Carne Guisada

I stand in my kitchen over a dutch oven stirring a pot of what is suppose to be carne guisada.  Yup...I am wondering what I did in my life that brought me to this moment and thinking do I even know what I am doing?  Apparently it is one of those dishes that fortunately just sounds hard but is amazingly simple and is delicious.  John I guess was browsing for dinner ideas and threw this little gem my way.  He of course is a add this, do that kind of a person.  I feel as though you should at least give the original recipe a shot before going and making improvements on something.  Not him!  He already had me adding potatoes and green chilis to it before I even got the grocery list written down.  My Husband thankfully has good taste in everything.  My first crack at this recipe was a success and left me shouting the dinner bell with confidence.  

Green Chile Carne Guisada

4 russet potatoes

5 cups cold water

3 TB salt

Cube potatoes and put in cold salted water to boil until tender.

2 TB oil

1-2 pounds sirloin cubed

3 TB flour

In a dutch oven add your oil to the pan on medium heat.  Dredge sirloin chunks in flour and add to the pan.

While that is browning..

2 roma tomatoes diced

1 bunch of cilantro chopped

1 small onion diced

4 roasted, skinned, deseeded and chopped green chiles

Add to the dutch oven once the meat is browned.  Stir and prepare..

2 Tb cumino seeds

3 garlic cloves

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 tsp black pepper corns

Toast cumino seeds just until fragrant, mince garlic cloves, crushed red pepper and black peppercorns until a paste forms.  Add to the pot and add remaining ingredients.

3 Cups beef stock

salt & pepper to taste

You will notice that once you add the stock that the liquid forms a gravy.  Once it has reached that point drop the temperature to low heat and simmer for an hour.  Once the meat is tender add your cooked potatoes and gently stir until coated.

Serve with warm tortillas over rice!

Cheesy Chile Enchiladas

It was a wonderful first day of fall.  I got up early that morning made apple fritters and drank a hot cup pumpkin spiced joe on the back porch with the hound dog.  It was quiet and quaint and the best part the hubs was about to make his way home!!  The previous night my sister Katie stopped by the house to drop off some fresh roasted hot hatch peppers.  Have I mentioned we are still devouring those suckers!  While I sit there drinking my coffee and eating my hot apple fritter a previous suttle comment of "make us something for dinner with those chiles we brought you" came to my mind.  I brought the idea to Johns attention an asked what I should make.  He suggested enchiladas.  Immediately all these ideas of something hot, spicy, cheesy, chiles with white sauce began to flood my mind.  I went to the store and bought enough to make a meal big enough to feed an army.  Of course my phone rings as I am carrying in my last load of groceries.  I answer it and sure enough they called him out on another job and John wasn't going to get to come home.  I let him know that I would still be making the chile enchiladas and his only request was to save some for him.





I start out by adding 1/4 cup olive oil to a pan turn up the heat to medium and begin adding your spices.  I added 1 TB of each cyan pepper,  diced garlic,  salt, pepper, & red pepper flakes.  I cook in the oil just until they start to dance then I add in a lot of chiles!!

I used close to 1 pound of chiles.  Once those have you coughing over the fire then add in your meat.  I actually cooked almost 2 1/2 pounds of beef for these enchiladas.  You probably want to use less if you are not feeding the entire block.

Cook your meat until its completely browned.  If you notice a lot of juice at the bottom of the pan I like to add 1 TB of flour and stir it in.  It will tighten that flavor to where you do not have to pour it out.  

While your meat is browning I go ahead and cook my tortillas.  30 to be exact.  I ended up making 24 enchiladas, and 6 of the tortillas were placed on the bottom of my baking dish to ensure nothing would get stuck to the bottom of the pan!  You can cook the white corn tortillas by adding 1 TB of oil to a pan over medium high heat and cooking for about 10 seconds on each side.  This is not really cooking it is just to loosen the tortillas so when you begin to roll them they do not break and tear.  It is very frustrating when that happens and you will probably swear you will never make them again.  Then you find yourself in the kitchen weeks later giving it another go.  True story.

Once you are done with the tortillas, we move on to the white sauce.  You can call it white sauce, sour cream sauce......Uh creamy white sauce whatever.  All I can say is it is nothing like the red sauce!  I usually slather sour cream all over mine as well but this sauce adds just enough of that creamy goodness that it's not needed!

Blanco Sauce

Melt:

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup flour

Add & Bring to boil:

32 oz chicken stock

Stir in:

16 oz sour cream

2 cups chiles

Add about a cup of the sauce to the bottom of the pan and begin rolling your enchiladas with about 2 TB of meat per tortilla.  I place the flap of the tortilla on the side to where it hugs the pan and doesn't come unrolled.  Once your pan is full pour as much as the sauce over the meat and tortillas.  I suggest most of it cause you do not want yours to turn out dry!!!   Finish by adding 3 cups of Monterey jack cheese to the top and baking at 350 for 30 minutes then 450 for an additional 10.

When everyone gathers at the dinner table for this meal there will be no sad faces.  The spice is enough to make your mouth water and the cheese is ooey gooey with every bite.

To finish my story from earlier.  John made it home in time for lunch the next day.  To his surprise we left him half the whole pan of enchiladas.  He lived happily ever after  =)

The End.