Chiles en nogada

This recipe is both patriotic and delicious. The ingredients, which include a delectable variety of fruits, spices, and chopped beef, come together to reflect the colors of the Mexican flag. Poblano chilies (the green in the flag) are filled with the mixture, which is then drizzled with a walnut-based cream sauce (the white), and pomegranate seeds placed on top represent the red in the Mexican flag

Ingredients

• 6 large poblano chiles about 6″ long, 10 ozs. beef, 10 ozs. pork, 1 medium carrot, 1 medium white onion, 1 medium waxy potato, 1 medium zucchini squash, 3 plum tomatoes Roma tomatoes, ½ cup peas, 8 ozs. biznaga or candied fruit or dried fruit, ½ cup raisins, ½ cup almonds. ½ tsp. cinnamon, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp salt + salt to taste, 1 ¼ cup Mexican cream do not use sour cream, ½ cup shelled walnuts, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 2 small pomegranates or 1 large, 1 small bunch of parsley

Instructions

• Remove the walnut chunks' papery bitter skins. (This is the difficult part.) The skins might be readily rubbed off at times. I've discovered that the skins don't always peel off easily for us, and that we need to blanch them for 1 minute in boiling water first to loosen them up.
• If you blanch the walnuts, allow them to cool completely before carefully peeling off as much of the bitter skin as possible. This is time-consuming process, but the sauce may be bitter if your walnuts haven't been stripped of their bitter skins.
• Place the skinned walnuts in a basin, cover with milk to soak, and place in the refrigerator overnight.
• To sear the outside tough skin, lay the chiles immediately over a gas stove flame or beneath a hot broiler. To brown the chilies on all sides, turn them. It will be easier to remove if as much of the exterior skin as possible is blackened.
• Cover the blackened chiles with a plate or a damp clean towel and let aside for 20 minutes. The scorched skin will readily flake off, and the flesh will become somewhat more cooked in the steam, allowing the skin to flake/peel off easily.
• Remove the seeds and veins by cutting a slit in the side of each chile. Make sure to keep the top of the chile, the area around the stem's base, intact. Rinse and pat dry the chiles.
• The walnuts should be drained. In a blender, puree the soaked and drained walnuts, queso fresco, sour cream, sugar, and cinnamon until perfectly smooth.
• In a large wide saucepan over medium high heat, heat one tablespoon of the oil. Brown the meat on at least one side in batches to avoid crowding the pan, sprinkle the meat with kosher salt as it cooks. If necessary, add another tablespoon of oil to the next batch. Place the meat in a mixing dish and put it aside.
• Heat a tablespoon of oil in the pan over medium heat. Cook until the onion is tender. Cook for another minute after adding the cinnamon, black pepper, cloves, and garlic.
• Return the ground meat to the pan and melt the butter, breaking up any clumps with a wooden spoon.
• Combine the crushed tomatoes, golden raisins, and slivered almonds in a mixing bowl. Add a tablespoon or two of water if the mixture appears to be too dry. Toss the picadillo mixture with the chopped apple. To taste, adjust spices by adding more cinnamon, salt, and ground cloves (go easy on the cloves, they can overpower).
• Fill the chilies with picadillo until they are completely filled. Put them on individual plates or a serving dish to serve.
• To serve, drizzle the walnut sauce over the stuffed chiles and top with pomegranate seeds and chopped fresh parsley or cilantro.