Charred Poblano, Cilantro, Lime Crema

Want to talk about awesome sauce? This is it! Who had the most refreshing and surprising dish of night one of Food Network Star? This girl! And what awesome sauce was on her awesome tostadas? This sauce! So I have actually been asked by quite a few people for the recipe since the show aired a few days ago. I thought I had it on my blog... and I kind of do and I kind of don't. It is on a quesadilla that I made in my first few months of the blog. I have the flank steak tacos with the pomegranate pineapple pico de gallo, but I put an avocado crema on it instead. And to make things easy for you (and because I would love to capitalize on my temporary D list fame), I am writing a blog post solely dedicated to the charred poblano crema. Plus, well, it is delicious. Plus, well, it is easy. And yet another plus (with another well), you will want to put it on all your taco loving needs. And since Taco Tuesday is like the most important day of the week. I am doing you a solid. As always, you are so welcome for this selfless act on my part. (And before you judge that statement, I don't make any money off of my blog yet and this is basically taking up all my "free time". So yeah, it practically counts as volunteer work.)

Creamy crema, smokey and slightly spicy poblanos, zesty lime... you picking up what I am putting down? Good! Basically this crema PERFECTLY compliments my Grilled Marinated Flank Steak Tacos with Pomegranate and Pineapple Pico de Gallo. But it would also go with (as mentioned above) pretty much any taco. Or just steak, chicken, pork, grilled vegetables, etc. It is a one stop shop for saucy-sauce for Mexican food. And as a bust mom of two young kids, one stop shop is what my life is all about.

The picture below is basically all you need. Somehow the garlic didn't make it in the pic. Maybe garlic felt like it looked fat today and hid, I don't really know. But this is all you willed need. Charred poblano peppers (we will get to that below), Mexican Crema (you can use sour cream if for some reason you cannot find crema), cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. And to make it even better, you can do it all in your food processor. No "cooking" required!

Ingredients/Instructions:

3 poblano peppers

1 cup Mexican crema (or sour cream)

1-2 garlic cloves

1 1/2 tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 cup cilantro leaves

1. First thing is first, we are going to char those poblanos. My Hawaiian home is the first in my adult life where I have not had a gas range. It makes me sad. My happy Christmas Grinch heart shirks back to regular Grinch heart size just thinking about it.

a) If you have a gas range, simply put the poblanos over the open flame and flip them when they begin to blacken on the majority of the flame exposed side of the poblano. You do not want to char it to a crisp, just a black-ish color on each side. You can use the pictures above and below as a good visual reference for the poblanos.

b) If you do not have a gas stove top, you can broil them in your oven. Place a silicone mat on top of a baking sheet,along with your peppers. Turn your oven to broil and put the oven rack towards the top of your oven. Broil roughly 8 minutes per side or till they look like the pictures above and below. (This will vary depending on where the oven rack is, so just keep an eye on them.)

2. You want to wait until the peppers are cooled before you peel off the waxy burnt skin. If you do it too soon, the steam will come out and burn you.

3. You do not have to get all of the skin off of the poblano. The image below is what mine looked like. I keep the majority of my seeds, and there is still some remaining skin. The stem and top has been completely removed.