Costillas de Puerco en Chile Ancho

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One of my favorite things to cook are guisados.  Guisados can be closely compared to stews and usually have a chile sauce and meat. They are quite laborious but very worth every step. The tastes are comforting, delicious and filling. Traditionally they are served with rice and beans but are good enough to stand alone. Chile ancho is on of my favorite chiles to make guisados with, they are not very, if at all spicy, and they just look beautiful. Pork ribs make an especially great companion to this sauce because after cooking for almost 2 hours, they become soft and absorb all of the flavors very well. If you do not eat pork, do not fret, this sauce can be used with any meat, or even as a vegetarian dish swapping out the meat for potatoes, mushrooms or my favorite, cactus. Remember to always taste your food as you cook, and enjoy! 

Ready in: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

3 lbs of pork ribs

6 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons of canola oil

One half of a large white onion

14-16 chiles anchos (dried poblano peppers)

1 pinch of cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Take tops off chiles, cut them open and remove all seeds and veins. Chiles anchos are generally not very spicy, but if you want to play it safe, feel free to wear some food safe gloves. 

2. In a medium frying pan, place 2 tb of oil on medium heat, 2 whole garlic cloves and 2 tb of onion finely chopped. Let them sit for about 5 minutes until they sweat, then put in the ribs. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and let let sit on low heat for 30 minutes. 

3. Add 4 cups of water to a pot, throw in the rest of the garlic cloves and the onion, let it come to a boil then bring down to low heat.

4. While the ribs cook and the water boils, take your chiles and lightly toast them on a non-stick pan on low heat. Make sure you place single layers of chiles to the pan, adding chiles on top of each other will toast them unevenly. Over toasting your chiles can give them a bitter taste. As soon as you get a light aroma of the chiles, you have toasted them enough.

5. Once all of your chiles are toasted, place them in a strainer and let them run under hot water for about a minute. Once rinsed, you can can put them into the boiling water with the onion and garlic. Let them boil for about 20 minutes so that they completely rehydrate becoming easier to pure. 

6. Once your chiles have boiled for 20 minutes, you will start the process of pureing your chile sauce. You're going to blend them in 4 batches so that they blend nice and smooth. I'm basing these rations on my super basic run of the mill blender. Place about 4-5 chiles, the onion, garlic, cumin, and salt and pepper to taste with 1 cup of water to your blender. Blend until completely pured then add the chile sauce to the pan with your ribs. Repeat until you have gone through all of your chiles.

7. Once you have added all of your chile sauce to the ribs, bring to a boil and taste it, this is so important! If your sauce needs more salt, this is the perfect time to add it. 

8. Once you are happy with your seasoning, you can let it sit on low heat with no lid for about half an hour. This should thicken up your sauce and really bring all of the flavors together.