Meatless Mondays: Red Chilaquiles

So Stephanie and I are pretty excited to be joining the Meatless Monday movement. What is that, you ask? Well, it is a campaign that encourages everyone everywhere to cut out meat from their diet one day a week. The idea is based on studies suggesting that reducing meat consumption is linked to a lower risk of chronic preventable illnesses. Equally important, the meat industry is one of the biggest contributors of man-made greenhouse gas emissions which are leading to global climate change. And if this isn't reason enough to join in the fun, well, Paul McCartney says to do it....and by-golly, that's good enough for me.

I decided that we should start off our new weekly tradition with a great meatless meal. It is one of my very favorite foods from my mission: Chilaquiles (CHEE-lah-KEE-les). Chilaquiles are typically served for breakfast using stale, leftover tortillas from the day before. Basically, you cut the tortillas into pieces, fry them up and cook them for a bit in a chile sauce. Spread some cream and queso fresco on top, and there you go! Delicious.

You could use just a canned/jarred enchilada sauce, but you'd really be doing yourself a disservice if you don't make your own sauce. Now, cooking with dried chiles is a bit different, and to some (like me) can seem a bit intimidating at first, but it really is quite simple and definitely worth it!

So let's start with the sauce (this is good stuff.)

Red Chile Sauce

Here's what you need:

• 3 dried ancho chiles
• 2 dried guallijo chiles
• 1/4 onion (I'd typically use a white onion but red is what we had)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Dash black pepper
• Dash ground cumin
• Dash ground cinnamon

The first step in making our sauce is to prepare the chiles. First of all, you may want to wear gloves when dealing with these babies, and if not, then for the love of Pete DO NOT bring your fingers anywhere near your eyeballs until after a thorough hand-washing.

Anywho, there are lots of ways to do this, but I just use a paring knife to cut down the length of the chile from the stem to the point at the bottom. Break off the stem, then carefully open up the chile allowing all the loose seeds to fall onto a plate. Some chiles are very brittle and will break as soon as you try to open it. No biggie. Now, use the knife to scrape away any large veins running along the inside of the chile. Repeat with the rest of chiles, reserving the veins and seeds as you may want to use them for added heat later on.

Now we want to toast the chiles. Place the split and opened chiles (along with any little broken pieces) into a dry pan over medium heat. Really,you just want to warm them through until aromatic, maybe a minute on each side. Leaving them on too long could make the chiles taste bitter, and we don't want that.


The dried chiles now need to be reconstituted. Remove the toasted chiles from the skillet to a medium saucepan. Add the onion and cover with water (about 3 cups). Bring the water to a boil, then remove from heat and let sit uncovered for 10 minutes until chiles have softened and plumped up.


Place the chiles, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon and 1.5 cups of the soaking liquid into a blender and puree the mixture until smooth. At this point you want to taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings to your liking. Also, if it's not quite hot enough, you can add some of the reserved seeds and/or veins a little at a time.


Once satisfied with the heat/seasoning, pass the mixture through a sieve into a skillet. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil and stir to combine. Bring sauce to a simmer and cook about ten minutes, and voila!.....

You have yourself a beautiful, rich deep red chile sauce.



Black Bean Salad

Before making the chilaquiles, how 'bout a quick side dish? This recipe from Food Network personality (and UNLV alum... Go Rebels!) Guy Fieri is one of the best "canned' dishes I've ever had.

You'll need:

• 2 cans black beans, drained, about 30 ounces
• 1 (15-ounce) can corn, drained
• 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1/4 cup diced green onions
• 1/4 cup diced pineapple (I used 1/2 cup canned pineapple tidbits).
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
• 4 tablespoons sherry vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)
  
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• Pinch ground cumin

The preparation instructions for this recipe are the greatest:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.

....Awesome.

Yum.


Chilaquiles

Ok, back to the task at hand...

• 8-10 corn tortillas
• Your awesome red chile sauce
• Salt
• Chopped cilantro
• Chopped onion
• Queso Fresco
• Mexican table cream (Could you substitute sour cream instead? Of course you could. You could also substitute peanut butter, but that doesn't mean it'll be any good... )

First, cut the tortillas into quarters.


Pan fry the tortilla quarters in some canola/veggie oil until golden brown and crispy and remove to a paper towel-lined plate.

Sprinkle the chips with some salt.


Meanwhile, heat up the red chile sauce in a skillet. Add your crispy tortilla quarters and carefully work them into into the sauce until the sauce is evenly distributed like so....


Let the mixture cook over low heat for a few minutes. You want the outside of the chips to soften and get a little soggy with sauce, but you want to preserve a good crunch on the inside of the chips.


Garnish the chilaquiles with queso, cream, onions and cilantro and serve with the black bean salad.



And that my friends is a Muy Marvelous Mexican Meatless Monday Meal.