Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I love this dish..because it is hot, spicy, cheesy, goeey, and yummy at the same time! Also - fairly easy to put together for those pasta nights.

We get good quality poblano peppers here in Pune, and while others buy it to make bhajjis and pakodas, I had never once bought it. Then one day I chanced upon some cookery show on TV which was showing tex-mex foods. Thats when I registered that these huge glossy peppers can be used very differently.

The recipe goes like this:

1. First char the skin of the green peppers over a flame (do not overcook - they have to remain crisp and sturdy) and immediately drop them in cold water. Remove their skins and also slit them lengthwise and carefully deseed the peppers. Take extreme care in deseeding these peppers, and also carefully remove the white pith from inside.

2. Parallely, lets prepare the tomato sauce. Blanch 2-3 big juicy red tomatoes and remove their skins and puree them. Heat some olive oil in a wok, add finely chopped onion and garlic and tomato puree to it. Season with chopped fresh green basil leaves (dry ones are also fine) and salt and pepper.

3. Grate some good quality cheddar cheese and stuff them generously in the hollowed out peppers. Press the sides to close the slit, or you can also tie a thread around the pepper. I generally just press the cheese to close the slit.

4. Gently place these stuffed peppers in the bubbling tomato sauce. It should not take more than 2-3 minutes for the cheese to melt. Serve with pasta bowl. The pepper-cheese-tomato-basil combination is highly recommended. These peppers are very hot, but the heat strikes at the end. So be careful while taking the first bite:)