Chile Colorado

Although not actually part of our culinary world tour, we love making cuisine from different cultures, especially with Mexican and Spanish influenced foods.

We've seen lots of crock pot and slow cooker recipes for Chile Colorado - and tried out a few - but they don't turn out as well when you actually go through the full process. The taste difference, as we discovered, is huge, and it's leagues ahead of just using canned red enchilada sauce.

For really stellar Chile Colorado, you want to go as authentic as possible, so instead of using canned peppers with sauce, hit up a local market or the Hispanic section of the grocery store and look for a bag of dried chiles. We found a bag for $5 that had about 40 gigantic dried chiles, so it will keep us stocked up for some time.

For our recipe, instead of the traditional beef, we're used pork stew meat, which has a different texture and flavor. For Chile Colorado, you'll need:

• Olive Oil
• 1 White Onion
• 1 cup Chicken Stock
• Garlic
• 8 - 10 Dried Chiles
• 1 pound Diced Pork
• 2 tbsp. Vinegar
• Cumin
• Pepper
• Oregano

First thing's first: strap on some gloves and get to de-seeding those chiles. We went with all the seeds removed, but if you want more heat, you could leave in about 1/4 - 1/2 the seeds from one chile. For something really, really hot, leave in the seeds of one or more full chiles. After cleaning them out, we're going to set them in a bowl, as they need to be reconstituted before being used.

Here Megan is pouring boiling water into the bowl - enough to cover the chiles - and then covering it with plastic wrap.

The chiles sit covered for a half hour to soak up the moisture. Afterwards, drain out the water and mix the chiles together with the stock in a blender or food processor until you have a thick puree.

Meanwhile, we'll start cooking the diced pork, onion, and garlic with all the seasonings in a separate pan.

While the meat and vegetables are cooking, we're going to push the chile and stock mixture through strainer repeatedly. Unless you have really big strainer and bowl, you'll probably have to do this in small batches. Yes, it's a lot of work, but it's also well worth the effort.

After staining all the pulpy mixture, you'll be left with this smooth liquid that's a very pretty shade of red and almost ready to go.

Next we add in the vinegar and any remaining seasonings you want, then we mix together the chile sauce with the pork and onions.

Mix thoroughly and simmer over a low heat for another 30 minutes or so until the flavors mingle.

Now we're finally ready to go! I wanted mine in a tortilla, so I've spooned some cooked rice in first, followed by some big spoonfuls of the Chile Colorado.

Top it with cheese, wrap it up, and its ready to go! You could add sour cream, but this is already so flavorful on its own that its really not necessary, and since we left out the seeds, it's the perfect balance of flavor and heat.

You don't have to make it into a taco though, as here Megan put some Chile Colorado in a bowl with rice and tortilla chips.