The last two Tuesday mornings, my husband has woken up cursing me. Not because I was stealing all of the covers. (Which I totally do) Not because I was snoring. (Ummm girls don’t snore!) Not because I was bed hogging. (Me? Never.) Nope, the last two Tuesday mornings my husband has woke up cursing me, because I felt the need to tell him, when he was soundly sleeping and I was doing my Monday late night ritual of watching RHOO, that the girls were out at our favorite Puerto Vallarta restaurant spots. I mean, this is BIG news, right? Of course he’d want to know. Imagine my surprise, after about five loud yells and a shake that he looked at me with little devil eyes, and didn’t even have to speak, the look alone just said, “Are you freaking serious?” Clearly he doesn’t realize how exciting it is that my OC girls go to our favorite spots in our favorite vacation location.
You would think I would have learned my lesson after the first Monday night, but nope, just this most recent Monday, the same thing happened. The girls were sitting at a table on the beach, when I realized they were at my favorite restaurant to park for the day and have a cocktail at night while the sun sets. Again, utter excitement ensued. And I’m not making any promises it won’t happen again…
One of the first restaurants they went to was this cute little family owned place called Mama Rosa’s, which is probably my second favorite restaurant in all of Puerto Vallarta (this is my number one). I love it not only for its utterly charming character and ambience, but also because it’s a different spin on Mexican food than you usually see. Something that’s hard to come by, even in Mexico where so many restaurants are driven towards what Americans think Mexican food should be.
There are so many things on the menu that I love, mahi mahi el pastor, shrimp empanadas and filet with chocolate sauce to name a few, but there’s one thing there I’ve been dying to try – a take on a chile relleno, stuffed with ground beef and then smothered with a creamy sauce and sprinkled pomegranates. Apparently it’s a very traditional Mexican dish, and the part that is so interesting to me, is it’s not deep-fried.
That dish has always floating around in my head for some reason, and even though I’ve never tried it, I’m seriously intrigued how the absence of a deep-fry will taste, so of course that means I’ve come up with my own.
This version takes roasted poblano chiles, and stuffs them to the brim with a homemade turkey chorizo, chopped shrimp and juuust a touch of jalapeno cheese. They’re then baked, and smothered with my favorite low-cal poblano “cream” sauce, and finished off with a little bit of Mexican queso fresco.
Seriously delicious, and I didn’t miss the deep-fried version in the least – you won’t either!
- 1 pound ground turkey breast
- 4 new Mexican chiles
- ¼ apple cider vinegar
- ¼ onion roughly chopped
- 3 garlic cloves
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ oregano
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 roasted poblano chile
- ½ teaspoons salt
- ¾ cup greek yogurt
- 6 poblano chiles
- 1 medium onion, sliced thin
- 1 pound shrimp
- 1 cup queso fresco
- Drain and de-stem and seed. Transfer the chiles to a blender along with the vinegar, onion and garlic. Purify. Add the chile puree, and remaining ingredients to the turkey, mix until combined.
- Turn the oven on to broil and place the rack on the very top insert. Place all of the poblanos (including the one for the sauce) on a baking sheet. Put under the broil until blistered and black, turn, repeat. Once they are charred transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic, let set for five minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees.
- Peel most of the skin off the poblano and reserve one for the sauce. Using a pairing knife split each poblano open wide enough to fit filling in. Set aside.
- Chop shrimp.
- Once chorizo is cooked through, add shrimp back in.
- Using a spoon, stuff peppers with chorizo and shrimp mixture. Transfer to a sheet pan and pop in the oven for 10 minutes until hot.
- Serve with poblano cream sauce and queso fresco.
