Chile Colorado con Puerco

Whenever I return to El Paso at the end of the summer, I always  load up on green chiles. To the point of insanity when it comes to getting those bad boys home on the 12 hour flight back to Alaska. But they are so worth it. Know what else is worth it? Learning what to do with those readily available bags of dried RED chiles you find in the Mexican food section of any local grocery store.

I recently pulled out a pretty large bag I'd kept in the freezer and found myself inspired to whip up a batch of that earthy, impossible to resist red sauce (chile colorado). Amazingly easy and very impressive to friends who appreciate good Mexican food.

The red sauce is easy enough, and we can start there.

Chile Colorado (Red Chile Sauce)

• 5 Dried Red Chiles or 5 Tablespoons Pulverized Red Chiles
• 2 Cups of Hot Water

Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles and crumble them into a medium sized bowl. Add 2 cups of hot, hot, hot water. Cover. I like to leave it at least a couple hours, preferably overnight if you can,. When you're ready, put the chiles and the soaking water in a blender and add one half to one tablespoons of salt (to taste), a bit of chile powder, some cumin and dried oregano, I also add a few shakes of garlic powder for good measure. You never know when those pesky vampires will show up.

Go ahead and blend (in a real, live blender) until it's smooth. You've got yourself some chile colorado, amigo!

With this sauce, we like to make tacos with  diced pork (rump roast.)

Tacos with Chile Colorado con Puerco 
(adapted from The Tex-Mex Cookbook by Robb Walsh)

Buy a decent sized pork rump roast (boneless) and dice it into small pieces. Marinate it with a cup or two of your red sauce for a few hours. When you're ready, add it to a hot skillet sprinkled with vegetable oil.

Add to it:

• a diced onion
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• salt
• ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

Add more red sauce as you cook if you need it, water if it gets too thick.

Take the time to fry corn tortillas in a bit of oil until hard and crispy (and golden and delicious and freakin' AWESOME) and you have pork tacos with Chile Colorado. If the taco part isn't your thing, Chile Colorado is often served as is, with a side of rice and beans. Perfecto!

You can also use your red sauce on huevos rancheros or with enchiladas. Or anything you have a mind to use it on, really...it's your sauce, afterall. :)