Zelma's Authentic Green Chile

Again, from a dear old co-worker of mine, this is her GREEN CHILE recipe, which I have not tried.  It doesn't state the number of green chiles to use to make this recipe, but I imagine it is at least a dozen or so, maybe even up to 30, depending on how much chile you want to make. 

Zelma's Green Chile - Zelma Savage

Once, again, you will need the right kind of chile to make this dish come out right.  Buy the long green variety, Anaheim are the most available here.  I get mine at Hatch, New Mexico.
Heat broiler in oven, place chiles on a flat surface, cookie sheet, or other similar surface, as many as I usually roast, I have to throw the pans away, they pick up the heat of the chiles and are unusable as cookie sheets ever again.
Place chiles under the broiler and let skin brown and bubble up.  Turn chiles at intervals so all chiles are browned fairly evenly.
Remove from pan, place in a wet dish towel and let stand and steam for a while, you can start peeling them when the peels come off easily or wait until they are completely cooled off.  You must peel them before using them.
After peeling the skins off, cut them into small strips and then take your knife and roll, cut, roll, cut, roll cut, until you have very small pieces, or instead of a knife you can squeeze the chiles through your fingers, but wear gloves.
Crush several pods of garlic with the handle of a butcher knife or run through a garlic press.  Add salt to taste, and garlic to chile.  I like chile sandwiches and at this point you can use the chile as a relish over most anything you want.  You can also add fresh cut tomatoes to this and have another fine tasting dish.

My favorite recipe and most of yours is as follows:

Green chile as prepared above
1 round steak or 3-4 pork chops (cut into small pieces 1/4" to 1/2")
1 cup flour
salt to taste
garlic to taste
Sharp cheddar cheese, use as you like it, shredded or cut into small cubes
2-4 tomatoes depending on size of the tomatoes

Flour the meat in a bag.  Cook meat in a heavy skillet or sauce pan, making sure the meat is done.  Add chile and water to cover the whole mixture.  Add tomato if you are going to use them, let simmer together about 30 minutes.  When chile is about done, add the cheese to the mixture and simmer until cheese is melted into the chile.
Serve with potatoes, beans, tortillas, bread, pie, cake, or anything.  It goes well with anything, except strawberry jam.  Henry could have told you exactly how sick that mixture makes you.  I am joking about the pie and cake but I like this dish well enough to eat it almost every meal.  Just think if I had been born a Mexican!
And now dear friend, can I have my kidnapped mug back?  And, I really think after this  second recipe you should reveal yourself.

Zelma Savage's Real Mexican Red Chile

MY FRIEND FOUND THE RECIPE!  I'm so grateful!  Here it is, typed exactly as Zelma wrote it, with a few comments from me in [.....].  I LOVE THIS so much, I make it with pork and eat it with warmed tortillas, it's so delicious.

