Chiles en Nogada

As tradition built it

Chiles en nogada

August and September only . 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 10, medium, roasted, peeled, seeds and veins removed poblano chiles
• 500g, loin, diced pork, for the picadillo
• 500g, loin, diced beef, for the picadillo
• 250g, diced white onion, for the picadillo
• 3 cloves, minced garlic, for the picadillo
• 500g, diced tomato, for the picadillo
• 100 g raisins
• 100 g almonds
• 100 g pine nuts
• 500 g apple, for the picadillo
• 500 g pear, for the picadillo
• 500 g peach, for the picadillo
• 500 g plantain, for the picadillo
• 1 cinnamon stick, for the picadillo
• 5 cloves, for the picadillo
• 5 black peppercorns, for the picadillo
• 400g, shelled walnuts, fresh, for the nogada
• 1 litre, whipping cream cream, for the nogada
• 100ml milk, for the nogada
• 100g sugar, for the nogada
• 50g goat cheese, for the nogada
• 60ml sherry, for the nogada
• 2 eggs, for the batter
• a pinch salt, for the batter
• 30g flour, for the batter
• for deep-frying vegetable oil
• 30g pomegranate seeds
• to taste parsley

Method

1. Sauté the onion and garlic until golden, add the tomato, then the pork and beef and cook through.
2. Add the apple, pear, peach and plantain, then the raisins, almonds, pine nuts and spices, and cook the picadillo down until it holds together.
3. Stuff the roasted, peeled poblanos with the picadillo.
4. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks, then fold in the yolks and flour for the batter.
5. Dust each stuffed chile in flour, dip in the batter, and deep-fry until evenly golden.
6. Blend the walnuts, cream, milk, sugar, goat cheese and sherry for the nogada, and bathe the fried chiles in it.
7. Finish with pomegranate seeds and parsley. Fresh walnuts and pomegranate are both genuinely available only in August and September in central Mexico, which is why the dish exists in a narrow annual window rather than year-round.

What a modern chef changes

Confit filling, strained nogada, charred seed

Rung 04

Method

1. Confit the picadillo's meat sous vide before finishing it in the pan, for a moister filling than the traditional simmer-and-reduce method reliably gives.
2. Strain the walnut sauce through a chinois after blending, for a genuinely silken nogada rather than one carrying visible walnut fibre.
3. Char the pomegranate seeds briefly and directly on a Big Green Egg's hot zone for a few seconds before scattering, just enough to bring out a faint smoke note against the sauce's sweetness without cooking the seeds through.