Chile powder

My love of chiles knows no bounds, so I'm always looking for different things to do with them. The reality is, though, that you can't cook every meal with chiles because the people you live with might not be quite as in love with them as you are. That doesn't mean my mind isn't always thinking about things to cook and ways to use all the beautiful chiles Mexico has to offer.

The most recent round of chile idea generation was spakred by my friend Sarah, who recently went to Arizona and came home with a big bag of cascabels. Cascabels are cutie little chiles - they look like big cherries, but, you know, with a bit of a kick. Unlike many chiles, the cascabels don't flatten out when they dry. Literally cascabel translates to "rattle" as the seed inside rattle around when the chile is dried and you shake it all about. The Gourmet Sleuth describes cascabels as "moderately hot and have a nutty flavor with a rich tannic and slightly smoky nuance."

While Taco Tuesday has become quite the thing, I am all about Taco Everyday. So I figured I'd try making some chile powder to make tacos later. This is what I whipped up it's still making my nose tickle hours later.


Yield: 2-3 tablespoons

Ingredients

2 dried cascabel chiles
2 dried chiles morito (chipotles)
2 dried cayenne peppers (I grew these in my garden last summer)
1 tsp dried cumin
1 tbsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried coriander

Deseed the chiles. Then add all the ingredients to a grinder - I have a coffee grinder that I use only for spices. Grind it all up until it's a fine powder.

Use it as you would any chile powder.

(c) 2016 Gail J Cohen

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With this, I made some tasty beef taco. Just took 3 teaspoons of the chile powder, 1 pound of ground beef, 1 chopped/sauted onions, and a tablespoon of tomato paste and cook it all up for 20 minutes or so.  Then add the fixings and it's  Taco Saturday Night!