I have a confession to make: I have always found Valentine's Day unbearable! Love the romantic idea of it, just couldn't bother my you know what with all that comes with it: hair, make up, dress, perfect gift, romantic get away, flowers, chocolates, reservations, it's just all too much pressure for me so I can only imagine how hard it must be for the lads! Last year, still recovering from an expensive Christmas and a terrible January, we decided to take it easy, be sensible and spend it at home. We gave each other a small gift and we prepare a gorgeous meal for two and eat it wearing pajamas and watching our favourite show on telly: pure bliss! It went so well, that we did the same this year and here's my labour of Love for the day: Chiles Rellenos.

Chiles Rellenos or stuffed peppers, are a classic dish in Mexico. Traditionally we use poblano peppers, which are long, thick and leathery peppers with a deep green colour that grow around the Puebla Region in Mexico (hence their 'poblano' name which means 'from Puebla'). They are very flavoursome and mild in heat, although every now and then you might get a spicy one. When these chiles are dried, they become 'Ancho' peppers and in their fresh version, they are used in soups, meat based dishes and sauces.

Poblanos are close to impossible to get fresh in Dublin and if you do find them, they are expensive. I always keep my ear to the ground in case they turn up at some vegetable shop or market stall, but it is quite rare. We do stock them tinned in the shop, and although they are whole and delicious, I find the tinned variety way too brittle and delicate, which is terrible if you want to stuff them with the chunky picadillo I made for this recipe. Craving the dish, I figured out a way to make them without the poblano peppers, and although you are missing the flavour of the real poblano pepper, the stuffing and all the cooking techniques are authentic, so if you happen to find them fresh, try the recipe again and compare!

Note: Chiles Rellenos are a lot of work. I only make them occasionally but they are worth the effort and if you are clever (as I am not), you would try and spread the work load over a couple of days; you could make the stuffing a day in advance so that the work is not all on the one single day. I didn't and we ended up having dinner quite late at night! Hope you enjoy this recipe!

While preparing for a Mexican Cookery Class I was giving last year I came across this lovely recipe and although this post has been long in the making (tweaking the method quite a lot), I knew when I found it that it was a definite winner. I wanted an easy to prepare dish that would use a Mexican ingredient from My Mexican Shop. It had to be quick, no more than 15 minutes preparation time, and about 30 to 35 minutes cooking time. I went through all of my Mexican Food books and a big fat NADA was all I got... until I found this little booklet my mam gave me last time I was in Mexico.

The recipe was very, very vague, I assume that's what the Great British Bake Off technical challenge recipes look like: ingredients and a rough method, no cooking times, no fancy or detailed instructions, just a 'make the dish' general feel to it. Alan tried to talk me out of using it as I hadn't tested it before and I was modifying the recipe, but the whole thing made so much sense to me. I was familiar with all the ingredients and having done some research on the cooking method I thought the dish would be perfect. These are the results and I must say I'm delighted. I had never given much thought to steaming chicken, but I tell you, I'm going to incorporate that cooking method for chicken a lot more now. The meat was so moist and tender, it was nearly like a Barbacoa of chicken. Quick, easy and on the day a total success.