The thing from New Mexico I miss the most (besides my family) is the red chile. You can find it no where else but in New Mexico (trust me I have looked). Every once in a while I will get a craving and do something crazy like order it in a restaurant and I am always unhappy with what comes out of the kitchen... ALWAYS. For some reason people seem to think that red sauce means adding tomatoes, couple that with oregano and guess what you have...an Italian burrito... gross.
So... I had another hankering this weekend. I think it was because I missed out on the Navajo Taco served down in Mora and I was pouting and fantasizing all week about it. So... out come the dried chile. Now there are ton's of chile's out there so you can choose your heat level, but make sure they are dried. Some people get desperate and use chile powder (not the one you add to chili con carne) but I never get it to come out right if I go this route.
Both the sauce and the Adovada can be used in many ways. Eat it in burritos (both breakfast and main), with tortillas, over some cornbread as a tamale pie, in enchiladas.
Red Chile Sauce
20 dried chile peppers; ancho, New Mexico, guajillo…..you pick your heat level.
6 cloves fresh garlic, smashed with skins removed
1 T dried oregano
1 T salt
De-stem and de-seed chile peppers and place on baking sheet. Put in the oven for 5 minutes at 250 degrees to toast. Remove peppers, cool and rinse. Blend in sections adding water and chiles until everything is blended. Strain through sieve.
Carne Adovada
10 pork chops or pork loin, cut into strips
Red Chili Sauce
Marinate pork in chile for 24-48 hours. Place on baking sheet and bake at 350 for 1 and 1/2 hours. If using a slow cooker, I put it on low for 8 hours.
Here is another recipe by Bobby Flay (includes a stacked enchilada recipe)
More New Mexican Recipes, here
Lots of great pictures of the red chile making process here
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