Chile en Nogada

Chile en nogada is a roasted poblano pepper stuffed with a sweet-savoury beef and pork picadillo, draped in a fresh walnut cream sauce and finished with a scatter of pomegranate seeds. The three colours on the plate — green pepper, white walnut sauce, red pomegranate — deliberately echo the Mexican flag, and the dish is traditionally served in September around Independence Day, when fresh walnuts and pomegranates are both in season.

What it really is

A poblano pepper roasts and peels, then stuffs with picadillo — minced beef and pork cooked down with tomato, dried fruit and toasted nuts, its sweet-savoury balance the defining trait of the filling. Fresh walnuts, not the dried, bitter kind, blend into a pale, creamy sauce that pours warm or cold over the stuffed pepper just before serving, and a scatter of ruby pomegranate seeds finishes it, along with sometimes a scatter of parsley for a touch more green.

The walnut sauce has to use fresh, not dried, walnuts, or the whole dish turns bitter. Fresh walnuts, peeled of their thin skin, give a mild, sweet cream; dried walnuts carry a bitterness that clashes badly with the sauce's intended sweetness — swapping one for the other changes the dish from a delicate seasonal specialty into something noticeably worse.

How it's served

• The stuffed pepper plated whole, sauce poured over, pomegranate seeds scattered on top.
• Warm or at room temperature, depending on whether the sauce is served warm or cold.
• As a main course, especially around Mexican Independence Day in September when the ingredients are in season.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the walnuts in the sauce and the dairy in the cream.
• Say that the sauce depends on fresh walnuts being in season, since it's traditionally a limited-time dish for that reason.
• Note that the filling isn't spicy — the picadillo runs sweet-savoury, not hot, despite being inside a chile pepper.