Recipe: El Charro Cafe Chorizo (Mexican Sausage) and Red Chile Sauce (using ground beef)

EL CHARRO CAFE CHORIZO (MEXICAN SAUSAGE)
Makes 6 pounds

"This recipe is from my husband Ray's mother, Maria Flores. We adapted it for the restaurant. Although she had a perfectly fine kitchen, Dona Flores had Ray's dad build for her a wood stove in a back room where she would be content turning out not only chorizo, but tamales, and tortillas so large and fine they would drape the entire length of her arm.

Chorizo is usually not stuffed into sausage casings, but is used like ground beef. We like to saute it and then scramble eggs into it and roll the mixture in flour tortillas for breakfast burritos."

6 pounds lean ground beef
2 cups white wine
1 cup wine vinegar
3 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons oregano
1/2 cup garlic puree*
8 ounces ground red chile (not chili powder)
2 quarts red chile paste (Salsa de Chile Colorado, recipe follows)

Combine ground meat, wine and vinegar thoroughly. Add salt, oregano and garlic puree. Add ground red chile gradually, kneading it in with our hands. Gradually knead in the chile paste.

Place in large ceramic bowl, cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight. Drain any liquid.

Use in a day or two, or divide into individual portions and freeze.

*GARLIC PUREE:
Peel 8 whole heads of garlic by smashing the cloves with the side of a wide knife; the peel will slip off easily then. Put the peeled garlic in a blender with about 2 cups of water, and puree. Drain, if necessary, and store in a tightly closed glass jar in the refrigerator (freeze for longer storage).

Source: El Charro Cafe Favorite Recipes by Carlotta Flores, 1989

---

EL CHARRO SALSA DE CHILE COLORADO
(basic red chile sauce)

"Salsa De Chile Colorado is used in countless Mexican dishes. It is available canned and is usually called enchilada sauce. But nothing commercial is as good as the sauce you make yourself from dried red chile peppers.

To prepare a sauce, the peppers are softened in boiling water, then ground into a rich red paste. The paste is thinned with the cooking liquid for use as a sauce for enchiladas, et cetera. Left unthinned and spiced with oregano and vinegar it becomes adobada and is used as a marinade for carne (beef) adobada or puerco (pork) adobada."

12 dried red chiles
2 quarts boiling water
3 tablespoons oil
1/4 cup garlic puree*
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
3 tablespoons flour

Wash chiles in cold water and remove stems. Cook in boiling water until tender. Remove chiles and reserve the cooking liquid.

Place a few of the chiles in a blender, along with 1/2 cup reserved liquid, and blend to a paste. Remove to bowl. Repeat with remaining chiles. (It is now unseasoned red chile paste).

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add garlic puree and flour, stirring until flour browns. Add the chile paste, stirring constantly until it boils and thickens. Season with salt. Thin slightly with cooking liquid.

*Garlic Puree - peel 8 whole heads of garlic by smashing the cloves with the side of a wide knife; the peel will slip off easily then. Put the peeled garlic in a blender with about 2 cups of water, and puree. Drain, if necessary, and store in a tightly closed glass jar in the refrigerator (freeze for longer storage).

Makes 2 quarts
Source: El Charro Cafe Favorite Recipes by Carlotta Flores, 1989