Corn and Mushroom Stuffed Chile

While on a recent vacation, I ate at a local Mexican restaurant and ordered a vegetable "lasagna". It was a roasted poblano pepper stuffed with cheese, mushrooms and corn. It was amazingly delicious. The only thing that I felt it was missing was a little heat. In my version, I used a slightly spicy pepper and a homemade sauce with a smoky tomato base. This is a great way to use the green chiles coming out of the garden now. If you don't like heat, feel free to use a bell pepper as a substitute.

Corn and Mushroom Stuffed Chile

8 Anaheim chiles
1 TBSP vegetable oil
4 TBSP  butter
1/3 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz sliced white button mushrooms
3 ears corn, husked and cut off the cob
2 TBSP minced cilantro
salt and pepper


Sauce:

8 ounce can tomato sauce
1/2 c water
2 tsp ground New Mexican chile powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 TSBP minced yellow onion

2 Cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Rub chiles with vegetable oil and a little salt. Place on a cookie sheet and roast the peppers for 20-25 minutes, turning them over half way through the cooking time. Peppers are done with they are slightly soft and skin has blistered. Remove them from oven and place them in a Ziploc bag, closing it tightly. Once peppers are cooled slightly, remove them from the bag and peel off the outer skin. It should peel off very easily. Discard the skin, spilt the chile down the center and scoop out the seeds. Set them aside back onto the cookie sheet.

Melt butter over medium heat in a non-stick skillet. Add onions and garlic and sprinkle with salt. Saute them for 5 minutes, until soft and translucent. Add the mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes until cooked through and juices boiled off. Add the corn kernels and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle in the cilantro at the very end. Fill the cooled and cleaned chiles with the mushroom and corn mixture. Sprinkle with cheese and place back in the oven for 7-10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Sauce:
 In a sauce pan, add all ingredients and let simmer for 10 minutes. Once chiles are done cooking and cheese is melted, spoon sauce over peppers and serve immediately.