Carne con Chile

Ingredients

• Chia seeds

  Seeds, dried

  50g

• Tomatoes

  Red, ripe, raw, year round average

  4 large whole or 728g

• Garlic

  Raw

  4 cloves, minced or 12g

• Corn oil

  Industrial and retail, all purpose salad or cooking

  3 tbsp or 41g

• Pork brain

  Fresh, variety meats and by-products, cooked, braised

  1kg

• Onions

  Raw

  1 large or 150g

• Cumin

  Spices, cumin seed

  1 tsp, ground or 3g

• Oregano

  Spices, dried

  1 tsp, leaves or 1g

• Bay

  Castella

  100g

• Salt

  Table

  1 tsp or 6g

• Adobo

  Castella

  6 teaspoon or 600g

• Tortillas

  Ready-to-bake or -fry, corn

  12 tortilla or 288g

• Fresh cilantro

  Coriander leaves, raw

  15g

• Feta cheese

  25g

Directions

1. In a dry heavy-based frying pan, toast the guajillo chillies until fragrant but not burnt. Transfer them to a bowl and pour over 450ml of just-boiled water. Leave them to soak for 1520 minutes. In the same pan, dry fry the tomatoes and garlic until softened and charred. Set aside the tomatoes and garlic until cool enough to handle, then peel off and discard the garlic skins and quarter the tomatoes, skin and all. Heat a tablespoon of lard or oil in a large flameproof casserole and brown the cubes of beef all over. It's best to do this in batches, adding another tablespoon of lard or oil as needed. Transfer each batch of meat to a plate. Then add the remaining lard or oil to the pan and fry the onion for 34 minutes until softened. Add the cumin, oregano, allspice and bay leaf. Cook for 2 minutes, then turn off the heat. Preheat the oven to 180C/ Fan 160C. Put the soaked chillies and about 150ml of their soaking liquid in a blender and add the garlic, tomatoes, salt and chipotles en adobo. Blend until as smooth as possible, then tip into the casserole with the onions and add the browned beef. Stir in about 300ml of the chilli soaking water. Reserve the rest in case you need more later. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer, cover and cook for 11/2 to 2 hours until the beef is tender. Check the water a couple of times during cooking and make sure that the meat doesn't dry out. Add a little more water if necessary. While the meat is cooking, prepare the tortillas and a selection of toppings. Serve with warmed tortillas, toppings and beans or rice, if desired.
2. Recipe by: Rick Stein (source: https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/carne-con-chile)