Chile Con Carne Rojo Sonoran Style Food

SONORAN CARNE CON CHILE

Steps:

• Optional smoking step. Salt the venison the night before you plan on smoking it and set in the fridge. The next morning, smoke the meat at 185°F for about three hours. I use mesquite here, but whatever wood you like will do.
• Braise the Meat. Put all the other ingredients for the meat in a stewpot and bring to a simmer. Cover the pot. You can simmer this on the stovetop or in a 325°F oven.
• Toast the Chiles. Heat a comal or flattop or large, heavy frying pan over medium-high heat. While the pan heats up, remove the stems and seeds from the dried chiles. Using a metal spatula, toast all the chiles quickly, pressing on them to flatten. They will get pliable quickly. You'll only need about 30 seconds per side, and you can flip them back and forth if you want. Do not let them char or burn. Move them as you go to a large bowl. When they are all toasted, pour boiling water over them to soak.
• Continuing, you will want to spread the cumin seeds on the hot comal. Let them toast, moving them more or less constantly, until they smell nice, about a minute or two, tops. Move them to a spice grinder and grind to a powder. Can you use ground cumin? Sure, but it won't be as good.
• Now char the garlic and onion on the comal. Set them down on the hot surface and let them sit there until you get a nice char. You want blackening. Move them around to char on all sides. When they're ready, peel the garlic and roughly chop the onion.
• Move the rehydrated chiles, onion, garlic, cumin, oregano and a healthy pinch of salt to the blender. Add a little soaking water or some braising liquid and puree. You want the sauce to have the consistency of heavy cream.
• Optional Step: Push the sauce through a fine-meshed sieve to remove small bits of chile skin and seeds. They are not digestible, and doing this step makes a smoother sauce, and, well, largely prevents the "ring of fire" the following morning...
• Heat a pot over medium heat and add the lard. When the lard is hot, pour the sauce in and stir, stir, stir until the fat emulsifies. Bring it to a very gentle simmer and keep warm.
• Once the venison is tender, somewhere between 90 minutes and 3 hours or so -- you'll know when you can pull it apart fairly easily with two forks -- time to serve. I like to pull the meat into largish pieces and put it in the sauce pot to bathe for a few minutes before serving.

CARNE CON CHILE ROJO(BEEF AND RED CHILE)

Steps:

• Preheat 3 tablespoons of oil to medium heat for a few minutes. Add the dried chiles and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the onion, garlic and cumin seeds and cook for 3 more minutes. Add the 2 cups of broth and cook for 5 to 7 more minutes or until dried peppers have become soft.
• Transfer all of the ingredients from the skillet with chiles into the blender. Season with salt and pepper to taste, using a kitchen towel to hold down the lid to the blender, blend on high until smooth. Taste for salt. Strain chile sauce into a large bowl using a wire mesh strainer. Set aside.
• In that same skillet, add 2 more tablespoons of oil and preheat for a few minutes. Season the beef with salt and pepper and place into hot oil. Cook and sear until golden brown on most sides. Add the strained chile sauce, remaining broth and spices. If you like the a carne con chile with more broth, add all of the remaining broth. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Taste for spices and cover partially while is slow simmers for the next 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until the beef becomes tender. Serve with your favorite sides and warm, homemade flour totillas.

CHILI CON CARNE

Steps:

• Cook the bacon in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes per side. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate and let cool, then crumble and set aside. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon drippings from the saucepan (reserve the drippings). Increase the heat to medium high, add the beef and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until browned, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate using a slotted spoon; wipe out the pan.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of the reserved bacon drippings in the saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and 1 teaspoon salt and cook 2 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano and tomato paste and cook, stirring, until the tomato paste is brick red, about 6 minutes (add a splash of water if the mixture begins to stick). Add the beer and simmer until almost completely reduced, about 3 minutes.
• Stir in the beef and any juices from the plate; add the cocoa powder, tomatoes, beef broth and beans and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chili thickens slightly, about 1 hour, 30 minutes.
• Stir the hot sauce into the chili and season with salt. Add some beef broth if the chili is too thick. Ladle into bowls and top with the crumbled bacon, cheese, scallions and/or sour cream.

CARNE CON CHILE ROJO

Steps:

• Cook the tomatoes and peppers together in a small saucepan, or in the microwave until softened. Place into the bowl of a blender with the garlic clove, and puree until smooth.
• Meanwhile, heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the beef with salt and pepper to taste, then fry in the skillet until no longer pink.
• Once cooked, pour in the tomato puree, and add the bouillon cube. Stir until the bouillon cube dissolves, then cook for 3 minutes.

CHILI CON CARNE

Steps:

• In a Dutch oven, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink, 5-7 minutes; crumble beef. Drain and set aside. , In the same pot, heat oil; saute onions until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the green pepper, salt, chili powder, bouillon, cayenne, cinnamon, cumin and oregano. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring until combined. , Add tomatoes and browned beef. Stir in water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for about 1 hour. Add beans and heat through. If desired top with sour cream and jalapeno.

