A Perfect Bite - Creative Cooking Crew Challenge = Reverse Rellenos

This months challenge for the Creative Cooking Crew was probably the most challenging one so far. I base my entire life out of making perfect bites and I do it regularly so to have to make the perfect bite I could only think of one thing = my culture.

One of my favorite foods of all time has got to be the chile relleno. I make chiles relleno as often as I can and then I make them more often in the summer when the chiles are abundant.

So whats the process? You roast a chile, you peel the chile and you stuff the chile (thats the relleno part, relleno means stuffed) then you batter and fry the chile. I love them. Well for this challenge I did a Reverse Relleno - I did all the normal things except I put the chile on the inside.

I used both red and green peppers for contrast and flavor. For the green pepper I used a poblano and for the red pepper I used a nice big pimento pepper. I also roasted a yellow pepper and another pimento to use as a sauce on the plate.

A little wilted spinach with some garlic, a bit of avocado and some cotija cheese rounded it all out.

My Reverse Relleno will be making an appearance again and again, you can count on that. Its certainly more of a process than the standard relleno since I had to make the roulades then wrap them in plastic wrap and poach at 150 for 6 minutes then let cool then freeze until firm and then batter and fry before slicing into medallions for plating. In fact its a lot more of a process but way worth it in wow factor alone - and yes it is more than just one bite but after one bite you will want more, each bite is loaded with everything a good bite needs to have.

Just for fun here is another plate that wasn't quite what I was looking for in presentation terms. I wasn't happy with the cotija cheese all over everything. Picky me.

I also did one with some radish florets, and while it does look nice I felt like it was a little too nice, if thats at all possible. Trial and error, practice makes perfect and like a perfect bite - it is all highly subjective. Check back later and I will post the link to all the others.