GREEN-CHILE-SMOTHERED BREAKFAST BURRITOS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400° F.
• Warm oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Stir in potatoes, salt, and as much pepper as you wish. Pat mixture down evenly, cook several minutes. Scrape it up from bottom of skillet, add onion and garlic, and pat back down again. Repeat process until potatoes are cooked through and golden brown, with many crisp edges, about 12 to 15 minutes. Pour eggs over potatoes and scrape mixture up and down another couple of times to distribute and cook eggs.
• Spoon 1⁄4 of mixture onto a tortilla. Top with 2 slices of bacon. Roll up into a loose cylinder and place burrito seam side down on a heatproof plate. Spoon 1⁄4 of chile sauce over burrito and sprinkle it generously with cheese. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
• Bake burritos until cheese is melted and gooey, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately.
• HANDHELD RED CHILE BREAKFAST BURRITOS
• Since handheld burritos are often an on-the-run option, I've made this to serve just a pair of diners. It's easy to double or even triple, if you want to feed a group. I happen to prefer red chile with the chorizo included here, but feel free to mix and match fillings and toppings as you wish. Just remember that a handheld burrito is an exercise in restraint, to some degree. It needs to be full enough to be satisfying, but not so overstuffed that it can't be eaten out of hand, and the filling should be moist but not so much that it drips badly or causes the tortilla to collapse. You can offer extra chile sauce on the side if you wish, but keep the quantity inside the burrito close to the amount suggested.
• Serves 2
• teaspoons vegetable oil 3 to 4 ounces uncooked bulk chorizo
• to 9-ounce russet potato, peeled or unpeeled, cut in 1⁄2-inch dice
• 3 cup chopped onion
• garlic clove, minced
• large eggs, lightly beaten
• flour tortillas, warmed
• ounces mild cheddar cheese, grated
• Preheat oven to 400° F.
• Warm oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Stir in chorizo and pat mixture down evenly, and scrape back up, until the chorizo loses its raw look. Stir in potatoes and cook for about 5 minutes, until the cubes are just starting to become tender. Scrape mixture up from bottom of skillet, add onion, garlic, and salt, and pat back down again. Repeat process until potato cubes are cooked through and golden brown, with some crisp edges, about 5 more minutes. Pour eggs over potatoes and scrape mixture up and down another couple of times to distribute and cook eggs.
• Spoon 1⁄2 of filling onto a tortilla. Spoon 1⁄2 of chile sauce over filling followed by 1⁄2 of cheese. Fold 1 side of tortilla up over filling by about 1 inch. Fold both ends in and roll up into a snug cylinder. Repeat for second burrito. Wrap at least the folded bottom end of each burrito in a foil or wax paper collar. Serve right away.
• RED CHILE SAUCE FROM WHOLE PODS
• When New Mexicans talk about "red chile" or simply "red," they generally mean the sauce that forms a constituent part of a dish. Cooks make the sauce from either dried whole pods, as is the case here, or from ground chile, as in the recipe after this. Use the sauce with burritos, enchiladas, tamales, or other dishes.
• Makes approximately 4 cups
• ounces (about 20 to 25) dried whole red New Mexican chile pods
• cups water or chicken stock (divided use)
• tablespoons vegetable oil
• medium onion, minced
• garlic cloves, minced
• to 2 teaspoons crumbled dried Mexican oregano or marjoram
• teaspoon salt, or more to taste
• Toast dried whole chile pods in a heavy skillet over medium heat until they are warm and release their fragrance, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Remove chiles from skillet immediately. When cool enough to handle, break each chile pod into several pieces (wearing rubber or plastic gloves if your skin is sensitive), discarding stem and seeds. Place chile pieces in a blender and pour in one-half of the water or stock. Purée until mostly smooth but with a few flecks of chile still visible in liquid.
• Warm oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté several minutes, until onion is limp. Pour in blended chile mixture, then add oregano and salt. Purée remaining chiles with remaining water and pour purée into sauce in pan. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for a total of 20 to 25 minutes. After about 15 minutes, taste the sauce and adjust seasonings. When ready, sauce will be cooked down enough to coat a spoon thickly but still drop off of it easily. Use warm or refrigerate for later use. Working ahead: The sauce keeps for 5 to 6 days, refrigerated, and freezes well.
• RED CHILE SAUCE FROM GROUND POD
• Ground dried chile is a fine ingredient for making sauce if you're sure it's freshly ground. It simplifies the process, and also facilitates the blending of various chiles with different degrees of heat, earthiness, sweetness, or other characteristics to make a signature sauce for a special dish. In New Mexico, it's fairly easy to find superb ground chile at farmers' markets, specialty shops, or grocery stores with high turnover, but the search may be more problematic out of state. Smell it if you can, or at least verify that it's vibrant crimson in color.
• Makes approximately 4 cups
• tablespoons vegetable oil
• medium onion, minced
• garlic cloves, minced
• cups chicken or beef stock, or water
• teaspoon crumbled dried Mexican oregano or marjoram
• teaspoon salt, or more to taste
• Warm oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until onion is limp. Stir in chile and then water, a cup at a time. Add oregano and salt and bring sauce just to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for about 20 minutes. Completed sauce should coat a spoon thickly but still drop off it easily. Use warm or refrigerate for later use. The sauce keeps for 5 to 6 days, refrigerated, and freezes well.
• GREEN CHILE SAUCE
• In the days before freezers, green sauces were far less common than red. The immature chile turned red in the field rather quickly, making the green pod highly seasonal. I prefer to use stock in place of water in both red and green sauces, but especially with green chile, to approximate the meatier flavor that used to come from lard or beef suet when they were the only available cooking fats.
• Makes approximately 4 cups
• tablespoons vegetable oil
• to 3 garlic cloves, minced
• tablespoon all-purpose flour
• cups chopped roasted mild to medium-hot New Mexican green chile, fresh or thawed frozen
• cups chicken or beef stock
• Warm oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and continue cooking for another 1 or 2 minutes. Mix in chile. Immediately begin pouring in stock, stirring as you go, then add salt. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, until thickened but still very pourable. Use warm, or refrigerate for later use. The sauce keeps for about 3 days, refrigerated, and freezes well.
• Cooks desiring a still meatier sauce may want to brown a bit of ground or cubed pork loin or beef chuck with the onion-and-garlic mixture, then simmer the sauce longer, until the meat is tender.
• Chile recipes are adapted from Tasting New Mexico, © 2012 Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison (Museum of New Mexico Press), carried in the New Mexico Magazine Store.
• Cheryl Alters Jamison is New Mexico Magazine's contributing culinary editor. Read her blog at nmmagazine.com/tastingnm. See more of Douglas Merriam's work at douglasmerriam.com.
• Categories:
• Tasting NM, Cuisine, October 2014