Chiles Rellenos with Huitlacoche

I have a thing for odd foods: I see them as a challenge. Not in an Andrew Zimmern kind of way, but maybe in an Anthony Bourdain kind of way. I've had this problem since I was about 12, and my parents took me to Guatemala, and they fed me a strange animal called a paca.

These will be important later in the story.

I suppose I really shouldn't blame my parents for this; after all it was my idea to go to Guatemala, after reading The Adventures of Holly Hobbie, the gripping story of a time traveling girl from colonial America (my favorite era) who visits Tikal in order to solve a modern-day mystery. I decided that I must go to Tikal as soon as possible, since colonial America was somewhat out of the question. My parents being good sports (also birdwatchers), they agreed.

So we ended up in Tikal, and a guide took us to a restaurant, and the restaurant served us paca. The paca is sort of an animal unto itself, with two species and one genus in the family Cuniculidae. It is a cousin of the capybara, a fuzzy kind of rodent mostly famous for being designated a fish by Catholic missionaries eager to eat it on Fridays. Here ends my knowledge of this branch of the order Rodentia. I've seen a lot of capybara in the plains of Venezuela, but I ain't never eaten one.

I remember thinking that the paca tasted like veal. My father also later semi-gleefully told me that it was an endangered species (this turned out to be NOT TRUE). Well, huitlacoche doesn't taste like veal, and it's extremely common, so common that the US government has spent millions of dollars trying to eradicate it. Not that most of us have ever heard of it. Huitlacoche is a multi-layered thing, an infection of Ustiliga maydis (a fungus) in corn ears, the resultant food being an amalgam of both the diseased kernels (swelled almost beyond recognition) and the blackish fungus itself. Um, here's a picture of a relatively benign infection:

Thank you, jasonsewell.

A little odd looking, which isn't surprising since it means "excrement" (of some debated kind) in Nahuatl. Thank you, Aztecs. Although I always preferred the Maya, your naming schemes are brilliant.

Since huitlacoche is a fungus, it can be used in place of mushrooms in many recipes, although the taste is somewhat different--very pungent, very earthy. I elected to use my Bottle O' Excrement in some chiles rellenos, which turned out spectacularly. Where do you get huitlacoche? In your local Latin American grocery store. Unless you live in a yurt in Alaska, I refuse to believe that you don't have one of those. If you don't have one of those, here. But in that case you probably live in a place that grows corn, so don't tell me you can't find any. I live in Brooklyn, so I have to resort to the bodega.

Yeah, corn fungus!

Don't listen to the naysayers--huitlacoche is delicious, musky, rich, and goes well with cheese. It's also really good for you. Even the paca wasn't all that.

Chiles Rellenos with Huitlacoche

• 4 medium poblano peppers
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 (8 oz) jar or can huitlacoche
• 1 package queso blanco or another mild white cheese
• pepper

For béchamel:

• 2 T butter
• 2 T flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 t Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 375. Wash and dry your peppers. If you have a gas range, turn two burners to medium-low and place two peppers directly onto each burner, over the flames. If you have an electric range, place the peppers in a shallow pan and put them under the broiler. In each case, the peppers should be carefully monitored and turned every 2-3 minutes, allowing the skin to become blackened and blistered on all sides. When the skins are evenly blackened, place the peppers in a bowl covered with a dish towel. Let the peppers rest for 15 minutes.

Burn baby burn.

Sauté the onion in olive oil over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until lightly golden. Add the huitlacoche, liquid and all. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir for 2-3 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Huitlacoche is generally packed with plenty of salt, so additional salt is not needed. Add pepper to taste.

Remove the peppers from the bowl and run under cool water, carefully removing the blackened skins. Let dry on a paper towel.

Prepare the béchamel by melting the butter over low heat in a small pan, then adding the flour and whisking until smooth. Continue whisking for two minutes, then slowly add the milk by quarter cups, whisking each addition until smooth. After all the milk has been added, turn the heat to medium and stir constantly until the mixture starts to boil, then reduce to a low simmer. Continue cooking until the béchamel thickens to coat the back of the spoon. Add salt and remove from the heat.

Stuff it.

To stuff the peppers, slit each one from stem to tip. Carefully remove the seeds from the peppers, taking care not to tear them further. Cut a slice of queso blanco to fit inside each pepper, then carefully fill the remaining portion with the huitlacoche mixture. Place the stuffed peppers into a baking dish, and pour béchamel on top. Grate additional cheese on top, and cover the peppers with foil.

Turn the oven down to 350 and bake the peppers for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove the peppers from the oven and let cool for 1o minutes before serving.

Hot and cheesy fungus poppers.