

I have the Foodnetwork's Sunny Anderson to thank for the fish taco and quick pickle relish recipe. I discovered this a few years back and my hubby requested I make it. I used 5 tilapia fillets and cut them into cubes.  The batter is a basic beer batter. To two cups of self rising flour, I added one Miller Lite beer (Milwaukee represent!)  The spices were the same as in the chilies rellenos except for a touch more Cumin. The batter looks really thick. If it's too thick, you can add water. I added all the fish at once and used the one dirty hand, one clean hand technique.

I used a slotted spoon and helped the fish off the bottom of the pan. It floats to the top and the batter turns out a light golden brown. The fist is completely cooked in about 4 minutes. I turn once and move to a paper plate lined with paper towels. From there it went into the oven to keep warm. The fish was served in flour taco shells with the quick pickles. That recipe can be found on the Foodnetwork.com Here is how my tray in the oven looked!