REAL MEXICAN RED CHILE - Zelma Savage

In order for either of these chile recipes to come out right, you HAVE to have the right kind of chiles.
Most grocery stores carry cellophane packages of dried red chiles.  It is in the Mexican section of the grocery store and hangs by a hook, usually.  [there are so many now!  I use NEW MEXICO CHILE PEPPERS, DRIED.  They are large and very flavorful, they are what Zelma herself told me to use.]
It is up to you how much chile to buy, I never measure, but I usually use 20-30 pods for my recipe.  It makes 1-2 quarts of sauce.
20-30 Red Chile Pods
6-8 Garlic pods (whole, peeled)
1 Tbsp salt
then:
1 round steak or 3-4 pork chops
1 cup flour in a plastic or paper bag for shaking meat pieces in
To prepare the chile pods, take the stem off the top, and if you like hot chile, preserve as many seeds in the pod as you can, if you like milder chile, shake the seeds out into a container [or garbage]. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE OR YOUR EYES AFTER STARTING TO HANDLE THE CHILES [I wear latex gloves for this, and I leave a little over 50% of the seeds in, I like it a little hot].
Put the chile pods in a large glass bowl or container.  DO NOT USE METAL, put salt and garlic in with the chile pods.  Bring three quarts water to a boil and pour over the chiles.  Place a heavy object on top of the chile to hold it all under the water so it can soak, this process softens the meat of the chile.
Cut beef steak or pork chops into small pieces, I cut them anywhere from 1/4" to 1/2" square.  Place meat into the bag of flour and shake to cover well with flour.
Remove meat from flour, shaking as much flour off of it as possible.  Place meat in large heavy bottom [soup pot] pan with the oil and cook until as done as possible without burning or making it crisp.  Stir often.  I cook mine covered so it will be as soft as possible and not burn.
While meat is cooking, remove chile from the bowl of hot water and drop into a blender [or food processor] about enough to make it half full, be sure to keep the lid on and hold down very tightly.  If you don't, it will shoot up to the top and you will have a stained red kitchen and clothing for a very long time!  Hit PULSE.  Let blend for a while and then add more chile, keeping enough water added to make it easy for the blender to work.  Continue this process until all the chile is blended and all the water is used.  Or, if it is getting too runny, save the water to rinse your blender into your strainer.
You will need a large strainer, not a colander, the holes are too large.  Place the strainer over a bowl and pour some of the sauce out of the blender into the strainer, using a wooden spoon to help push the sauce through the strainer, leaving the pulp behind, it will be the chile skin and seeds.  Continue this process until all sauce is strained, then rinse with the remainder of hot water, rinsing blender and strainer to get all the sauce.
Drain all the excess cooking oil from the meat, add the chile sauce to the cooked meat and let it all come to a boil, turn on lowest heat setting and let simmer.  Simmer long enough for flavors to blend, if you still have any left after smelling and tasting it, put in a large bowl and serve as a condiment or main dish [with tortillas].

By omitting the meat, I use this sauce to make enchiladas:
Place a corn tortilla in a small amount of hot oil in a skillet, immediately flipping the tortilla over, take out of pan and place in a pan of the red chile sauce, which I keep warm on another burner, turn the tortilla over so as to coat both sides with chile.  Place tortilla flat on a dinner plate or shallow bowl, sprinkle shredded cheese on the tortilla, spread a small amount of chopped onion on the tortilla, and repeat the process until you have a stack, each individual can have the size he or she wants, I usually take three tortillas. After completing the stack, place in a warm oven, 250 degrees, and leave there while you finish making enough for everyone.
The last step is to fry eggs, again a personal preference as to how many, I don't eat eggs on mine, Henry always took 3 eggs, runny yolks seem to be preferable to most people who eat them, put the eggs on top of the stack of tortillas, pour more sauce over everything and sit down to enjoy a delicious meal. 

Thank you Zelma, I know you're up there watching over all of us making your fantastic recipe, we miss you!

Easy Crock Pot Chili

Easy crock pot chili: Just made this, delicious! One package Bear Creek Chili Mix. Prepare in a crock pot according to directions (add 7 cups water, pretty basic). Cook all day on low. About an hour before serving, brown 1 lb (or more, I think I did 1.25 lbs) hamburger and add 2 packets taco seasoning to the drained hamburger and 3/4 cup water. Add burger mixture to the crock pot and bring again to a boil, serve with cheese, onion, and some cornbread. GOOD! The Bear Creek Chili by itself was a little flat in flavor so I added the burger and taco seasoning. Thinking it probably would work sticking ALL of it in the crock pot from the beginning, but NOT the hamburger, you'd want to brown and rinse it first, otherwise it would be too greasy unless you used elk or deer burger.

Homemade Tomato Soup

I hate having to be gluten free, although now I think it's a wheat allergy, instead of all gluten.  That's slightly better I guess.
I love Tomato Soup, but the second ingredient in canned tomato soup is wheat flour.  Boo.  But I came up with an alternative and it's good.

