Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Cheese Sauce

My refrigerator was overflowing with poblano peppers.
Ok, not quite overflowing. I had four.
And I had plans to use the in some scrumptious way.
Originally, I was going to roast them. Mostly because that's the typical first step in preparation of poblano peppers.
Though I'm not sure why.
I was browsing recipes for ideas and suddenly stuffed peppers sounded amazing.
I had never had a stuffed poblano.
The question was: how should they be stuffed?

I quickly started whole grain brown rice in my handy dandy rice cooker.
Because that takes FOREVER.
Or about 20 minutes.
Then I decided it needed black beans.
And tomatoes. And garlic and onions. duh.

And that's when it hit me!
I had a lovely batch of my favorite "dump" salsa in the fridge.
Black Bean Salsa.
I stirred this into the cooked rice.
Stuffed the peppers.
And BAM! We had a great dinner on our plates!

Now, a word of caution.
Poblanos are a tricky pepper.
They're not always spicy hot.
And they're not always pleasantly mild.
In our batch of 3 stuffed peppers we had two delightfully mild peppers.
And one burn-your-tongue-off-because-it's-hotter-than-a-jalapeno poblano pepper.
So tread lightly, folks.
And beware of the sneaky poblano.

Ingredients

3-4 large poblano peppers 

3 cups cooked brown rice 

2-3 cups black bean salsa

• Stir together: 
• 1-15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1-15 oz. can whole corn, drained
• 1-15 oz. can diced tomatoes with chilis
• 1 clove garlic, minced 
• 1 small onion, finely chopped 
• 2 Tbsp Italian dressing
• salt and pepper 

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp flour

1 clove garlic, minced 

salt

pepper

sprinkle of chili powder, if desired

1-2 cups milk

1 cup grated cheese

Directions

Cook rice. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. When rice is cooked stir in black bean salsa to desired proportion. Make a thin slice lengthwise down each poblano pepper. Do NOT cut all the way through. Leave stem attached, but remove veins and seeds. Stuff each pepper with the rice mixture.  Place in a greased 8x8 inch pan. Add 2-3 Tbsp water. Cover with tin foil. Bake for 45 minutes.  Remove foil (VERY carefully! The steam from the peppers can burn.) Place back in the oven for 5-10 more minutes while you make the cheese sauce. 

Heat a small saucepan to medium heat high. Add in butter and melt. Stir in garlic, salt and pepper. Saute 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. Whisk in flour forming a thickening agent (known as a roux). Cook out the flour for 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk--just one cup at first. Let thicken. Add more milk if needed. Stir in cheese and cook until melted. (Add more cheese if it needs to be thickened; add more milk if it needs to be thinned.) 

Place one pepper on dinner plate and top with cheese sauce.