Friday, February 10, 2012

New Mexico Red Chile Enchiladas

I am in love with New Mexico and that love deepens every time I go.  This new years I went with Cray Cray and made a point to come back with as much culinary memory as possible...  by far the biggest score was the decorative rostra that I am carving up at an alarming rate....  need to send for more chile's soon.

I have been making the red sauce for a couple of weeks now and have settled in on a recipe that suits me.
Soak a dozen or so chiles in warm water for a half our or so...  deseed and stem and add to about 4 cups of chicken stock and cook on med low for 30 mins or so...  the chile's will be bright red,  puree and strain.

i use a about 1 TBS of butter and cook two chopped cloves of garlic on low careful not to burn.  Sprinkle 1 TBS of white rice flour and begin a bit of a roux before adding the strained chile.  I add a pinch of mexican oregano here, a pinch of cumin and two whole cloves...  and you can salt here too.
you don't want this sauce to be too thick...  not like a gravy.
The color is incredible, the heat is there but the flavor is so incredible you cant stop eating it.
Now for the stacked enchilada's.  If I have some chicken around which I did this day, I dice it small and same for some yellow onion.  In cast iron skillet I cook six tortilla's in a little olive oil on high heat to crisp and bring out the maize flavor and set aside.

in same skillet I add some sauce and top with two tortilla's, more sauce, chicken cheese, onion, more sauce, repeat and the top tortilla gets more sauce and a sprinkling of cheese...  they will eat this for breakfast and top it with a sunny side up egg.  I sometimes add this to my lunch or dinner enchilada, garnished with lettuce, avocado, diced tomato, sour cream or greek strained yogurt.

I could put this sauce on everything.  I have some left over for my steak tonight.  First bite and I'm in right back in Santa fe with the smell of piñon and the crisp mountain air.  A truly magical land i will continue to visit and celebrate with culinary memories from here on out...  I have tried the powders to make red chile...  good in a pinch, the central market has a good pecos red...  but it never gets that velvety and is not as sweet, certainly not as hot, seems to get a little darker too for some reason.  The ones off the ristra get bright red.  My camera does not pic up the brightness of the sauce.  Just trust me on this one.

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