FoodNuts!

Posts Tagged ‘Chili paste’

After my posting on making fresh sausage, Patrick posted a link to a chorizo recipe that I found to be incredibly enticing, tasteful and challenging. After reading it, I checked my stock of chili peppers in the larder and it found woefully lacking to attempt such a sausage. I have since stocked up, and, as fortune would have it, pork shoulder went on sale here. Well, combine the two things, and you have all you need to attempt Patrick’s chorizo. Well, plus other things, but I have them!

I am not going to go into the packing of fresh sausage in this posting as I already have and it is pretty much the same for all types (it’s just the meat and the spices that are variables). What I am going to focus on, however, is the making of the ingredients that make this one different. That’s the chili paste.

There is a great variety of dried chili’s out there, and making them into paste is pretty much the same for all of them. I have made these in the past, for dishes like Pozole (fantastic dish, BTW, highly recommend it), but I am going to tweak it just a bit to bring it in line with more traditional Mexican cooking and, I think, eliminate problems I have had in storing.

Ok, the chorizo calls for two types of dried pepper: Guajillo (pronounced wha-hee-oh, called Mirasol when fresh) and the Ancho (called the Poblano when fresh). For our discussion, I will only be dealing only with the dried varieties of each pepper.

Chances are you will be buying these peppers by the bag, unless there is a really good Hispanic store next to you.  Try to get peppers that are somewhat pliable and not too dry. It is much easier to work with them somewhat soft. If, however, you can’t obtain them this way, email me, and I’ll explain how to deal with the extremely dry peppers. (If time permits me, I’ll do it at the end of this article).

Remove the stem of each pepper and discard. Take a chef knife and make a slit in the pepper from tip to tip, and fold open. Remove all of the seeds from the inside (save some for spring if you wish to grow them). Also, remove any pepper ribs you can that are visible.

When you have them all cleaned and ready, it’s time to make the paste. Take all of the cleaned peppers of one variety and soak in warm water for at least 30 minutes. They will become very soft.

Drain and discard water.Place in a blender (this is easier to get out without waste than a food processor) and add a couple tablespoons of vinegar (I used to use water, but this is the more traditional paste-making aspect I mentioned earlier) The vinegar will work the same as water, however, the lower pH of vinegar will eliminate much of the bacteria growth problems I have found in the past when storing excess paste. If you need more vinegar, add it a tablespoon at a time. Do his until it is a thick paste, and then remove from blender with a spatula.

There you have it, chili paste. I keep many varieties on hand, and my wife, not born in Los Angeles, wonders why. Hmmm, well, to be honest, not so much anymore.

Anyway, I made this paste specifically to make Chorizo. I adapted Patrick’s recipe from the comments on foodnuts to my sausage making. It is a great recipe. There was only one problem: the recipe called for a one to one of vinegar (cup) to one pound of meat. I would cut that volume of vinegar by about 1/3, as it is too soupy, and will come out of the porosity of the casing. (That’s why I say 1/3; it’s about how much I lost.) But, nonetheless, they came out great. Breakfast on Christmas will be Huevos Rancheros made with these.

Recipe for the Chorizo:

9 lbs of pork shoulder

2 lbs fat

9 tbls Salt

1 pint of Guajillo chili paste

1 3/4 cup Ancho paste

9 cups vinegar (I’d cut back to 6)

14 tbls Paprika

9 tsp garlic powder

18 bay leaves, ground fine

3 tbls ground black pepper

4 1/2 tbls ground cumin

7 tbls ground oregano

4 ½ tsp ground marjoram

4 ½ tsp ground coriander

4 ½ tsp ground thyme

4 ½ ground allspice

Mix well; allow to sit refrigerated overnight; pack into casing. Here’s what the final product looks like:

They aren’t hot but they are very spicy! I look forward to a large meal of Huevos Rancheros, made with fresh eggs, homemade Pico de Gallo, adobo sauce and Escebeche!