Lazy Chiles Rellenos
october 2, 2014

This is my favorite recent trifecta (or triple win): Mexican Green Rice, Lazy Chiles Rellenos, Yellow Indian Woman beans. I only wish my kids loved it as much as I do. They routinely ask for the beans by name and always manage to choke down a bite each of the rice and rellenos, so I'll call it good. 

The Mexican Green Rice is on p. 540 of Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. This is fast if you make the stock ahead (it freezes well, so I make large batches then put them in 2 cup containers in the freezer), and also cook and purée the onions, celery, garlic, parsley and some of the cilantro the morning before dinner. Yes, it's a lot of work. But pretty darn good! This time I used celery leaves instead of parsley, accidentally used double the amount of onion and forgot the garlic, but it was still delicious.

The Lazy Chiles Rellenos recipe is from a recent Eatwell Farm CSA newsletter, you can find it online here. This is also a good one to make in the morning or the night before. I followed it pretty much exactly, but skipped the corn tortillas and put my peppers in a paper lunch sack instead of cling film after roasting them. I often roast peppers directly over a gas flame on my stove when I'm really in a hurry, the broiler takes too long.

The beans are delicious and super easy. Any good quality bean can be made this way. I cook them in my crockpot on low until the beans are done, usually overnight or for most of the day. Here's how: Put two cups of beans in the pot. Cover the beans an inch and a half past their tops with water. Peel and slice an onion in half and add it. Wash and cut a large carrot into pieces and add that too. Wash and cut two celery ribs, add them to the pot. Smash a couple of garlic cloves and toss them in, plus a good glug of olive oil. Set the crockpot to low and let it go. Taste the beans every hour or so, and don't let the liquid come up to a rolling boil because the beans will begin to break apart. When they are soft, reduce the amount of liquid in the pot, turn off the heat and add some salt. I like to go big and start with 1 teaspoon.

Yum, yum, yum!