Repollo Relleno en Salsa de Chipotle (Stuffed Cabbage in Chipotle Sauce)

Morita chiles are red, fully mature Chipotles. This gives them a unique, medium – hot smokey flavor which is popular in many Southwestern dishes. These can be added to sauces (including Mole) to add smokey flavor and maintain the red color of the sauces. These peppers are about 2-4 inches in length, 1 inch in width, and have a deep brick reddish brown color. The word Chipotle translated to smoked chile. Consider the Chipotle a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the hottest). Scoville heat units 7,000-25,000.

Suggested Use:
Use Morita in enchilada sauces, chili, stews, barbecue ribs, and corn bread. Their smoky quality combines well with poultry, meats and fall squash.

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Ingredients:

1 head of cabbage
2 cups of cooked rice
1 Tbsp. garlic, chopped
1/4 cup almonds, blanched and peeled
1/4 cup sliced green olives
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 tsp. thyme
1/4 cup chopped zucchini
sea salt to taste

Chipotle sauce:

4 medium tomatoes, roasted
3 chipotle chiles, seeded and washed
2 cloves of garlic
salt to taste

Instructions:

Remove the center core and the outer leaves from 1 head of cabbage and drop it into boiling water. Lift out after a few minutes and remove the soft leaves. Repeat, immersing the head and removing leaves until you have separated 12 of them.

In a large bowl, mix the rice, garlic, almonds, olives, parsley, thyme, zucchini and salt. Put a portion of this mixture into the middle of each of the cabbage leaves, fold the sides over and then roll them up into packets. Preheat the oven to 375F.

To prepare the sauce, put the tomatoes, chiles and garlic into a blender and puree. Strain and add the salt to taste. Pour the sauce over the cabbage rolls, cover and bake for 20 minutes.

Recipe from “A Taste of Mexico” by Kippy Nigh.