CARNE CON CHILE ROJO (CHUCK BRAISED IN CHILE)

Steps:

• To make the bison: Heat oven to 275 degrees.
• Sprinkle the sugar and salt all over the roast. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Add the roast and sear until dark brown on all sides, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate and reduce the heat to medium. Carefully add 1 cup broth (the hot fat will spatter) and scrape up all the browned bits from the pan. Return the roast and any accumulated juices to the Dutch oven and add the tomatoes, onion, chiles, sage, bay leaves, syrup and remaining 3 cups broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and transfer to the center of the oven.
• Braise until the meat is very tender, about 3 1/2 hours. A fork should slide through easily. Uncover and cool for 15 minutes, then transfer the roast to a large bowl. Finely shred the meat using your hands if cool enough to handle or with two forks. Strain the cooking liquid and reserve.
• To make the chile rojo: Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add all of the dried chiles, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer steadily until softened and lighter in color, about 10 minutes. Transfer the chiles to a blender, along with the garlic, onion, salt and 2 cups of the braising liquid. Save any remaining braising liquid for another use (see Tip). Blend until very smooth.
• Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet over high heat until shimmering. Carefully add the chile sauce (it will splatter) and immediately reduce the heat to medium. Simmer, stirring often, until thickened and brick red, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the shredded meat and any accumulated juices and stir to evenly coat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt. Serve immediately or cool to room temperature to use as a filling for tamales. The sauced braised meat can be refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months.

CHILI CON BLARNEY

Steps:

• Brown ground beef, breaking up beef with back of spoon. If beef renders a lot of fat during cooking, be sure to drain off before proceeding with recipe (I use a very lean cut and have my butcher grind it for me). Add onion (or shallot), garlic, celery, chili powder, cumin, oregano and cayenne. Season with salt and pepper to taste and continue to cook for another 3 minutes.
• Add diced tomato, water, honey, cocoa and worcestershire sauce. Stir to incorporate. Bring to a slow simmer and cover pot. Forget about it for the next 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, give chili a stir. Taste it and adjust seasoning - you may want more salt or heat. Add beans, bring to slow simmer, cover pot and cook another hour. Uncover pot and check consistency - if you like your chili thicker, increase heat and boil, uncovered, for a few more minutes.
• Serve in deep bowls, topping chili with 1/3 cup coarsely grated gouda cheese (either regular or smoked - both are good in this). Add a small dollop of sour cream or greek yoghurt, if you like.

CHILLI CON CARNE RECIPE

Steps:

• Prepare your vegetables. Chop 1 large onion into small dice, about 5mm square. The easiest way to do this is to cut the onion in half from root to tip, peel it and slice each half into thick matchsticks lengthways, not quite cutting all the way to the root end so they are still held together. Slice across the matchsticks into neat dice.
• Cut 1 red pepper in half lengthways, remove stalk and wash the seeds away, then chop. Peel and finely chop 2 garlic cloves.
• Start cooking. Put your pan on the hob over a medium heat. Add 1 tbsp oil and leave it for 1-2 minutes until hot (a little longer for an electric hob).
• Add the onion and cook, stirring fairly frequently, for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft, squidgy and slightly translucent.
• Tip in the garlic, red pepper, 1 heaped tsp hot chilli powder or 1 level tbsp mild chilli powder, 1 tsp paprika and 1 tsp ground cumin.
• Give it a good stir, then leave it to cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Brown 500g lean minced beef. Turn the heat up a bit, add the meat to the pan and break it up with your spoon or spatula. The mix should sizzle a bit when you add the mince.
• Keep stirring and prodding for at least 5 minutes, until all the mince is in uniform, mince-sized lumps and there are no more pink bits. Make sure you keep the heat hot enough for the meat to fry and become brown, rather than just stew.
• Make the sauce. Crumble 1 beef stock cube into 300ml hot water. Pour this into the pan with the mince mixture.
• Add a 400g can of chopped tomatoes. Tip in ½ tsp dried marjoram, 1 tsp sugar and add a good shake of salt and pepper. Squirt in about 2 tbsp tomato purée and stir the sauce well.
• Simmer it gently. Bring the whole thing to the boil, give it a good stir and put a lid on the pan. Turn down the heat until it is gently bubbling and leave it for 20 minutes.
• Check on the pan occasionally to stir it and make sure the sauce doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan or isn't drying out. If it is, add a couple of tablespoons of water and make sure that the heat really is low enough. After simmering gently, the saucy mince mixture should look thick, moist and juicy.
• Drain and rinse a 410g can of red kidney beans in a sieve and stir them into the chilli pot. Bring to the boil again, and gently bubble without the lid for another 10 minutes, adding a little more water if it looks too dry.
• Taste a bit of the chilli and season. It will probably take a lot more seasoning than you think.
• Now replace the lid, turn off the heat and leave your chilli to stand for 10 minutes before serving. This is really important as it allows the flavours to mingle.
• Serve with soured cream and plain boiled long grain rice.

CHILE CON CARNE ROJO, SONORAN STYLE

Steps:

• Put the cut-up beef in a dutch oven or similar large kettle, cover with water and boil with salt, pepper, garlic, onion, and 3-4 bay leaves. Boil until meat is tender.
• Remove bay leaves and throw them away. Remove the meat.
• Pour the liquid into another container. (I use a good-sized plastic pitcher.).
• Stir the chili paste into the liquid. ( Or use 8 ounces of the paste and 8 ounces of made-from-scratch chile sauce. Or if you have an asbestos tongue, skip the commercial stuff entirely!).
• Melt shortening in the bottom of the kettle. Add flour and cook until brown, stirring almost constantly.
• Add 10 cups or so of the beef stock/chile mixture gradually, while stirring. (It's like making gravy.).
• Reduce heat and add oregano, cumin, more garlic, and salt to taste.
• Stir in the meat.
• DO NOT add tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, stewed tomatoes, or any other tomato product!
• Serve with flour tortillas and refried beans. Or make your own burros and serve it that way. Left overs (if any) freeze well.