Making carne adovada for dinner — started the process yesterday, and it will be done in another 90 minutes or so. The smell is filling the house, and it’s KILLING me.
For posterity’s sake (and for anyone who wants to yoink it), my recipe:
1) 12 oz. of Ancho chiles (dried Poblanos). Soak em in water for 2 hours, to rehydrate. Then, take them out of the water, cut the stems and seed pods out (if you don’t get ’em all, don’t worry — a few seeds will add a little bit of heat), and cut the Anchos up with kitchen scissors, and put them in a food processor with 1 chopped white onion, 8 cloves of fresh garlic (smashed), 1 tsp of cumin, 1 tsp of oregano, 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 cup of white vinegar, and 2 cups of hot water. Process the living hell out of it, making a sauce (basically, my version of a chile caribe).
2) Take 3 lbs of pork (I used 1.5 lbs of pork loin, and 1.5 lbs of pork chops — i.e., what we had in the house), and cut it into 2-inch rough cubes. Put it into a glass bowl and pour the sauce over the pork, stirring to make sure it gets around all of the meat. Then, cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
3) The next day, bring the mixture back to room temperature, and then put it in a glass baking dish, and cover tightly with foil. Place in a preheated 425-degree oven, and cook for 90 minutes. Drain any excess water from the dish, and then cook uncovered at 325 for another 60 minutes.
4) Serve with tortillas, sour cream, cheese and/or guacamole; or over rice. (We’ll probably be doing both.)
ARGH. The smell! I want it NOW. NOMNOMNOM..