Chiles en Nogada

Ingredients

• 6 large poblano chiles
• 300g minced pork
• 300g minced beef
• 3 tbsp lard or vegetable oil
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 400g ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 firm apple (about 180g), peeled and diced small
• 1 firm pear (about 180g), peeled and diced small
• 1 firm peach (about 150g), peeled and diced small
• 1 small ripe plantain, peeled and diced small
• 60g raisins
• 50g flaked almonds
• 30g pine nuts
• 50g candied citron or candied pineapple, diced
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp fine sea salt
• 200g shelled fresh walnuts
• 400ml whole milk
• 150g queso fresco or fresh goat cheese
• 150ml Mexican crema or thick double cream
• 2 tbsp dry sherry
• 1 tbsp sugar, for the sauce
• 1 pomegranate, seeds only
• small handful flat-leaf parsley leaves

Before you cook

• Put the walnuts in a bowl, pour over the milk and leave them to soak for at least four hours or overnight so the skins loosen.
• Rub the soaked walnuts between your fingers and peel away every scrap of brown skin. Discard the milk and keep the pale kernels. This is slow work and it is the difference between a sweet white sauce and a bitter grey one.
• Peel and dice the apple, pear, peach and plantain into 5mm cubes and keep them in separate piles.
• Finely chop the onion and garlic, and peel and chop the tomatoes.
• Seed the pomegranate over a bowl and pick the parsley leaves.

Steps

1. Char the poblanos directly over a gas flame or under a hot grill for about ten minutes, turning them often, until the skin is blistered and black all over.
2. Drop the hot chiles into a bowl, cover it with a plate and leave them to steam for fifteen minutes.
3. Rub the blackened skin off each chile with your fingers, resisting the urge to rinse them under the tap, which washes the flavour away.
4. Cut a neat slit down one side of each chile, ease out the seed pod and veins, and keep the stalk attached.
5. Heat the lard in a wide pan over medium-high heat and fry the pork and beef for eight minutes, breaking up the lumps, until browned and no liquid is left.
6. Add the onion and garlic and cook for five minutes, until soft.
7. Stir in the tomatoes and cook for eight minutes, until they collapse and the mixture looks dry.
8. Add the apple, pear, peach and plantain and cook for six minutes, stirring gently so the fruit keeps its shape.
9. Stir in the raisins, almonds, pine nuts, candied citron, cinnamon, cloves, sugar and salt.
10. Cook the picadillo for a final five minutes, then taste it. It should be clearly sweet but still savoury, and just moist enough to hold together.
11. Take the pan off the heat and let the filling cool to room temperature.
12. Blend the peeled walnuts with the queso fresco, crema, sherry and the tablespoon of sugar until the sauce is completely smooth and pourable. Loosen it with a splash of milk if it is too thick to coat a spoon.
13. Chill the nogada for thirty minutes.
14. Spoon the cooled picadillo into each chile, filling it generously so the sides bulge, and press the slit closed.
15. Sit each stuffed chile on a plate, seam side down.
16. Pour the cold nogada over each one so it pools around the base and leaves the green tip showing.
17. Scatter over the pomegranate seeds and parsley leaves and serve at once, at room temperature rather than hot.