Multi Chile Chili

It's football season, and that usually means my Sundays are consumed by Ravens' games. Since most games start at 1pm, they cut into my normal Sunday afternoon cooking and baking time, which means I have to come up with something that doesn't involve a lot of prep or a la minute cooking for dinner. My go-to Sunday dish is chili.

I feel like I make chili a lot, so I find myself trying to alter my usual pretty-darn-good recipe so I don't get bored. One week, there was a surfeit of poblano peppers at the local farmers' market, so I bought a bunch. I figured I could make a chili that had several kinds of peppers in it, since I usually do have various dried chiles in the cupboard and always a jar of chipotles en adobo in the fridge. I also added a couple different chile powders, including the smoky-flavored pasilla negro powder I recently purchased at Spices Etc.

The resulting bowl of red was meaty and spicy, which more than made up for the Ravens' lackluster performance.

Five (or More) Chile Chili

6 poblano peppers
4 dried New Mexico chiles
2 onions, chopped
oil
pinch salt
3 lbs ground beef
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
2 teaspoons pasilla negro chile powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
2 chipotles en adobo, minced
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon Sriracha
1 cup beef broth
Salt and pepper to taste
chopped scallions for garnish

Roast poblanos over an open flame until charred all over. Place charred peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. When cool enough to handle, rub off the skin, remove the stem and seeds, and cut the peppers into small pieces.

Snip stem end off New Mexico chiles and shake out seeds. Soak chiles in boiling water to cover until chiles are pliable. Break into pieces and put in a blender or mini-prep food processor with enough of the soaking water to make a puree.

In a large pot or dutch oven, cook the onions in a bit of oil and a pinch of salt until onions are translucent. Add the ground beef and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until meat is cooked through. Add garlic and spices and stir well to combine.

Add poblanos, New Mexico chile puree, tomatoes, Sriracha, and beef broth to the pot and bring chili to a boil. Turn heat down to a bare simmer and cook for about 2 hours, or until meat is very tender. Add more cumin, coriander, and chile powders to taste, along with salt and pepper.

Serve garnished with chopped scallions.

Serves 8-10



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pozole

When football season comes around, it seems I'm always concocting recipes for long-cooked stew-type dishes. If I can get everything in a pot before the game, then I don't have to worry about cooking something afterwards when I may be stressed out from a loss or an especially hard-earned win. (Those times, I'd just rather have a cocktail and a big bowl of ice cream.) So there's plenty of winter weekends when we eat chili and the like. While I like to think I make some pretty kick-ass chili, I get bored with it.

One recent stressful Saturday, when the Ravens were facing the Broncos in the AFC Divisional Play-off game, and I was despairing that they had little chance against future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning and his new crew, I made something completely different - pozole. Typically a hearty stew of meat and hominy, my pozole contained red chiles for color and flavor, but green versions with tomatillos and green chiles also exist.

The dish was hearty and warming, and I was glad I didn't have to think about it much while I was biting my nails and cheering on my home team to their victory.

Pozole Rojo

2 pounds country-style pork ribs
1 teaspoon salt
6 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 ounces whole New Mexico red chiles
2 cups boiling water
2 cloves garlic, halved
1/2 roughly chopped onion, about 3/4 cup
2 15oz cans hominy
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
chicken broth
salt and pepper
cilantro for garnish
sliced radishes for garnish
flour tortillas

Place ribs, salt, and sliced garlic in a dutch oven with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then turn down so the water is simmering. Cook for about 90 minutes, skimming water as foam rises.

While meat is cooking, toast the chiles in a hot skillet for several seconds per side until they smell toasty. Place peppers in a bowl and pour on the hot water. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap or a plate. After about thirty minutes of soaking, remove stem end from pepper and slice lengthwise. Remove seeds and ribs, if desired, for a milder sauce, or leave some or all of them in for something spicier. Cut pepper into chunks and place in a food processor with the two halved cloves of garlic, the onion, and enough of the soaking water to make a thick puree. Set aside.

Remove meat from pot, remove bones, and tear into chunks. Strain the broth and set aside. Return meat to the pot with enough strained broth to barely cover, the chile, onion and garlic puree, hominy, and seasonings. Add chicken broth if there's not enough pork stock to cover, and simmer over medium heat, covered, for 45 minutes, until hominy is tender. If there's too much broth toward the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat for a few minutes to boil some of it off.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, garnish with cilantro and radishes, and serve with warm flour tortillas.

Posted on Minxeats.com.