Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Carne Con Chile (Meat in Spicy Sauce)

Carne Con Chile is a very basic Mexican meat dish, it is easy to make. It is made usually from leftover hot salsas prepared or you can make the hot sauce for the dish in particular. You simple brown the meat with salt and pepper or your choice of meat seasoning then brown minced onions, and throw hot sauce so the meat boils in it SIMPLE! (Well atleast for me because we always have container's of homemade hot sauces my mother makes)

I must warn though this is a very spicy dish and makes a very good taco filling, or side dish to any Mexican meal.

Ingredients:
*1 1/2 lbs meat cut into bite sizes (me mother uses beef for this but pork, or chicken is acceptable)
*1 onion minced
*salt and pepper to taste or favorite meat seasoning (my mother uses "Chef Merito Steak & Meat Seasoning" it's a blend of salt, sugar, citric acid, black pepper, cumin, paprika, star anise, msg, onion powder, and oregano it's really tastey and my mom likes it)
*1 recipe for a Mexican Salsa (we happened to have leftover "Salsa de Chile Habanero" which is Habanero hot sauce, that we made with tomatoes instead of tomatillos SEE NOTE AT END OF POST)

Directions
(1)Clean meat, and cut into bite size pieces, my mother cuts it into small strips (the beef)

(2)Heat oil in a pan on medium high heat (my mother likes olive oil but lard is the traditional fat but any other oil will do), add meat and brown, it will release liquid, let it reduce and evaporate and lightly brown meat, add onions and sautee until translucent.

(3)Add home made hot sauce and about 1 cup of water, bring to a boil and simmer 5-10 minutes.

PLEASE NOTE:
(1)If using pork, cut pork into little pieces, add water enough to cover and a little oil, boil until water evaporates and it starts browning and cook as directions for recipe apply.

(2)I WISH I WAS GETTING PAID FOR SUGGESTING THE USE OF "Chef Merito's Steak Seasoning for Meats" unfortunately I'm not but hey I'm being honest here it's what my mom used for this dish.

(3)Here is the list of SOME homemade hot sauces we make in my house that can be used to make a good "Carne Con Chile":

-Salsa de Chile Habanero
-Salsa de Chile de Arbol
-Salsa de Chile Verde

We make more different varieties of hot sauces in my house but these are some that I've already blogged about and that we prepare most frequently.

6 comments:

Janine said...

Not that you should know eveything, but do you have any knowledge on traditional meals from El Salvador, or know any good blogs? We've been making friends from there so I was looking for some meal ideas.

Nathan said...

Janine,
Sorry I don't know any Salvadorian cooking blogs. I do know how to cook some Salvadorian dishes and am acquainted with many Salvadorians (both friends and acquaintances and also my half sister is half Salvadorian so I am pretty familiar)

I can cook very typical Salvadorian stuff like a breakfast or merienda of fried ripe plantains, salvadorian cream, fresh cheese, refried black beans, and french bread.

Mmmm I know how to make Pupusas, Tamales Salvadoreños, Nueganos de Yuca (Cassava Root and Cheese fritters in syrup), Cocido Salvadoreño (I actually have that one on my blog), "Curtido de Arroz", Quesadilla Salvadoreña (Salvadorian sweet cheese bread), Empanadas de Platano y Crema (Plantain dough and custard filling), typical stuff stuff like that.

I have this WONDERFUL cook book that's in Spanish (do you read Spanish?) it's called "La Cocina Salvadoreña" printed in Spain my a company called "Lexus Editores" the recipes are from Chef Almicar Guerra. His sister ordered me the book and it is VERY AUTHENTIC.

Aside from that I can tell you that Salvadorians enjoy stuff like fried plantains, tubers like Yuca, dairy products (cream, cheese, etc.), meat dishes (braises, grilled meats are a favorite among many Hispanics), and beans, tortillas, french bread, salads, any type of sweets, and vegetable and meat stews are well liked to, I can't really generalize like that but just to give you an idea. A lot of the one's I know are very open to new types of cuisines and food especially Cuisines of Spanish speaking countries, corn based products are favored to.

Sorry I couldn't be much help, but I will let you know when I post more typical common Salvadorian recipes.

Nathan said...

Forgot to add a lot of them are very nice, I'm sure you can ask your friends and they would be okay with telling you what they like and even teach you some stuff.

Don King said...

Nathan,
I have just had a meal featuring a wonderful sauce featuring onions. white wine, sour cream, white pepper, garlic and basel.

i was told it was called Smitaine but can find no mention of it in any list of recipes. My friend who made it said he learned to make it from his mother. He is Cuban/American so I thought I would ask if you have ever heard of it

Thanks

Don

Nathan said...

Don King,
I don't think it's Cuban, we don't use basil in any of our cooking even the "Cuban Italian" style foods don't feauture it.

But many Cubans cook other stuff other than Cuban, and some get very creative, other's marry into other cultures, etc.

Well if you know the ingredients you can make it, if it only containes those you mentioned, it's probably to taste everything, like a dip? Was it a table sauce, or did it dress something?

If it's a table sauce I would add maybe for 1 cup of sour cream 2-3 cloves garlic mashed to a paste to taste more or less, 2 tablespoons white wine for acidity taste it if you think it needs more add more, white pepper to taste, and enough basil to give it nice color minced then check if it needs salt.

I'm just assuming here it sounds like "Alioli" except it used sour cream, and "white wine" instead of vinegar, and "basil" for color with addition of white pepper.

Janine said...

Thanks so much for responding, You were a big help. I'd like to do some more experimenting so I'll keep following your blog.