Stagecoach Chile !

 

From John Ford's 1939 "Stagecoach"

I know I've been promising to post this and since our electricity is still on (although there is once again no TIJ potable water) and we are headed for more cold and rainy days ahead with a clearing out on Thursday, finally the recipe ! You can serve this to company, people will rave, add a tossed crispy green salad on the side with warmed up corn tortillas and sliced lime for folks to squeeze into their chile. I heat up the beans in a side pot juice and all with added fresh cilantro cuttings.

The weather here - we did have south winds but not enough to create white caps on the sea. So far, 3.2 inches of rain so we have faired better than we initially thought. Paris, Rubio & Totsie are loving it, they just cuddle up close under the blankets; three more Doctor's appointments coming up and the required class I have to take prior to surgery is on Wednesday.

Okay, let's do this:

Ingredients you will need:

A 3 to 4 pound tri tip roast, fat trimmed, cut into two inch (large ) cubes. You can get the "organic" Harris Farm tri-tips at Sprouts have the butcher trim it for you.

2 cans beef consome. Consome, not broth.

1 cans of chicken broth (Have a little extra on hand in case you need it)

2 to 3 largest cans of canned whole tomatoes

1 large jar of Herdez hot salsa - actually the Herdez salsa down here tastes better

3 large serrano chiles sliced & diced

2 onions mooned

1 large bunch of cilantro

25 large sliced garlic cloves - figure on having 2 large garlic heads on hand

2 to 4 green bell peppers

1 heaping teaspoon of cumino

Bowl of flour seasoned with salt & pepper

Liquid crisco oil about 1/2 cup, do not use olive oil. May use Canola, Saflower but NO OLIVE OIL.

1 Largest can of Pinto beans, undrained

1 Largest can of Black beans, undrained

1 can of Garbanzo beans, undrained

First, prepare the base:

In very large pot pour in the salsa, tomatoes, beef consome, chicken broth along with 5 of the sliced garlic cloves, the 2 mooned onions, the bunch of chopped cilantro ( saving some to throw into the beans)the teaspoon and a little more (just a little) of cumino,the one sliced serrano chile. Stir and turn to low, allowing it to simmer.

In frying pan, pour in the crisco oil, adding the remaining two serrano chiles and 20 cloves of sliced garlic. The serranos and garlic should cover the bottom of the pan. cover and put aside.

Cut your tri tip into large two inch chunks, make them thick.

Place the chunked beef into the bowl of seasoned flour and coat well.

Turn on the oil, garlic and serranos on low and let cook for about 3 minutes. Don't burn them.

Add the flour coated beef, the pan should be full.  Keep the heat low, cover and brown for 8 minutes.

Uncover and using a fork & large spoon, turn the meat over and again, cover and brown for another 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, check your sauce, by now it should have come up to a boil, just turn it down and stir.

After the second eight minutes, move the frying pan off the heat, move the sauce over to where the frying pan was.

Using a serrated large spoon, gently remove the large chunks of tri tip along with juices for flavor (plus garlic and serranos) to the sauce.

Now everything is in one large pot. Bring all to a boil, turn the heat to very low (maybe use a smaller burner), cover and cook for one hour.

You may want to add more canned tomatoes or chicken broth, but leave room for the green peppers.

You will need to check and stir this every 10 to 15 minutes so it doesn't stick.

After one hour, turn it off. Before serving, bring back to low boil, add the chunked green peppers (two will be plenty, save two for the next night.) The added green peppers will take about 15 minutes to cook on a low boil.

The beans: Just open the cans, these are the very large cans of pinto and black and I throw in garbanzos with all their juices, sprigs of cilantro and let come to a boil in a separate pot.

Serving:  Add amount of beans and their juices to your bowls, top with hot chile mixture.

Note: Despite using 3 large serranos and the Herdez salsa, this isn't hot hot. If you think it is, add one tablespoon of sugar to the chile mixture. Also despite the large quantity of garlic, this is not garlicky at all so don't worry.

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Yes, we are still watching the world...here's a good one:

 ~ From the Conversation:

All Wars Eventually End - Here are 3 Situations That will Lead Russia and Ukraine To Make Peace

By, Andrew Blum Executive Director and Professor of Practice at Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace, University of San

Diego. 02/24/23

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Take care and stay warm.

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