Chilly, Chile, Chili - When its chilly get some chile and make some chili! - Here's a Recipe.

New Mexicans are very particular about their chile and no New Mexican worth their salsa would ever call our wonderful chile pepper chili. Chili is that Texas style bean and meat or lack of beans or lack of meat thick stew sort of concoction that you pour into a Fritos corn chip bag. Nothing wrong with chili but don't get it confused with chile.

As much as I love my traditional style of making chile and all the various chile sauces there are times when a big ol' bowl of hot steaming chili is just the ticket, add cornbread, avocado and sour cream and this is a bowl of winter heaven. 

Christo's Big Cowboy Chili

1 lb ground beef (or chicken or turkey)
1 large onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
3 Tbs cumin powder
4 Tbs (use as much or as little as you want for level of heat desired) red chile powder (get it from New Mexico) 
1 small can tomato paste
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb dry of cooked kidney beans (I cooked a pound of dry beans in the pressure cooker you could use canned and it would probably work out to 2 quarts of beans) Make sure you have at least 3 cups of liquid with your beans
Avocado, sour cream and green onion for garnish

Brown the meat in a large skillet. When meat is brown add the onion and garlic and saute until soft. When the onion and garlic have softened then add the cumin and the chile powder and stir till everything is coated (if its not spicy enough add more red chile powder). When all of this is a nice deep red color then add the tomato paste and water. Simmer gently for 15 minutes. Add this mixture to your cooked beans and bean broth and simmer for 5 more minutes. Serve with your garnish and cornbread of you have it.

This is by far the easiest and tastiest chili you will ever have. No need to add any sugar as the onions add all the sweetness you need but if you do find that your particular can of tomato paste was extra acidy then add a squeeze of honey. Enjoy

A bowl of chili is a soothing, warming and an inexpensive way to bring lots of flavor and nutrition for you and your family, make some.

A Perfect Bite - Creative Cooking Crew Challenge = Reverse Rellenos

This months challenge for the Creative Cooking Crew was probably the most challenging one so far. I base my entire life out of making perfect bites and I do it regularly so to have to make the perfect bite I could only think of one thing = my culture.

One of my favorite foods of all time has got to be the chile relleno. I make chiles relleno as often as I can and then I make them more often in the summer when the chiles are abundant.

So whats the process? You roast a chile, you peel the chile and you stuff the chile (thats the relleno part, relleno means stuffed) then you batter and fry the chile. I love them. Well for this challenge I did a Reverse Relleno - I did all the normal things except I put the chile on the inside.

I used both red and green peppers for contrast and flavor. For the green pepper I used a poblano and for the red pepper I used a nice big pimento pepper. I also roasted a yellow pepper and another pimento to use as a sauce on the plate.

A little wilted spinach with some garlic, a bit of avocado and some cotija cheese rounded it all out.

My Reverse Relleno will be making an appearance again and again, you can count on that. Its certainly more of a process than the standard relleno since I had to make the roulades then wrap them in plastic wrap and poach at 150 for 6 minutes then let cool then freeze until firm and then batter and fry before slicing into medallions for plating. In fact its a lot more of a process but way worth it in wow factor alone - and yes it is more than just one bite but after one bite you will want more, each bite is loaded with everything a good bite needs to have.

Just for fun here is another plate that wasn't quite what I was looking for in presentation terms. I wasn't happy with the cotija cheese all over everything. Picky me.

I also did one with some radish florets, and while it does look nice I felt like it was a little too nice, if thats at all possible. Trial and error, practice makes perfect and like a perfect bite - it is all highly subjective. Check back later and I will post the link to all the others.

I have been as busy as bunnies (get it?)

Thanking my lucky stars lately since I now have a bit more work to keep my busy hands busy but this new bit of business has slowed up my blogging. If you are longing for my snark and sassiness then you will have to wait a bit longer because it seems like my backhanded verbosity is on hiatus. Laziness will have to suffice and with that you will have to accept that I will simply post a synopsis of pictures that would have been and could have been blog posts chock full of my witty repartee. Take this Molé Poblano for example - imagine what I could say about it.

Chocolatey, spicy goodness in an enchilada suiza cannot hardly get any better than this.

With more time I could go on and on about the sweet and succulent lamb chops dripping with the lamb unctuousness that only lamb can drip and with this extra time I could tease you with the curried lentils it is bathing in but lo I do not have even a spare second.

Morels, specifically, need more of my time and attention and should not be treated like latch key kids with parents too busy to care but sadly this is their fate and this is their life. Morel mushroom barley soup is, by far, the best mushroom barley soup that exists.

Steamy goodness with an earthy bite the delicate yet toothsome barley pearls give a good chew with the husky deliberateness of the morel mushroom. So with all my lagging and veiled bragging I did what I normally do - post pictures and write nonsense - so things are really not that different after all.

hot tamale

This time of year is typically the time of year for tamales.
I am providing extra links for tamales since I am not so detailed in my explanation. I have been making these delicious little treats for years and years now and I dont follow a recipe so much as I just throw it all together. I started the meat last night in the pressure cooker with chiles, garlic, onion salt and pepper so that today it was pulled and shredded by hand and tasty. I made the masa, soaked the husks and got busy this morning making 2 dozen of these bad boys. I basically did the same as this.



Spread the masa



A dollop of meat



Steam for 90 minutes or so ( I usually steam about
8 at a time but I show three here for convenience)



This big pot of chile is for spooning over the plated
tamales covered in melted cheese and served up
"wet" as referenced by my food buddy at Opinions
and Rectums. I dont need to tell you how good these are.