Slow Cooker Chile Colorado with Pico de Gallo

Mmm... even as I type this, it's been a few hours since we ate and I still have the awesome, awesome flavour of the chile sauce in my mouth.  I was tired of chicken and ground beef in my tacos and enchiladas, we'd been eating a lot of pork lately and I didn't want that, so I thought I'd do something with a little more pop.  Came out so good!

I woke up today with Nerf Herder's "Pantera Fans In Love" stuck in my head... no idea why!  So it's what I'm using for the recipe tunes.  -jen

SLOW COOKER CHILE COLORADO
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Cook Time:  6-8 hours
Difficulty:  Medium
Serves:  6-8

• beef chuck roast, 3.5-4 pounds
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 3 teaspoons ground cumin
• 6 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large Anaheim chile, julienned
• 1 large poblano chile, julienned
• 1 jalapeño chile, julienned
• 1/2 large onion, julienned 
• juice of 1-2 limes
• 12 oz beer of choice (I used PBR because that's what we had)
• 1 and 1/2 cups red chile sauce (see recipe below)

Trim excess fat from chuck roast.  In a small dish, mix together salt, pepper, oregano and cumin.  Sprinkle evenly over entire roast (bottom too!)  Place roast in slow cooker and cover the top with the minced garlic.  Add chiles and onion, making sure to cover the top of the roast with them.   Pour lime juice over veggie-covered roast and then add the beer, pouring it on the side of the roast (not over it!)

Cook on high for 6-8 hours, until you can shred the roast easily using two forks.  While roast is cooking, make your chile sauce and pico de gallo (see recipe below).

When roast is done and shredded, drain over a bowl and set broth aside.  Put the beef back into the crock pot and add 1 and 1/2 cups red chile sauce, as well as 1/2 cup of the reserved broth.  (You can refrigerate or freeze the broth to use later in a delicious soup, like Spicy Mexican Pepper Soup!)  Turn slow cooker to low and cook another half hour.

Serve in tacos, tamales, burritos, enchiladas, over rice, on nachos, whatever!

CHILE SAUCE
Time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Easty
Makes:  3 cups

• 1/4 pound dried guajillo chiles (if you like it hot, use 1/8# dried guajillo & 1/8# dried chipotle)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 9-10 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/3 cup packed cilantro
• 1 jalapeño (optional, for spiciness!)
• juice of 1-2 limes 
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon Caldo de Pollo (or 1 chicken bouillon cube)
• 2 cups hot water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with foil.  If you want a hotter chile, tear off stems but leave seeds in dried chiles.  If you want a mild one, tear off stems and empty out seeds.  (I recommend at least keeping half the seeds.)  Place seed pods on baking sheet and roast for 3-4 minutes at 375 degrees F.

Let chiles cool to touch before packing them into a large blender.  Add the onion, garlic, cilantro, jalapeño, lime juice, cumin, oregano, Caldo and carefully pour the hot water over everything.  Blend until completely pureed. 

PICO DE GALLO
Time: 5 minutes
Difficulty:  Easy
Makes:  about 2 cups

• 1 large tomato
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1 jalapeño
• 1/4 cup packed cilantro
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon salt

In a food processor, combine all ingredients and pulse until desired consistency (I like mine like a relish).  If you don't have a food processor, just dice everything small.

Hunter's Stew

I'm a guy who loves game meat.  My former father-in-law and myself used to raise chickens and rabbits for meat.  We had coveys of quail that nested and fed in his backyard.  Wild turkey roosted in the trees down by the river where the deer also bedded down during the heat of the day.  Wild pig rooted on the hillsides up the ridge.  Needless to say that I've had my fair share of game meat.  Pig roasts were common for weddings or graduations and when folks took a deer or a bear, there was often a cookout that followed.

A few months back, I'd picked up a couple of whole, trimmed rabbits from a local butcher who carries them and I finally decided to pull one out and do something with it.  It's been getting colder here of late and a nice hearty stew seemed like the perfect thing to do with a rabbit.  I figured the slow cooker would be a perfect way to break down the meat off the bones and impart a good savory flavor to the meat as Jen isn't too fond of the "gamey" taste of many wild meats.  Personally, I like it.  It also helped me clean up a few leftover veggies I had sitting around and I made up some barley to serve it over.  A great old-timey comfort dish.  Jen said it reminded her of some sort of hunter's stew so that's what I decided to call it.

Note:  If you have an aversion to eating Bambi, Thumper, or any other cute, cuddly woodland creatures, poultry may be substituted for rabbit but your cooking times will be much shorter.  Probably no more than 6 hours or so.

