Mon., Feb. 8 2010 @ 10:39AM
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| John Linn |
| From left to right: Ancho, cascabel, and arbol chile powder made at home from dried chiles. |
A couple weeks ago, I asked readers if they had any suggestions on
what to do with some dried, Mexican chiles I had purchased at a local grocery store. I bought a bag of cascabel chiles and a bag of ancho chiles, and was looking to make something fun with them. Our reader, Freakerdude, came through and offered this advice:
Chili is one recipe you can use them in. Take about 3 ancho, 3
pasilla, and 3 guajillos and remove the top and seeds. Hyrdate them by
boiling lightly for a few minutes. Combine them in a blender. Strain
the mixture through a fine screen into your pot of chili.
An awesome al pastor is my favorite recipe though. I always have 3
kinds of hand....ancho, chili de arbol, and guajillo. I also keep
chipotle and pasillas on hand. I'll send you my al pastor recipe to
check out.
I decided to run with Freaker's ideas for a Super Bowl gathering at my house last night. I made beef sirloin chili con carne with ancho, cascabel, arbol, and chipotle chiles. I also made an al pastor marinated, barbecued pork shoulder and a lamb leg with the same preparation. And, for the most part, each dish came out fantastic (the lamb didn't, exactly, but that's another story).
I'm going to start off recapping the weekend-long cooking session by talking about how I prepared the chiles for each dish.