How Bout this at Your Next Tailgate

I think I am going to start a series on game food- tailgate or otherwise.  The first two nominations are Mike’s Famous Burger, Mike’s Famous Green Chile, your favorite burro or enchilada smothered in Mike’s Famous Chile (my ideas later), or this:

Green Chile Mac and Cheese

This makes me weak and “drooly” just thinking about it. This came to me via a nice lady, Hanna, at bouffe e bambini and looks like it was originally posted on Epicurious.  This makes two casseroles- one hot, one not or whatever combo you want.  Remember it is your football and you make the rules.

Yield: Serves 8 adults plus 10 children (or me and my brother-in-law)

Active time: 30 min

Total time: 1 hr

Ingredients:

For bread crumbs:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs

1 cup roasted, peeled, and chopped New Mexico green chiles (or 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped chipotle chiles in adobo)

1/2 stick unsalted butter

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon dry mustard

1 pound macaroni

2 pounds extra-sharp Cheddar (preferably white), grated

Make bread crumbs:
Heat butter and oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then cook garlic and bread crumbs, stirring, until crumbs are golden. Transfer to paper towels to drain and season with salt.

Make macaroni:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Melt butter in a 3- to 4-quart saucepan over moderate heat, then add flour and cook, whisking, 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, cream, and mustard and simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes.

Cook macaroni in a 6- to 7-quart pot of boiling salted water until just tender. Drain in a colander and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in white sauce, cheese, and salt to taste.

Fill a 1 1/2-quart shallow casserole with half of macaroni mixture. Stir chipotles into remaining macaroni. Spoon into another 1 1/2-quart shallow casserole and sprinkle both with bread crumbs. Bake casseroles in middle of oven 30 minutes, or until bubbly.  Better yet make one with medium chiles and one with hot- just a suggestion. 

Nice lady Hanna’s note to the cooks: Macaroni and cheese may be made 2 days ahead, put into casseroles, cooled completely, and chilled, covered. Do not add bread crumbs until ready to bake. (Baking may take longer than 30 minutes.)

My note: Don’t forget to wash it down with a very cold suitable beverage.  Is it Saturday yet!
Image Source

The Chile Man is really Cometh-ing Now

Frozen roasted green chiles are available on the web with freight rates that will make your nose bleed.  So next week I am bringing in to a cold storage facility in Kent initially about 3,000 lbs of roasted whole and chopped chiles (medium or hot) that can be ordered and paid for on my website, www.mikeschiles.com for a much more reasonable price.   I will then deliver them or hopefully arrange a time and place where many orders can be picked up at once and we can celebrate the arrival of some good green to Seattle.  Absent that I will deliver them individually to unofficial NM chile cult members or they can be picked up at my house.  Pass the word.  Spread the joy.  If you can’t handle the delivery fee get a few friends and order together and I waive the delivery fee (I can do that because I am the Chile Man and the Chile Man can do damn near anything he wants to do with his chiles).  Well, nothing dirty or anything. 

Cookbooks

Here is a list of some great cookbooks that use real New Mexico chile products in the recipes (and if they don’t then substitute the good stuff from www.mikeschiles.com  so your dish doesn’t taste like garbage):

The Border Cookbook: Authentic Home Cooking of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico

Cheryl Alters Jamison (Author)

The Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook: The Traditional Cooking of New Mexico

Cheryl Alters Jamison (Author)

El Paso Chile Company's Texas Border Cookbook

W. Park & Norma Kerr (Author)

Best of the Best from New Mexico Cookbook: Selected Recipes from New Mexico's Favorite Cookbooks (Best of the Best Cookbook)                     

Gwen McKee (Editor), Barbara Moseley (Editor), Tupper England (Illustrator)            

The Great Chile Book                      

Mark Miller (Author), John Harrisson (Author), Lois Ellen Frank (Photographer)                      

Coyote Cafe              

Mark Miller (Author)    Owner, Cyote Café, Santa fe

Green Chile Bible: Award-Winning New Mexico Recipes                        

Albuquerque Tribune (Author)             

The Red Chile Bible: Southwestern Classic & Gourmet Recipes             

Kathleen Hansel (Author), Audrey Jenkins (Author)                 

The Santa Fe School of Cooking Cookbook                                   

Susan D. Curtis (Author), Valerie Santagto (Photographer), Susan Curtis (Author)                               