1 can tomato sauce (14 oz can)
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Pinch of Herbs de Provence
Pinch of baking soda
1 tsp butter (optional)

Combine all ingredients well and heat just to barely boiling while stirring constantly with a whisk.  Makes 2 servings.

Creamy Chicken Italian Soup w/Gnocchi

2/3 cup butter or olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

2 lbs cooked chicken OR 2 cans cooked chicken

2/3 cup flour

1 quart whole milk

1 quart heavy cream

5 Tbsp Chicken Soup Base (this is the yellow powdery boullion)

Pepper to taste

1 bag fresh spinach leaves

Make your gnocchi first, by boiling it according to package directions, or make homemade gnocchi.  Set it aside.

Melt butter in a soup pot and sauté the garlic.  Add the flour and cook and stir together, cook for a minute or so for the raw flour smell to cook out.  Add the chicken and cook to combine the chicken and the flour paste.

Cool the pan a little bit by lifting it off the burner and turning the heat down, then add about a cup of the milk, and stir stir stir to get any lumps out and make it as smooth as you can.  Add the boullion or soup base and stir it in well, no lumps.  Add the rest of the milk and the cream and cook over medium low heat.  Taste it, add salt and pepper if needed.  Add the gnocchi to heat it through in the soup.  Just before serving, add the whole bag of spinach leaves and warm them through, they will cook way down.

REMEMBER:  Cream soups should never boil hard, only barely simmer so they usually take some time to heat through.  If you boil it, it scorches and separates, not what you want.  Stir it a lot, don’t let it scorch on the bottom.

Chicken Chili (Chicken Taco Soup)

Trent said I can't call this chili because it's not reddish, it's whitish, he said to call it chicken taco soup.  Okay. 
This is VERY good and best part was I threw it together when I was home for lunch yesterday, and the chicken came directly from the freezer so it was easy.  Adapted from a recipe in our local newspaper.  We really liked this.  As usual, it makes enough for dinner and lunch for a couple of days for us.

3-4 frozen chicken breasts (one quart freezer bag full)

3 cans chicken broth

3 cans diced green chiles

2 cans pinto beans or great northern beans

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

½ tsp cayenne pepper

Boil on high in crock pot all day.  Break chicken up, then stir in:

2 packages cream cheese 
1 cup of sour cream

Stir well to combine, serve with cheese and tortilla chips or crackers.

Tortilla Soup - Cloned Cafe Rio

I think I came pretty close! I love Cafe Rio tortilla soup with chicken. It is not like the thick creamy tortilla soup, it's more like broth. It's so good.
You need chicken...I did chicken breasts in the crock pot all day so it shredded perfectly. You will add the soup on top of the chicken when you serve it. You can use up leftover chicken in this too.

Soup:
1 onion
1 tomato
2 cloves garlic
Drizzle olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne (or less if you're sensitive to heat)
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin (start there, I added more)
1 49 oz. large can chicken broth

Shredded chicken
Smashed avocado
Cilantro
Cheese (the best is to use the mexican cheese like fresco or asadero, but you can also use basic bagged shredded cheese of any kind)
Sour cream
Pico De Gallo
Tortilla Chips or Strips, or flour tortillas


Process the onion, tomato and garlic in food processor or hand chopper. Saute in olive oil until it gets softened, then add about an inch of chicken broth in the pan, Boil until the onion and garlic are very softened. Add spices. Add all the rest of the chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for enough time to let flavors blend, about a half hour, adjusting your spices if needed. The way I adjust spices is to taste the dish, then smell each spice at the same time and if it seems like the smell of the spice would add the flavor you want, then add in increments of about 1/4 tsp at a time. I know I added more chili powder, and maybe a bit more cumin, but those are my favorite spices.

To serve, place shredded chicken in the bottom of the bowl. Add cheese, add mashed avocado, pour the soup over it. Top with Pico, sour cream and cilantro and serve with chips or tortillas if desired. Yummy!

Chicken Stew

My soup adventures continue...this was SO good.

