Photo Emmanuel Bastien

When people in this country talk about chiles rellenos they usually mean the batter-fried, cheese-filled chiles below. But the words chile relleno simply means a stuffed chile and it can be any kind of chile with any filling. The chile above is stuffed with a chicken and fruit picadillo.

These are Pickled Jalapeños Stuffed with Tuna (Chiles Jalapeños en Escabeche):

Photo Laurie Smith

In Oaxaca, they stuff chiles with string cheese and then char them like this. We used to serve them at the restaurant.

Photo Laurie Smith

I learned to make marinated ancho chiles from Nana Luz, the 80-something year old nanny of a friend of my stepfather, who must have been around 60 years old then.

And the crowning glory of Mexican food, or at least one of them: Chiles en nogada

Photo Michael Sofronski