Carne adovado escapade

20 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
2 5-lb port butt roasts (up to)
½ cup Minced garlic
Olive oil
¼ cup Cornmeal
1 cup Chile powder
4 cups (or as needed) liquid; preferrably vegetable stock; although chicken stock or water both work
Oregano
Black pepper
Salt to taste

Directions

From: Meshel Watkins <meshel@...> Date: Mon, 12 Aug 96 14:32:06 -0000 The Carne Adovado that I know and love always seemed to be chunks of pork meat so tender that it would melt in your mouth, and so spicy with red chile that it would make your eyes water in happiness. I had a pound of Chimayo Red Chile powder that I had picked up whilst in Santa Fe - this would rate medium on a mild, medium, hot scale (I have learned from experience that HOT red chile pwdr in that neck of the woods is for seasoning, not making chile sauce). I took 2 5# pork butt roasts (planned to serve about 20 people as a side), cut the major amounts of fat off and cut gashes into the meat. I didn't have too much time to prepare the meat the night before, so I didn't go to the trouble of dicing up the roast ahead of time, I just slashed it to be about 1-2" thick all the way around, and pressed red chile powder all over the meat. Stuck it in the fridge, and didn't touch it again until the next morning.

First thing I did was turn the oven on to 300 degrees. Then I made my infamous red chile sauce:

¼ - ½ c. minced garlic. saute in olive oil until golden. Add ¼ c.

cornmeal, and stir to soak up extra oil. Add 1 c. chile powder, whisk until you can start to smell the chile roasting. Add 4 c. (or as needed) of liquid, preferrably vegetable stock, although chicken stock or water both work. Add oregano, black pepper, simmer until thickened. (Add salt to taste ~ normally, but not in this case...I added the salt later) Then I took my meat, squeezed it into a cast iron dutch oven, poured the chile sauce over it, added some extra oregano and garlic, put the lid on and stuck it in the oven. 1& ½ hours later, I checked and turned the meat. Back in the oven. An hour later I checked and turned it again. It ended up cooking for about 4 hours - I knew it was ready when I picked up the bone, and the meat slid right off. I pulled the meat out and placed it on a broiler pan to cool. I took the dutch oven with all the red chile and and the juices (and fat) and put it on the stove with a low flame. I started whisking the sauce, and put in cornmeal until it had soaked up all the fat at the top of the sauce (maybe as much as a cup). I slowly simmered and thickened this sauce, whisking often, and added salt to taste.

Meanwhile, the meat was cool enough to touch, so this is the point at which I cubed it (into large-ish 1 & ½" pieces). Then I tossed the pieces back into the red chile sauce in the dutch oven and let them sit in there and soak until I was ready to reheat for dinner.

I kid you not when I say that this was some of the BEST damn food I have ever had. I'm eating it for lunch again today! Carne Adovada is really versitile, too - you can stuff burritos and sopapillas with it, you can use it as a topping for cheese enchiladas, you can use it as a stand alone main course or a side dish....aahhhh, nothing like a good bowl of red chile, as I'm sure you all understand

:) Thanks again to all who helped, and I'd love to hear from anyone who tries to duplicate the process. By the way, in case it didn't sound like it - this was a very easy recipie to pull off!!! CHILE-HEADS DIGEST V3 #071

From the Chile-Heads recipe list. Downloaded from Glen's MM Recipe Archive, .

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