Fatty Was Actually a Mexican Southern Belle: Shrimp and Spinach Stuffed Chiles

I love the "gettin' grody produce basket" at our local store. That's the basket where they put bags of get-em-outta-here fruits and vegetables, all marked 99 cents. They often put those bags of fancy salad lettuce, which normally costs 3.49, in that basket, and the lettuce is just fine, no sludge or nothing. So the first thing I do is check out what's on sale.

A few days ago, I got a bag of chile peppers, about 10 peppers for 99 cents. Judging by what I found online, they were some variety of ancho, about 4-6 inches long and 3 inches wide. Here's my first chiles rellenos...

Shrimp and Spinach Stuffed Chiles

1. Wash 6-8 ancho chile peppers and put them under the broiler until they are crackling and popping. Turn them over, and do the same for all sides.
2. Place the broiled peppers in a paper bag (closed) while they cool.
3. Hold under running water and remove skins.
4. Remove stem and seeds by slicing down the side of the pepper.
5. While you're waiting on the peppers to cook or cool, mix the following...
   -- 3/4 cup flour
   -- 1 cup milk
   -- 1 egg
   -- 1 tsp. baking powder
   -- 1 tsp. baking soda
   -- salt, pepper to taste
   -- garlic power or chile powder if you feel like it.
6. Brown one medium onion with some chopped garlic in a little olive oil.
7. Meanwhile, cook about a pound of shrimp (mine were frozen, medium sized, and had to be cooked and cleaned...any shrimp will do).
8. Also meanwhile, thaw one package of frozen chopped spinach and strain out most of the water.
9. When the onion is cooked, remove from heat and add cooked shrimp and spinach to the pan.
10. Shred 1/2 lb. of Mexican queso fresco and 1/2 pound cheddar cheese.
11. Add 1/2 of each cheese (about 1/4 of each) to the shrimp/onion/spinach mixture and stir until thoroughly blended.
12. Stuff each pepper with the shrimp/spinach/onion/cheese mixture.
13. Place stuffed peppers in lightly greased backing dish, in a single layer.
14. Pour the milk/flour mixture over peppers.
15. Top with remaining 1/2 pound of cheese.
16. Back at 350 for ~30 minutes. Do not over cook!

The milk/flour mixture becomes a sort of custard. I over-baked mine by a little and it was too "bready" rather than creamy. Reheating leftovers in the microwave with a little water much improved the consistency by re-constituting the breadiness. Next time, I might add one cup sour cream to the flour/milk mixture...

This was actually very good! Yea for having time to cook!

Thank you, Yo Mama, for all them bottles full of beans and rice when I was Goozie's size. You done turned me into a good Mexican!