The Queen of Chile Colorado

I wrote this in August, 2014 but forgot to publish it! So I'm going to leave it as is, but this actually happened in August.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~August Happenings~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This weekend my cousin Stella visited us from San Diego. She brought a very special guest with her, our Tia Ninfa (Aunt Ninfa). Tia Ninfa is the widow of my mom's deceased brother, Uncle Jesse.

Here's a photo of them getting read to leave. My cousin Stella is that pretty lady in the back with the short hair. Thanks Stella for making this weekend happen! Stella's sister Faye is in the sunglasses, she came along for the fun also. That cute almost a teenage girl is Stella's granddaughter Roni, she was a lot of fun and she's almost as tall as her grandma already!

Left to Right - My mom, My cousin Faye, My Tia Ninfa, My cousin Stella in the back, and Stella's granddaughter Roni

Baby J with Tia Ninfa

A special picture of three beautiful ladies. From left to right, My Tia Casimira, she's also my Godmother, my Tia Ninfa and my beautiful mom Tomasa who you can see from this photo is in 7th Heaven to have her loved ones with her!

Because we knew that we were going to have many local family members coming by the house to see our visitors my mom insisted we had to make her signature dish, Chile Colorado! This time I paid attention! I didn't write down the recipe, but I think I got it committed to memory. As bad as my memory is I figure I better get it down into my blog here where I know I can find it at any time.

We started out by cleaning the chile. Mom's recipe calls for two (2) 12 ounce bags of El Guapo Dried California Chile Pods and one (1) 12 ounce bag of El Guapo Dried New Mexico Chile Pods. You can find it in almost any store here in California but if you can't find it in your local stores just google and you can probably find it on amazon.com. Mom said that the California chile is not very hot so she adds the New Mexico to kick up the heat. I love spicy so when I make it I will probably do 2 New Mexico and 1 California!

When I say we clean the chile pods what we do is pull off the stem and with a knife slice down the middle and remove most of the sees. Rinse them off in a big pot with water, then fill the pot with water and let them soak about an hour or longer.

After they've soaked and softened, you use your blender to grind them using the water they soaked in. Mom always likes a really thick sauce (I would have liked to use more water). That is all that we use for the sauce at this point. Then just set it to the side and let's go to work on the meat!

We used about forty (40) pounds of Pork Meat. I think we used Pork Butt and we cut it into bite size chunks and then browned it in a big pot with some water added until it's nicely browned and most of the liquid at the bottom is cooked out. You stir and stir and stir constantly! This smells fabulous! I just love pork meat! I was a bit flabbergasted to find out that mom didn't add any seasoning of any kind at this point. I would have thought you would add at least salt, but she said no, plus she said the salt would make the meat tough.

Once the meat is cooked sufficiently then you scoot the meat to the side of the pot and take about a 1/4 cup of flour and brown it in the corner of the same pot, this is what will help the sauce to stick to the meat and of course it's also a thickener. Stir well to coat the pork with this flour mixture. Then you pour in the red sauce until you have as much as you want.

Then the secret ingredient! You take about 8 cloves of garlic and you peel them and blend them really, really well in your blender with about 2 cups of water. Once you have the meat and the chile sauce together, you pour in this garlicky delicious mixture in and stir, then add salt to taste and some dried oregano about 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons. You let this cook until it bubbles stirring to make sure it all gets enough garlic. Taste as you go along, you may need to add more salt or more oregano.  (I noticed it tasted bitter and thought "Uh-Oh, now what?" You just keep adding oregano and it takes the bitterness away).

Then before your guests arrive, you pour a few beans and some of the chile in a bowl. There are rules to Chile Colorado, you don't use refried beans, Frijoles de la Olla only, that means Beans from the Pot and you can only eat it with flour tortillas. Only flour! No proper eater of Chile Colorado would dare to eat this with a corn tortilla, it's just not done! Then you sink your teeth into the deliciousness that is Chile Colorado, Tomasa Style (Tomasa is my mom's name). This is why my mom will always be The Queen of the Chile Colorado!

Does your mom have a signature dish? I think mine would be my Meatloaf Pie. I don't think Queen of the Meatloaf Pie has the same ring to it though!

 

Mom's Birthday 2013, Biscochos and Chile Colorado

Several years ago (2010) for my mom's birthday we decided to make Biscochos and it turned out that everyone in our family somehow made time and was able to show up and celebrate mom's birthday and make Biscochos with her and I took lots of pictures And shared them on THIS BLOG POST.

For anyone who doesn't know what a Biscocho is it's a delicious little cookie made with a spice called Anise that gives it a very distinctive flavor. You can find the recipe HERE.

Here's a picture of the ones we made this year. They are almost the texture of shortbread but with a cinnamony anise flavor.

We decided to try it again this year and sent out an "Open House" invitation for everyone to come from 11am until ??? to help to celebrate Mom's Birthday. We sweetened the pot by letting everyone know that mom would be making her world famous Chile Colorado. It's to die for! No recipe for that one, only mom knows the secret!

Here's mom and I again! We are always the first to show up!

We got up early and she actually tried to teach me the secrets of making her Chile Colorado but she had already prepared the Chile mixture the day before, so I was left out of the loop! By accident or by design Mom??? Hmmm!

Not to be left out Lisa arrived to help us with the prep work, so we paused first for a picture. Mom hates it that we stop to take so many pictures! Once she gets going she's all business!

Soon my brother and his gang arrived and the festivities began! Here's my brother Jaime, sister Lisa and Mom of course. What a great picture!

My brother Jaime actually likes to cook with his kids. One year he and his baby Clarissa made homemade soap for everyone. Here you see him overseeing his son Gabriel as Sarena and Clarissa watch from the side.

Next it was my time for my sister and her family. Unfortunately Sean had to work and so Baby J wasn't there, but Lisa and her son Isaac and her husband Sean still managed to have fun!

Then it was time for a Selfie. By this time mom was having fun taking pictures so we got her to smile a bit!

As you can see in this next one Mom really starts to get into the act and you see her here with my daughter April, pretending to take the rolling pin away from here while April very calmly just smiles for the camera!

Next...mom and me. Both of us are old pro's at making Biscochos, so we just pose for the camera!

Next, Lisa's turn for her picture with mom!

After beginning this day so early and after so much work Lisa and I were a bit thirsty and we happened to have a bottle of one of my favorite wines. What kind of cook cooks without wine? Not us! Sometimes we even add it to the recipe, but this time is was just for US!

By this time it's getting late, you can see outside the window that it's dark. We've had a great day and my son Jim shows up to roll out a batch of cookies with his Nana!

But we weren't done yet, my brother Fred showed up after work with his family and they each took a turn baking with Nana!

Here's mom with her youngest granddaughter Melissa. Melissa had just come from her soccer game, which they won! Yay Melissa!

Next up my brother Fred supervises his son Freddie while Melissa looks on.

Here's a beautiful picture of all my brother Fred's family. The only one missing was Beatriz as she was at work. Isn't this a beautiful picture? It's Christmas card worthy!

Freddie enjoyed it so much he's thinking of becoming a Baker! He did a great job!

Mom was exhausted after all the activity but she was so happy that we all did this for her and gave her this beautiful day! It was our pleasure. Happy Birthday Mom!