Chiles Rellenos de Picadillo

I noticed a few Anaheim chiles were ready to pick in The Potted Kitchen Garden.

Time to make chiles rellenos!

I spent some time perusing my cookbooks for inspiration and came across an enticing recipe for Pork Stuffed Chiles In A Savory Tomato Sauce in Authentic Mexican, by Rick Bayless.

I have made chiles rellenos before with a Picadillo sauce and my mouth was watering.

It had to be done.

As it turns out, there is a great food blogger that enjoys the recipe as much as I do. The recipe for Chiles Rellenos at The Paupered Chef follows Rick Bayless' recipe fairly close and has heaps of great photos.

I have enough Picadillo and savory tomato sauce for more rellenos and there are plenty of Anaheim chiles getting happy in The Potted Kitchen Garden...

Fire Roasted Serrano Chiles

First Serrano harvest of the season from the Potted Kitchen Garden.

I fire roast the chiles and freeze them. They keep well in the freezer and when I want to use roasted chiles, I need only bung into a hot oven for a couple minutes until they defrost.

There are at least four times this number of chiles still ripening on the plants, not counting flowers...

Cascade Kauri

A morning bush tramp around Auckland City Walk, Cascade Kauri, Waitakere Ranges Regional Park.

La Vérité Sort Du Four

The Shroud of Tartine.

It has risen!

La vérité sort du four

The truth comes out of the oven.

- Raymond Calvel

The Potted Kitchen Garden: Serrano Peppers

Cuttlefish Flavored Snack

Tasting notes: The texture is a bit like fried pig skin, very light, airy, and crisp. There is only a subtle flavor of cuttlefish.

Cuttlefish Flavored Snack is better than Octopus Flavored Tako Chips.

Mapo Dofu

Time for some fun in the kitchen.

I have wanted to cook Asian food for quite a while. I even purchased a carbon steel wok last year.

I ran across a recipe for Mapo Dofu that tantalised my taste buds and made me hungry just reading it. I have ordered mapo dofu from a couple different Chinese restaurants around Auckland and thought it was time to give it a go.

With a recipe for mapo dofu in hand, I set about gathering the ingredients.

I took my list of ingredients to a couple Asian food stores. Oh, my! Many of the ingredients I am completely unfamiliar with, such as fermented chili bean paste, Sichuan peppercorns, and Xiaoxing wine. There were in some cases 20 different products for each ingredient, most of which had labels with no English whatsoever. LOL! I resorted to asking any nearby customers, most of whom either did not understand English or said they don't cook! Sometimes, you just have to go for it. :-)

I first seasoned my wok. After heaps of elbow grease to remove the factory coating, I was able to get a decent seasoning on the pan.

I prepped all the ingredients before I started, as wok cooking tends to be short and sharp.

Just as I was getting into cooking, the dish was done!

Success!

Such incredible flavour! My mouth is still numb and tingling from the Sichuan peppercorns.

Happy New Year!

Pōhutukawa in full bloom at Whatipu, Manukau Heads.