It is time to relish and spruce the imagination, as the cold season is upon us and days get longer, cocooning and comfort food come to mind. If you do not have these "chiles en nogada" on your list of comfort food you are missing big time, think of all the quality time spent with the whole family needed to prepare such a dish... My sister's in-laws get together once a year for a big party, which starts with everyone taking a stab at peeling the fresh walnuts (brown fingers ensue); everyone helps with cleaning, chopping and stuffing the chiles, only the last step - battering and frying - is reserved for the most experienced cooks, and the mother-in-law has the monopoly on making the walnut sauce. A toast to big families, big food and old traditions, this colorful dish is still done the old-fashioned way in many homes in the city of Puebla (east of Mexico City).

 Legend has it that some cloistered nuns invented the dish and served it circa 1821 to celebrate Mexican independence (the color of the dish is red - pommergranate, white - walnut sauce; and green - chiles). The legend doesn't hold well to further scrutiny (the green of the chiles is covered by the batter, and there is no mention of the dish in its present form in local cookbooks until more than a century later...). However the dish is so good it creates its own mythology, and it certainly deserves the epitet "baroque" despite the fact that it is probably closer to "art nouveau". Poblano chiles are in season in August-September, so if you can't get any, or are afraid of the heat, use bell peppers instead.

Or you can always go to Puebla and order the Chiles en Nogada if they're in season (the photo below shows the way they serve Chiles en Nogada at the Fonda de Santa Clara, a typical restaurant in downtown Puebla City).

And here is a recipe your (extended) family can re-create at home (I've taken this straight from my sister's kitchen notebook, you can do the conversion: one Kilogram (kg) equals roughly 2 Lbs):

Chiles en Nogada
For 100 Chiles

Picadillo
3 kg pears
3 kg apples
3 kg peaches
3 kg crab apples
8 ripe plantains
2 kg tomato (round, like "beefsteak")
1 head garlic
1 bunch parsley
0.5 kg raisins
0.5 kg green olives
0.5 kg almonds - blanched, peeled
0.5 pork loin or shank, cooked
0.150 kg lard or butter
cloves, cinnamon, salt to taste
1 kg sugar

Walnut Sauce
1.5 kg clean walnuts
1 kg queso fresco
6 cans evaporated milk
sherry
0.5 kg sugar
cinnamon to taste

Batter
8 qts oil for frying
50 eggs
1 kg all-purpose flour

For the batter, use the eggs in batches of five, separate five eggs, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, add yolks and mix well, add enough flour to create a consistency like for pancakes.

GARNISH
pommergranate seeds and chopped parsley

INSTRUCTIONS

For Picadillo
- Chop all ingredients
- In a large pot (preferably a stoneware cazuela) sautee onion, garlic and parsley
- Add tomato and let it cook well
- Slowly add the fruit starting by the apples, and ending with the plantain
- Season and add sugar
- Let simmer a while longer and verify seasoning.
- Stir constantly with a wooden spoon to avoid scorching the mixture at the bottom, add water if necessary.

WALNUT SAUCE
- Blend slowly the milk, cheese, walnuts and place in a glass container, add sugar, sherry and cinnamon to taste, let sit in fridge.

FOR CHILES:
Over the barbecue scorch the chiles to burn skin, place in plastic bag to steam and peel when cooled sufficiently to the touch.
-With sharp knife carefully slice open lengthwise to devein and seed, do not make the opening too large.

- Fill each chile with enough picadillo to give it shape without overflowing

- Start frying your first batch of twenty chiles by  basting with the first batch of batter, this way you will know whether the batter is the right consistency and whether the chiles have too much filling. Fry just until golden brown - remember the filling is already cooked so this is just a final touch!

Place chiles on an ovenproof dish until ready to serve, you can keep warm in the oven or keep in the fridge overnight and serve either cold or hot the next day.

TO SERVE
Presentation is a large part of this dish, place one chile per plate, cover with walnut sauce and sprinkle with pommergranate and chopped parsley.

And don't even think about the calories ...