A little Jawbreaker "West Bay Invitational" seemed apropos as I would gladly have invited everyone to the West Bay, or Humboldt since I then wouldn't have to drive, to a kick-ass party where I would serve much cerveza and plenty of rabbit stew.  With kick-ass live music of course. - justin

Hunter's Stew

Time: 8-9 hours
Servings: 6-8
Difficulty: Easy

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup shallots, chopped
• 1/2 cup carrots, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 1 cup mushrooms, chopped
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp seasoned salt
• 1 tbsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/8 tsp Chinese Five Spice
• 1 tsp Herbs De Provence
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup very dry sherry
• 1 whole 3lb rabbit, trimmed (paws, head, fur, skin, tail, and innards all removed)
• 1/2 cup wild rice
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 cup fresh scallions, chopped
• 1/3 cup of raisins

Thickening the Broth

• Liquid from the slow cooker
• 1 cup chicken stock 
• 3 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp flour

Get your oil, shallots, carrots, celery, mushrooms, garlic, kosher and seasoned salts, black and cayenne peppers,  Chinese Five Spice, Herbs de Provence, basil, 2 cups chicken stock, water, and dry sherry in the slow cooker and set it to low for 8 hours.  Every 2 hours, turn the rabbit if the liquid doesn't cover the entire animal (we have a 7 qt slow cooker so my liquid left half my rabbit exposed).  After 6 hours stir in the rice, red wine, scallions and raisins.  After 7 hours, remove the rabbit and pull the meat from the bones.  Most of the meat is located in the hind legs but don't forget the back straps, the shoulders, and the breasts hold a good bit of meat as well.  I find the easiest way is to pull as much meat off with a fork as possible and use your hands for the rest, once the meat has cooled a little, that is.

Add the pulled meat back to the slow cooker for the last hour.  When the 8 hours is up, place the butter in a skillet over medium high heat and melt.  Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes or until the roux is a light brown color.  Strain the liquid from the slow cooker into the skillet, add the last cup of chicken stock and whisk quickly until thickened.  Add the thickened sauce/gravy back to the veggies and meat in the slow cooker and serve over rice or barley.

Ordinary Mutton Stew

A couple of weeks ago, Jen and I happened to be out of town near a little butcher that I know and he almost always has some goodies stashed away that you can't find at your local markets around here.  So we picked up a mutton loin, bone in, complete with fat cap and skin still attached and hid it away in the freezer until I could decide what to do with it.  After some consideration I decided to do a stew with it as I have never had mutton before and what could be more traditional than a mutton stew?  Almost every culture across the globe, at one point or another, has developed a stew using sheep flesh so why not try my hand at that?  Plus, I like stews and soups as they are usually simple to prepare, require little to no attention after starting, store well, get better with a couple of days in the fridge, and last but not least, they reheat easily.  Folks are welcome to substitute lamb or beef for the mutton as I can't imagine many folks having access to it unless you live somewhere outside the US or happen to be, or know, a sheep farmer.

I did this in a 7 quart slow cooker and there was plenty of room for more to be added so if you've got a 3 or 4 qt slow cooker, you should be just fine.  Alternatively, if you don't have a slow cooker you can simply follow the recipe as listed and add everything to a roasting pan.  Cover tightly with foil and bake in the oven at 250F degrees for 3 hours.

As musical accompaniment to this dish, I decided to go with Face to Face's song "Ordinary" as it takes me back a good 15 yrs or so down memory lane to my teen years, just as a good homemade stew should take you back to childhood.  Besides, this recipe is fairly, well... ordinary.  A meat stew is usually savory and doesn't have a lot going on in the "Wow" department.  It's homey, hearty, warm, and perfectly reliable as a good meal, especially in the winter months.  Ordinary. - Justin

ORDINARY MUTTON STEW

• 1 3lb mutton loin, bone in (approx 8 ribs)
• 2 medium potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 2 large carrots
• 1 large rutabaga
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp dried rubbed sage
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley 
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• 1 shot dry vermouth
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 tsp dried ground tarragon
• 1/4 dried ground herbs de provence 
• 1/4 cup fresh chopped chives
• 1 cup wild rice or pearled barley

If you've acquired your roast at a grocer or butcher, chances are you won't have to prep it at all, so in an effort to save time describing how to butcher and skin a sheep, we'll assume you all have done the former and we'll skip right to the veggies.  If your roast has rib bones, leave them in as they will exude the best tasting marrow into your broth while they cook!  If your roast doesn't have ribs, you can either leave it whole or dice it into 2 inch cubes.

Wash the carrots, potatoes, and the rutabaga and leave the skins on them as that is where all the flavor and nutrients are. Dice them all, and the onion as well, into roughly similar sized chunks, approximately an inch to an inch and a half and add them to the bottom of the slow cooker.  Add the kosher salt, black pepper, sage, parsley, chicken and beef broths, the sherry and the dry vermouth and stir everything to combine.  You want to make sure that the liquid comes up to the top of the veggies.  If you need to, add a little more broth or some water to raise the level.  Add the roast to the top of the veggies, rib bones up if you have a bone-in roast, cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

After 6 hours pull the meat off the bones and cut it into 1"h to 1.5" chucks and add back to the slow cooker along with the sea salt, white pepper, tarragon, herbs de provence, chives and rice.  Cook for another 2 hrs on low.  Serve with some good bread for soaking up broth.