Stay Home Cooking Adventure

In this time under a stay at home order, you look for new things to do. For me, that new thing was trying to cook a dish I have never made before: Chile Colorado. For those that are interested, the recipe at the bottom of this blog.

Now since I couldn't find the dried chiles that was talked about in the recipe, I went with Adobe peppers. Felt weird toasting already dried peppers, but since this is my 1st time making this recipe, I followed the instructions exactly. Made the kitchen smell like toasted chilies for the rest of the afternoon.

Soaking the chiles after toasting

While the chiles were soaking, I cut up and started browning the meat. Of course, the meat was taste-tasted by Gabby and it met with her approval. (Gave her a little piece. She was not on the counter.)

Smelled good

The purée was pretty easy to make, once I had the chiles' seeds removed. If you do plan on making this, you can use 2-3 tbsp of minced garlic (not dried) in place of the 2 cloves if you don't want to get a whole bulb of garlic. Marie introduced me to having a jar of minced garlic in my fridge and I am never without it. The simmering is the hard part. I made sure to set 30 minute timers to stir it during the 2 hour simmer time. It smelled rather good at this point. Hard to not want to eat it.

Begining to simmer

Two hours later, it was time to eat. Lee and I doled out a couple of spoonfuls into bowls, topped with shredded cheese and grabbed a couple of tortillas. You had to be careful eating it due to drips, but it came out very tasty. It had some heat to it but it wasn't the type of heat where it felt like you would lose your tongue. I would definitely make this again, even though it has a long prep & cook time. Lee even suggested using chicken for it. We shall see.



Recipe for Chile Colorado
The beef for this is slow simmered in a red chile purée so the ingredients for the purée will be listed 1st, then the rest of the ingredients will follow.

8 dried red chilies, such as guajillo or New Mexico
1 cup hot water
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried episode or oregano leaves
1 (14.5oz) can chopped tomatoes, with liquid

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
3lbs boneless chuck roast, cut into 1 inch cubes
Salt and pepper
1 large onion, sliced
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese, to garnish
Pico de Gallo, to garnish
Warm flour tortillas, for serving

On a griddle over medium-high heat, toast the chilies for 2 minutes on each side. Place the toasted chilies in a bowl and pour the hot water over them. Let the chilies soften for 30 minutes, them stem & seed them, reserving the soaking water. Place the chilies, garlic, cumin, epazote, tomatoes, and 1/4 cup of the soaking water in a food processor or blender. Purée until smooth. Set aside.

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a heavy, large pot. Season the beef and then brown all over for about 20 minutes. Add slice onion and chile purée. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 2-2.5 hours or until the beef is tender. Serve in bowls, topped with shredded Monterey Jack cheese and pico de gallo, and accompanied by flour tortillas.
Serves 6-8