The Tequila Cook Book                               

Lynn Nusom (Author)                          

Cafe Pasqual's Cookbook: Spirited Recipes from Santa Fe                                  

Katharine Kagel (Author), Barbara Simpson (Photographer)                            

Green Chile Fans Unite

Mike's Chiles has officially launched!  I still have a few glitches to work out on the site, but the important information is there and I'm ready to take orders.  If you live in the Seattle area, help me spread the word to all the New Mexico chile heads you know.  Maybe we can form a group, but then we would need a name for the group, and then someone would want to be the head of the group and everything would go to shit.  I guess I will be the head of the group located in my mind and I will call myself the Chile Man.  Pretty clever I think.

Mike’s Famous Burger

Ingredients:

• Hamburger ground however you like it and from whatever cuts you like but I recommend 80/20 in the final mix and formed into 1/3 lb. patties
• 1-2 onions cooked slowly and caramelized
• Good (not crap) blue cheese dressing
• NuMex Heritage Big Jim (hot) or Joe E Parker (medium but hot enough to taste) chiles peeled, stems removed, and sliced lengthwise
• Cheddar cheese slices
• Good (not crap here either) rolls

 I season the ground meat with salt, pepper, and a little garlic salt.  Grill burgers and when almost done add sliced peppers and cheddar cheese on top and continue to cook until meat is cooked the way you want it and cheese is melted.  Spread rolls with blue cheese, add burger, and top with caramelized onions.  If you don’t cook the meat to a grey death, you will experience a total brain orgasm and juices will run everywhere.  This just makes me weak thinking about it.

OK here is the “most excellent” blue cheese that is not crap:

• ¾ cup vegetable oil
• ¼ cup cider vinegar
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced
• 4 oz blue cheese, crumbled
• Fresh ground black pepper

In blender, pour ¼ cup oil and ¼ cup vinegar.  Blend.  Add sour cream and blend.  Add the remaining oil and the seasonings; blend.  Add the bleu cheese to the mix and stir carefully.  Refrigerate.

This can be used as a dip as it is quite thick.

No Tomatillos Allowed

Source

MIKE’S GREEN CHILE
 
Ingredients:

• 2-3 lb pork roast, trimmed and cut in small cubes
• ½ cup shortening or oil
• 12- 14 Joe E Parker green chilies (medium heat) or Heritage Big Jims (hot) that have been roasted, skins and stems removed, and chopped in ¼” dice (or 1- 2 cups)
• ½ cup flour
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 8- 10 cups water or chicken stock
• Salt and pepper

Option 1:
Add finely diced small onion

Option 2:

Prepare as below but puree about 1/3 of the chiles with the onion and the water before adding the meat and the rest of the chiles back in.


Preparation:

Season the pork with salt and pepper and brown in heavy pot (do in batches). Set meat aside.  If you are using onion, add it now and cook until translucent.  Add flour to fat (and onions) and cook roux 2-3 minutes.   Add garlic and chopped chiles and cook briefly 1-2 minutes. Add water or chicken stock, and meat.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Can simmer for thirty minutes and eat but I like to cook it slow with a lid on for a couple hours on the stove on low or in the oven 300 degrees until the meat is tender and falls apart.

You can add more stock or water as necessary but when finished it should have the consistency of a thin gravy.

Use as soup with warm tortillas or to smother burritos, enchiladas, tacos, or anything else.

A Note on Terminology

Might as well get this cleared up right away so we are all on the same page. “Chile” is the most common Spanish spelling of the word in Mexico and parts of the US. It refers specifically to the plant and its fruit (chile pepper). However, “chile” can also mean chile sauce which is a soup (or gravy like sauce) made with either green or red chiles, with or without meat, and served alone or “smothered” on anything. “Chile” and “chili” are often pronounced slightly differently. The pronunciation of “chile” is more Spanish – “chill-ay”, “shill-ay” or “chee-lay”.

Green chile (sauce) is made with roasted chopped green chiles and red chile is usually made from chiles dried and ground into powder although it can be made with the fresh roasted red chiles as well. The red is merely the mature form of the green. As the chile turns red it retains the heat characteristic to the specific variety but tastes milder because red chiles are sweeter and the heat is not as noticeable. The red, however, are usually allowed to dry and used as pods, flakes, or powder with different degrees of heat.