Peppers
Linda has class on Thursday nights, which left me plenty of time to get a head start on tonight's picadillo. For our late dinner, I'd planned some chilles rellenos, which I expected to be light and simple.
Oops.
It turns out that, upon actually reading the Bayless recipe, this involves making delicate incisions in each jalopeño, then parboiling the peppers in a sugar, salt, and vinegar bath, stuffing each with cheese, and then freezing the peppers to restore their texture. Next, the peppers are dredged in flour, coated with an airy batter of egg whites, flour, and separately-beaten yolks, quickly fried, and finished in the over.
After the parboiling, Bayless instructs you to "carefully remove the seeds and ribs" of each little pepper. I took this instruction to mean that a careless cook might tear the pepper, rendering it unsuitable for stuffing. Linda's first bite indicated, however, that the author actually meant, "exercise care to ensure that you remove every seed and rib, lest your tired wife exclaim that dinner is too, too hot to eat." Fortunately, it was just the one pepper.