When we visited Felipe and Diana’s home in San Miguel de Allende Mexico, we made poblano chiles stuffed with potatoes and cheese for dinner. Here’s the recipe and why I love traditional open air Mexican markets!
Qué le doy—what can I get you? They call out to you as you pass by their stalls brimming with fruits and vegetables, and flowers, every variety of meats and fish, and much much more.
Damn I love Mexican mercados. Pirate CD puestos a half kilometer down the passageway blare out ranchera and rock, competing for your ears against the musician with guitar two stalls away serenading birthday wishes, Las Mananitas, to the girl selling leather belts and shoes. The colors, the music, the food!
So rich and abundant, so full of optimism, with smells easily and not so easily identified.  You can have your high-price supermarket’s sterile packaging just like any city in the world–for the life’s bright vibrancy, give me a Mexican mercado any day. Full crescendo open air Mexican mercados are feasts for the eyes, ears, and palate.
You’ll see handsome señoras wrapped in traditional shawls selling homegrown fruit like avocados and limes, or old cowboys selling even older tools they’ve arranged on blankets on the ground.
JUMP DIRECTLY TO RECIPE
We were on a mission for food to cook at home all week. In our bolsas we carried fresh green chiles and small yellow-gold potatoes for the poblano chiles stuffed with potatoes and cheese, plus fresh tomatoes for the sauce. We bought avocados and jalapeño chiles for killer guacamole, and fragile purple orchids to grace the kitchen counter.
While shopping, we passed by more than you can count restaurant stalls. There were women hand-forming tortillas and other masa shapes, that they would fill with your choice of frijoles, thinly sliced meat, red and green salsa, and grated cheese.
At one stall we bought corn on the cob right off the grill. The señorita cut the corn in 2-inch pieces, and shook them in a plastic bag with chile powder and fresh-squeezed lime juice before handing it over.
Slowly around each corner and passageway, we found everything we could ever want, including white Peruana beans for the creamiest of refried beans, and dried guajillo chiles to flavor the beans.
Most of the time in mainland Mexico I don’t have a kitchen, with no reason to shop much in the mercados. What a delight to do serious food shopping in Mexico and cook a Mexican dinner like these poblano chiles stuffed with potatoes and cheese! The flavorful tomato sauce with the chiles is easy to make from canned tomatoes–don’t miss it!
Make it a fabulous week–get in the kitchen and cook something delicious!
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Poblano Chiles Stuffed with Potatoes and Cheese
Ingredients
- 4 poblano chiles
- 1 ½ pounds Yukon gold potatoes , (peeled or not,) steamed until a fork pierces easily
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ onion , chopped
- ½ cup (1/4-inch) diced zucchini squash
- ½ cup grated Oaxaca or mozzarella cheese
- Crema, sour cream, or whole milk plain yogurt
- fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper
The tomato sauce:
- 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vegetable broth powder, optional
Instructions
- Roast the chiles over an open flame–on the grill or stovetop or under broiler–on high heat. Turn the peppers occasionally, until blistered and blackened on all surfaces, 3 to 5 minutes on each exposed side. Place in a covered dish or in a plastic bag and set aside to cool. After about 10 minutes, peel away the blackened skin and remove the seeds. Set aside.
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet and cook the onions until it is transparent. Add the diced squash and cook a few more minutes. Season to taste with salt.
- In a bowl, mash the potatoes, adding a bit of liquid if needed. Mix in the onion and zucchini along with the diced cheese. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Make the sauce:
- Puree the tomatoes, onion and garlic in a blender. Heat the oil in a skillet and add the tomato mixture. Cook, stirring occasionally. If using the broth powder, stir it into the sauce and cook a few more minutes.
Assemble and bake:
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Stuff the peeled peppers with the potato mixture. Spread tomato sauce in the bottom of a shallow casserole dish. Lay the stuffed chiles in the sauce. Cover and cook until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese has melted, about 15 minutes. Drizzle with crema, sour cream, or whole milk yogurt.
