Chiles?

Cornbread Willy

Howdy folks - a buddy of mine from NM sent me some bags of dried chiles. Any suggestions on how I might best use these thangs? Whip up some "red?" Enchilada sauce? Adovado (sp?) Figgered you fine folks would steer me right.[p]Thanks![p]CW

Car Wash Mike

Cornbread Willy,
Don't have an answer on the chiles but I have a question.[p]What weighed more the other day that yougen or that lobster, that thing looked huge.[p]How did you cook and why were there no after pics, I take that back I'm glad there weren't any after pics. I love seafood.[p]CWM

GrillMeister

Cornbread Willy,[p]I'd pick up one of those $10 coffee bean grinders at the grocery store and grind some of them up for use in rubs, cooking, etc.

Unknown

<p />Car Wash Mike,
Let's put it this way - would have been a good rasslin match, but ultimately Eli the Baby probably would have taken down Lawrence the Lobster.[p]Can't remember if I posted how we cooked him, but we did it like this: Rigged up my turkey frier and steamed Lawrence for about 15 minutes. Took him off, cooled him and then extracted all his meat, reserving all "goo." Reduced the goo (about 2/3 cup) and about 2 cups of champagne to about 1/2 cup of liquid. Added a boatload of butter and some tarragon and poached the lobster meat for a minute or 2. Served in the sauce alongside some t-rex fillets. Outstanding. No pics cuz the food disappeared before I could grab the camera. [p]For those who missed the pic, her 'tis. Incidentally, Lawrence was listed at 5 lbs but only rendered about 1 and 1/4 lbs of meat. A little disappointing. Eli (6 mos) is 18 lbs, fyi.

Car Wash Mike

Corbread Willy,[p]Where do you get a 5 lb. lobster and if you don't mind how much was it?[p]I've never cooked a live lobster but itching to try. I would really appreciate a detailed pictorial of the next one.[p]CWM

Cornbread Willy

Car Wash Mike,
I'm glad to say I don't know how much it was. My sister's boyfriend (in a thinly veiled, but successful, attempt to impress) brought him down from DC. I've never cooked one near that big. I did one on the Egg one time and it came good, but I was pretty nervous about screwing it up - can't even remember how I did it (I think there's a Dwell in the Shell recipe around here somewhere. Usually I just steam them in a big pot and serve with some drawn butter. It is a rare and expensive treat for special occasions, but I'll tell you - they are easy to cook at home and it's one of those things that a restaurant really can't improve upon - they're so frigging expensive at a restaurant I almost never order them. Between insisting that my steaks come from my egg and the occasional lobster cooked at home, I'm becoming a pretty cheap date - I usually just order the fish.

CampCook

Cornbread Willy,
My wife does this for me so I had to ask her expert advice. So here it is according to Vikki
Vikki's Red Chili sauce
1. Clean chiles by removing stems. Also, if you want the sauce milder, remove some of the seeds. (You can test this ahead of time by chewing some of the dried chiles and gauging the effect on your tongue.
2. Cover cleaned chiles with water or broth ( your choice ) and bring to a boil. Shut off heat and let it cool.
3. Add garlic and a bit of oregano to the cooling chiles
4. Put cooled mixture in blender and puree
5. Spoon over enchiladas, use to marinate pork for Carne Adovada, or whatever.[p]It is a lovely sauce....have fun

HolySmokes

<p />Cornbread Willy,
kinda depends on what kind of chilis; how dry (are
they still pliable); and how hot (could be habs or
serranos, or they could be ancho or anaheims).
if really dry, the coffee grinder is a good idea; if
not so dry that'll make a mush and they're better used
just chopped into whatever you're making, or dried in
a food dryer, then ground.[p]I use them ground in dang near everything, and have
bottles of one to five star (my heat index) smoked
chilis near the stove at all times.[p]gotta go get the egg fired up!
HS

GrillMeister

Car Wash Mike,[p]You can get a 4 lb. Lobster for $52 from Lobster's Direct. I belive that's the biggest they go.
[ul][li]Lobster's Direct[/ul]

Car Wash Mike

GrillMeister,[p]Thanks for the link. These 1 1/2 lbs, at Hy Vee for $15 is just pushing me away.[p]CWM

Unknown

Cornbread Willy, if I was to guess I'd guess they was kinda limp, so here what I do...for hot sauce I continue the drying by putting them on a comal / skillet on VERY low heat for a long time (at least an hour) turning them often (every ten min) oh I like sauce hot so I don't get rid of the insides either just de-stem em. If they are big I might even add some de arbol cause the guajilo (sp ck) are not hot enough by them selves. Then put em in boiling water and take off heat and cover for 30 min to 1 hr. Let cool completely the put in spice grinder or blender to make powder to be added to the tomatoe / tomatillio / garlic mixture in blender to make hot sauce. If your making enchalada sauce, getting them super dry by a low heat is not neccessary you can de-seed them and dry em some more in a HOT comal for just a few min on each side and put in boiling water, cover for 30 min and blend in blender till smooth. But then you got to run that through a strainer and just use the pulp with no seeds to make your enchalda sauce. Not a recipe mind you, just some tips on my techinque. Bottom line is you pretty much don't need to do nothing to em until you are about to use them in something.

DTM

Yo Holy,
Would you give us a legend on what's what in the jars? Very interesting.
Original post guy...Chet is very accurate. Be careful in the toast because they burn quickly..as he said low and check often. You can toss them in the freezer as is and take them out for trials experiments. Guajillos are the work horse day-to-day chili in southern MX. If you would describe the shape and color we maybe able to help more.
DTM

HolySmokes

<p />Dan,[p]you're right... they do burn quickly, which is why
I've taken to smoking them initially and then using
the dryer to get them dehydrated...[p]as far as the (prior post) pic, upper left top to bottom then right...
red serranos
green serranos
green jalapenos
(then next column)
mixed red peppers
variety cherry peppers
smoked red jalapenos
all the rest are smoked habeneros...[p]and I mixed my metaphors in the post; (between the photo
and the text) the photo is glass-topped tins that were
prepped for holiday presents. the jars I mentioned are
truly 8oz spice jars, and there's a pile of those too![p]all best,
Dugal

HolySmokes

Chet,
absolutely correct! excellent advice.[p][p]
and it's Guajillo (damn close, you were!)
I only knew 'cause I went and looked at the package
hs