Goat Cheese and Shrimp Stuffed Poblanos with Red Bell Pepper Sauce

The Chiles:

8 poblano chiles with stems left intact, roasted and peeled*
4 ounces mild goat cheese
1/2 cup grated Panela cheese (or substitute Monterey Jack)
1/2 pound cooked shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped*
1 T chopped shallots
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
1 T chopped fresh cilantro
1 T chopped fresh basil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

The Sauce:

1 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 serrano chile, seeded and finely chopped
2 large red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, and seeded
1 cup chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Carefully slit poblanos down one side and remove the seeds leaving the stems attached.

2) Combine cheeses, shrimp, shallots, bell pepper, cilantro and basil in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper - mix well.

3) Stuff the chiles with the mixture being careful not to tear the chiles by overfilling.

4) Transfer to a baking sheet and cook about 15-20 minutes.

5) While peppers are cooking, in medium saucepan heat the olive oil and sauté garlic, shallots, and serrano until shallots are tender.

6) Transfer shallot mixture to a blender, add roasted red peppers and chicken stock and blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

7) Pour sauce back into saucepan and heat through.

8) Ladle sauce onto serving plate and place warm stuffed poblanos on top of sauce. Serve.

*Note: Preparing this recipe I realized that their simply wasn't enough of the cheese mixture to stuff eight large poblano peppers, six peppers seemed to be much more accurate. If you need eight peppers as opposed to six I would suggest making one and a half times the cheese mix or make ten peppers and double the recipe (I'm sure it's possible to squeeze a little extra filling into each pepper)!

**Note 2: For people who do not care for seafood this recipe could be easily adapted to omit the shrimp. Cooked chicken would work extremely well or if you wanted to make it a vegetarian friendly recipe substitute veggie stock for the chicken stock and toss in some butternut squash, nuts, etc...use your imagination!

Parley - The Return of Gourmet Sundays

For the past several years my northern adoptive family, the Heskins, and I have established a little tradition of our own which James has deemed "Gourmet Sundays". It began when Suz and I decided to attempt a different ethnic cuisine each Sunday and has evolved into picking a "theme" (for instance this past Sunday was American Southwest food) and making a variety of dishes that reflect that particular culinary motif. Recently Mike, who is a closet foodie and fabulous cook, has joined in these adventures - if fact, this past Sunday he proceeded to cook and beautifully present not one, not two, not three but seven different tapas dishes which ranged from chicken livers with mint (not my personal favorite but Mica sure did like them) to the scallop recipe (should be on a menu in some posh restaurant) he posted on the blog yesterday, and just about everything in between! James, Suz and I all chose to make recipes out of the Heskin's new cookbook, Seasonal Southwest Cooking, by Barbara Pool Fenzl. James was responsible for the outstanding main course, Chicken Breasts with Red Bell Peppers and Poblano Sauce, while Suz made an excellent accompaniment, Tomato and Cumin Rice, and I made two appetizers, the stuffed peppers described above and a Layered Avocado, Sour Cream, and Red Bell Pepper Mold. Thus far everything out of this particular cookbook has been extremely good! However, I do believe Suz and I garnered a few odd looks when we visited the York Farmer's Market as we literally bought bags of various peppers to do all this Southwest cooking!