Kitchen Drunkard

Ancho Chocolate Short Ribs

I made this for dinner last night.  Quite labour intensive, but delicious!

1.  First, put 5lbs of short ribs, 1 tablespoon of peppercorns, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 bay leaf, 10 smashed garlic cloves, and 1 of the quartered onions into a large pot.  Cover with water, and simmer for 2 hours. 

2.  Put 2 tomatoes and 1 quartered onion on a sheet pan, and drizzle with olive oil.  Chop the top off a head of garlic, wrap it in tinfoil, and toss it on the sheet pan.  Put it in the oven for 1 hour at 400 F. 

3.  Seed and de-stem 15 dried ancho chiles.  Tear the chiles into pieces.  Wear gloves.  Seriously. 

4.  Once the tomatoes, onion and garlic done, toss the tomatoes, onion and garlic in the blender (squeeze the head of garlic, and all the goop will come out).  Puree.  You may need to add a splash of water to make it come together.  Also, don’t bother to clean the blender after this step.  You’ll use it again for the same sauce.   

5.  When the meat is done, remove it from the pot and put aside.  Strain the cooking liquid and discard the rest of the stuff from the pot. 

6.  Add 3 cups of the cooking liquid to the chiles and let sit for 15 minutes. 

7.  Put the mixture in the blender and puree.  

8.  Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a large pot on medium heat.  Add the chile puree and stir until heated through.  Add the tomato puree and 3 cups of the cooking liquid.  Bring to a simmer, then put the meat back to the pot.  Simmer on low-medium heat for 2 hours or until the meat is very tender.

9.  Add one 110 gram bar of Mexican chocolate, finely chopped, to the sauce at the very end.  Stir until melted.  Voila! 

I served it with sweet potato mash.  No recipe.  Just boil chopped sweet potato until soft, mash, add butter, salt, pepper and milk to taste. 

Chile Rellenos

Tyler Florence makes it look so easy.  It was not. 

1.  Broil 6 poblano peppers in the oven (or roast over an open flame) until blistered. 

2.  Put peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap for a couple of minutes.  Rub the skins off very gently. 

3.  Make one long slit down the length of the peppers.  Open up the peppers very carefully to de-seed and remove the ribs.  This is really hard, so do it slowly.  I even made extra peppers because I assumed that I would mess this up. 

4.  Fill the peppers with crumbled queso fresco.  Stick a toothpick through the peppers to close the seam. 

5.  Dredge the peppers in flour. 

6.  Beat 6 egg whites until stiff peaks form, then dip the peppers into the mixture. 

7.  Heat a pan with 1/4 inch of oil at the bottom on medium/high heat (depending on your stove – mine is really hot).  Fry the peppers until golden, then put on paper towels. 

8.  Put the peppers in a 350 F oven for 10 minutes to heat the cheese through. 

Voila!