re: SUBMISSION Thread for F&DB Pepper Challenge - July 27, 2021

quote:

---

Bro how are you gonna have a $2,000 steam oven and not have a $100 dehydrator?

---

Priorities.. but seriously, your fruit leather game is strong.

Great looking dish as always & great creativity.

We've been taking a break from the competition but it just so happened we were making this anyway.

Doing keto right now so presentation is lacking for sure but it's what we were doing.

Chuck roast birria with cheese shell tacos.



Ingredients


Heat the broth and combine with pasilla and guajillo peppers. Blend to make the sauce. Add chili in adobo and blend further.


Sear and deglaze with onions.



Add sauce and bake for 2 hours


After 2 hours, shred


Cheese shells, needed to cook these more.


Serve in leftover Chinese containers. Served each day with cilantro and fresh jalapenos, shishito, or coolapeno from the garden.

How did they handle it?

Mole Negro with Shrimp

I have been wanting to make some authentic Mexican (mole in particular) for a while now, this seemed like the right time. It was a lot of steps and ingredients but fun to do. The mole recipe advised it be made in advance to let the flavors come together, and this was great advice. At first taste last night, it was heavy on the chocolate and cumin, actually had me worried. But I tasted it a few times over the last 24 hrs and it changed every time. The end result was great. Rich, decadent, spicy, and sweet. Here it goes...

First the chiles, ancho, chipotle, guadjillo, and some of my fresh tabasco harvest (I only put 4 in the dish). Toast for a minute or two on each side and place in blender with chicken stock.




Next, toast two corn tortillas and some bread



Next, sauté the tomatillos and tomatoes. Recipe said to use lard, but I used smoked beef tallow I saved from a brisket cook.




Then, more tallow, onion, almond, peanuts, dried cherries (recipe said raisins), garlic, cinnamon sticks, thyme, allspice, cumin, and clove



I blended the peppers, bread, and tortillas first. Then added tomatoes and tomatillos. Then the onion and spices (cinnamon sticks removed).

Heat more chicken stock and melt in dark chocolate. I used this kind (probably just Ghirardelli in a different package, but I felt fancy). I figured I didn't get much cinnamon so I put the sticks in the mix to try and get a little more out.




Pour blender contents back into pan, add chocolate and simmer for 10 mins.




It made about 1.5 qts. I used .5 for this dish and froze a quart to use later.


For the day of cooking, I made some rice and added lime zest, lime juice, and cilantro once it was finished.



No pics, but I heated up refried black beans with some olive oil, cumin, salt, pepper, lime juice.

Reaheated the mole with a little bit of water on the stove.

I felt like cooking over fire, so I did. Poblano, plantain, and shrimp seasoned with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, chili powder, and lime juice.





Now for the assembly... We all know how important perfect circles are, and I really wanted to emphasize that. Rice: large circle. Poblano: cut to a medium circle. Plantain: already a circle. Shrimp: not a circle. But might be the golden spiral so I think it still works mathematically.






I honestly didn't know what to expect when I dreamed up this dish. I was concerned the mole might overpower the shrimp, but it worked perfectly. I am really proud of this one.

I only had 1 Serrano pepper and some red pepper flakes (and Tony’s) in my stuffed poblano, and found it plenty hot enough. I’m wondering just how hot some of these other dishes were?

You have a link for the mole recipe? There's a place we love in Salt Lake that serves 12 or more different moles. Red Iguana if you're ever out there.