chile colorado with prunes

2016-10-09

Chile colorado = Sp. red chile.
This is as Mexican as it gets, with a little Flemish tweak. This is based on a Flemish Beef Stew with prunes, with pureed red chile added. The prunes sweeten and thicken the sauce, making it dark and clingy.

The chile imparts a rich flavor to the meat and the meat turns the sauce savory in a wonderful exchange. I like the Flemish beef stews, but chile colorado still adds something special to those.

To make red chile sauce from dried chile pods, the producers recommend adding pureed red chile to a roux-based tomato sauce. Because beef stew already produces quite a lot of sauce from the meat, I don't usually make a separate chile sauce and just add the red chile puree to the stew sauce. That is quite good too. I didn't have to thicken the sauce. The chile puree and the prunes did that already enough.

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 6-8 servings:

  • 2 lbs. beef chuck roast
  • S&P
  • 1-2 cups pureed red chile, frozen
  • 1 qt. beef / chicken stock
  • 1/2 lbs. pitted prunes
  • optional:
    • 1 large yellow onion, chopped small
    • garlic
    • ground cumin
    • oregano
    • thickener: oil dough:
      up to 2 tsp. maizena aka Masa Harina mixed in equal amount of olive oil
Pic1: chile colorado, potatoes, green asparagus, bell peppers

Directions

 

Pic2: frozen red chile puree
Pic3: melting red chile
Pic4: brown the meat

Preparing the red chile:

Preparing the meat:

 

Pic5: add red chile
Pic6: simmer down
Pic7: served with potatoes and garden beans