Chicken Stew

Total prep/cooking time is about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, so this is a good weekend meal.

5 lbs bone in chicken thighs, skin on or off
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp vegetable oil (can add more if needed)
6 Tbsp butter
1 large onion, finely minced
6 Tbsp flour
¼ cup cooking sherry (or substitute ¼ cup water with ½ tsp vinegar added)
6 cans chicken broth (the 14 oz size cans)
2 cups whole milk
½ tsp powdered thyme or 1 tsp minced fresh thyme
2 tsp dried tarragon
3 bay leaves
2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup frozen peas
1 small box frozen spinach

Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large stew pot. Fry the chicken in batches for approximately 10 minutes (five minutes per side). Transfer chicken to a plate and remove the skin. Pour off the chicken fat from the pot and scrape any leftover skin from the bottom of the pan. Leave some brown bits, but try and get most of the chicken skin out.

Add the butter to the pan and melt, add the onion and cook about 7 minutes until the onion is soft. Stir in the flour. Whisk in the sherry and stir, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan into the onions. Add one can of broth slowly while stirring. Add the rest of the chicken broth, milk, thyme, tarragon, bay leaves, and carrots. Nestle the chicken pieces into the stew. Cook until chicken is fully cooked and tender, about one hour. *Add the peas about a half hour into this cooking time. Taste after an hour, season with salt and pepper if needed.

Remove chicken from the pot, take the meat off the bones and discard the bones. Remove the bay leaves, return the chicken meat to the pot. Add the spinach. Heat through, cooking the spinach. If you want the stew thicker (I did) mix three tablespoons corn starch with ½ cup COLD water. Add that mixture to the boiling stew, cook to thicken. Repeat if it’s still not thick enough for you.

Potato Soup with Ham

This was my favorite mistake! Made soup for my dad who's having some problems eating, so I wanted to chop up the ham really small with my food processor, along with the celery and onion. Well, I completely pulverized it and was really mad, it was like baby food. It was two ham steaks so I couldn't waste it! So I just made the soup with the pureed ham. It was so good that way! I will do it again like that, or just cut the ham up into small bite size pieces.

The chicken soup base is from Winco bulk food, it's a powder type base. I use it a lot, very good soup base. While you're at Winco, might as well get the french bread "bombs" to use as bread bowls for this soup, just cut the middle out and fill with soup.

6-8 medium sized potatoes, peeled and diced to 1/2" cubes
3 stalks celery
1 onion
Two ham steaks or equivalent leftover ham (probably 3-4 cups)
7 cups water
1/4 cup chicken soup base or 6 boullion cubes
2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp flour
4 cups whole milk

Prepare the celery, onion, and ham how you prefer...you can dice it very fine or puree in a food processor. I process the onion and celery very fine, and cut the ham into small pieces. Combine the diced potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a soup pot. Boil until potatoes are tender, at least 10-15 minutes and check them. Longer if you like the potatoes very soft. Stir in the chicken base or boullion and the pepper.

In a separate skillet, make a roux (relax, it's easy). Melt the butter over medium low heat and add the flour. Stir constantly with a whisk or fork. Cook about one minute until thick, keep stirring and don't let it burn. Slowly add about a cup of the milk and stir as not to allow lumps to form. keep adding the milk and stir any lumps out. Continue stirring and cooking until the mixture is thick, about 4-5 minutes.

Add the milk mixture (your Roux!) to the soup pot, mix to combine and heat through. Serve soup with bread or crackers. Delicious, easy soup that can be done after work for dinner, it took about an hour including all the vegetable prep time.

Grandma Helen's Cheese Soup

As I've mentioned before, I didn't appreciate my first mother-in-law as I should have, she was an incredible babysitter for my daughter Shea! And, among other talents, she was a great cook and had great recipes and I learned so much from her....her cheese soup was fantastic! The only problem was, I was a naive twenty-something when I knew her so I never really appreciated her as I should have. Regret.

