Jeff Johnson's Blog: Will Fight Evil 4 Food, page 25

The Chili Rellenos in Lucky Supreme, A Novel Of Many Crimes

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Look at that! No way! Yep. Food. Lemme tell you a story about the food in the Darby Holland Crime Series. There are unlikely heros, reluctant champions, squinting visionaries, and even cooks. But it all starts with weed and punk music, naturally. Lets begin.

In the late 90’s here in scenic Portland, Oregon we had many of the building blocks of the rainy metropolis of foodery and nighthoggery the city has become. Coffee People was a chain cafe where the less inspired worked but all of us hung out and stole from, Satyricon was the nightclub we all went to to get laid and score weed, and the food scene, for reasons no one understands, was happening. If you were a musician, you worked in a restaurant. It was part of the lifestyle.

So it was that the band who A) beat up Nirvana, B) foiled a late night Safeway robbery, C) ran several savage burns of Reed College, and D) did all sorts of other sordid shit, E: learned how to cook. Mike Martinez was the second bass player in Dirty Bird. We lost the first one when someone sent me some LSD in the mail and we took it. Bass player one joined the Navy. Mikey was in! Years later this New Mexico native and one of my best pals to this day stole an ARC for Lucky Supreme, A Novel Of Many Crimes, and sent me this lengthy text message when I asked for his help. He runs a fantastic operation, Enchanted Sun, at the Portland Farmer’s Market.

Why did he send it, you ask? The book received many solid blurbs from some of my favorite writers, and more than one of them asked after the recipe to this or that. They began to add up. Now there are more than forty in the collection, tentatively entitled Hot Food 4 Cool People (the title suggested by editor Lilly Golden). Here’s one of them, from an email I sent to the stellar writer Ace Atkins.

Delia’s Rellenos!!!

Here is a much, much better relleno with just the right pedigree. Just transcribed this out of a text message from the bass player in my late 80’s, early 90’s punk band Dirty Bird. Mike Martinez, the bass player and my friend all these many years, is a magnificent dude. Met him when I was 16 and we immediately conspired to tear a black hole in space with our sonic fury. That was in New Mexico. I was evading federal marshals after repeatedly breaking out of foster homes and whatnot, all good times, and he was usually in trouble for dating white chicks. We got along famously. The band moved to sunny Portland, Oregon for reasons none of us remember, and Mike went on to become a noteworthy chef. When I mentioned that I needed the quintessential Delia Relleno (he read the ARC too, stole it) this is what he came up with. IT IS GOOD! His instructions-

Take some beefy looking chili peppers, two per person, New Mexico or Anaheim, roast them really well until skin blackens under a broiler or on a gas stove top. Put ‘em in a paper sack for a few minutes and then peel ‘em. Put a slit down the side of each. Take some of the seeds out and fill ‘em with long chunks of white cheddar.

Now take three eggs and separate the whites/yolks into separate bowls. Whisk the shit out of the whites with a good solid teaspoon of baking powder until fluffy and beautiful. Whisk up the yolks but not as magnificently, then fold them gently into the whites.

Get a few tablespoons of oil nice and hot in a cast iron or equally proud pan.

Put some flour in a shallow bowl. Roll the chilies in the egg wash and then the flour and lay gently in pan. Don’t over crowd them. Mind your heat. Cook em a couple minutes on each side until cheese is melted and then put them in a tray in the oven to keep them warm while you cook the next round.

ENJOY!