BUT...sadness aside...this cheese soup is her recipe, Helen Gertrude Henrie Gohr's. And let me tell you it has caused riots...there was an actual documented kidnapping over this recipe. It involved a ladyfriend coffee cup, gagged and tied I'm sure, held for ransom until this recipe was divulged to a very shrewd relative, of whom we will not identify. She knows who she is :)

Cheese Soup

4 russet potatoes

2 large carrots

1 large onion (I use sweet a sweet onion)

water

1 or 2 bricks velveeta (32 oz each)

1 pint half and half

Peel and shred carrots, peel and shred potatoes, peel and shred onion. I use a salad shooter to shred it all...works great.

Place in a stew pot. Cover with water, to about 1/2 inch above the vegetables. Do not add salt! Bring to boil and keep at a low simmer until vegetables are completely done, about 20 - 30 minutes. Turn heat down to very low.

Add cheese. Grant uses one brick, and the soup is delicious but a bit thin. I use about one-an-a-a half bricks for my big pot. You can always thin it with more water. Cut velveeta cheese into 1/2 inch cubes. Gradually add to the pot with the vegetable mixture. This soup should never boil after adding the cheese, boiling will ruin the texture. Keep cooking on low, stirring frequently to incorporate the cheese to make a creamy soup. Add half and half as a thinner if needed.

Delicious. Thanks Grandma Helen.

Texas Taco Chili

I got this recipe from my sister Dani. Great crock pot meal that's fast to make, then cook 3-8 hrs in the crock pot on low. Great for parties, makes a full crock pot and serves a lot of people.

2 lbs ground beef
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 bell pepper, diced (optional)
2 cans pinto beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cans navy beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cans kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cans black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 package frozen corn OR 2 cans of corn
2 cans diced tomatoes, either italian or mexican style
2 packages taco mix
1 package ranch dressing dry mix


Saute the beef and onion, drain off some fat if necessary. Add the taco mix and stir until well combined.
In the crock pot, combine all the ingredients along with the beef/onion mixture, stir well to combine. You may want to add a cup or so of water or broth to bring to the consistency of chili or thick soup. Cook on low for 3-8 hours for flavors to blend.

Top with whatever you like: Cheese, sour cream, diced onion, hot sauce, cilantro... and serve with warmed tortillas.

Chicken and Noodles

4-6 Chicken Breasts (or leftover chicken)
1/4 to 1/2 Cup Chicken Soup Base (Winco, Bulk Food)
4-6 Stalks Celery (finely chopped)
One Meduim to Large Onion (finely chopped)
About 3-4 cups Sliced Carrots
1/2 to 1 tsp Thyme
1/2 to 1 tsp Poultry Seasoning
1/8 tsp Cayenne (optional)
Frozen egg noodles or fresh pasta egg noodles (I don't recommend dried pasta for this.)

Boil chicken breasts to cook them (I use broth or soup base to cook them in, but I discard it after and use fresh to start the soup, there's too many chicken floaties in it). You can also use leftover chicken, canned chicken, any kind of chicken you have on hand. Just make sure it's cooked and shred it into large chunks, set aside.

Saute the onion and celery in a little oil in a large pot. When they are soft, add the thyme, poultry seasoning, cayenne and the Chicken Soup Base powder (it's more like a dry paste) and a little water. Stir that all into a mixture so the base is incorporated then add a few cups of water at a time until you have the pot about 3/4 full. Add in the chicken and the carrots. Boil this until the carrots are almost done. Add more water if it's too salty, more base if it needs more chicken flavor.

Add the noodles, either fresh or frozen, and cook until the noodles are your desired tenderness. Keep in mind that there's a lot of stuff in this, so it's not very "soupy"...more like a stew.

** I like homemade pasta for this, but sometimes it's not feasible. The best noodles for this are in the frozen food section. My favorite are "Grandma's" at Albertsons. There's also a package at Winco, it's in a green bag package. They are ok too. Thaw them a little and break them up before adding to the pot.