HECHO A MANO CHILE POWDER

I grew so many chiles and knew eventually I would make a chile powder and so I have. I started by checking Paupered Chef's blog. He is a cook from Chicago who really delves into each recipe explored. I looked at his recipe for chile powder and then I looked at Alton Brown's recipe and sure enough they are almost identical. As is my nature, I too followed along. I started with three kinds of chiles, roasted some cumin seed, added garlic powder and followed that with oregano. I usually like to add ginger or cloves to my chile sauces but thought I would play with that later. By the way... i've planted cumin and Mexican oregano for next years chile powders.
The kitchen was full the day I made my powder, we had Justin, Katy, Erica and Megumi. We all discussed a possible name around our big wooden work table. I thought of calling the chile "handmade" but then Justin came up with the perfect name "hecho a mano" ... not only did we grow the chiles at Mano Farm but we roasted, ground and blended all of the spices by hand. The Spanish translation is perfecto.

I made a chili last night and it almost knocked Steve over, here's the recipe:

HECHO A MANO CHILI RECIPE

1 lb bison or beef steak cut into thin slices
1/2 cup beans, dry ( pintos or white)
2 Tbls olive oil
1 cup onion, finely diced
4 cloves of garlic, diced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tbls chile powder
2 cups tomato sauce
1 cup red wine
1 1/2 cups water

1. Cook the beans in 4 cups of water for about 1 hour or until soft.
2. Brown the sliced bison or beef in a deep skillet. Remove from the skillet onto a plate (to be added back later)
3. Heat the oil in the same skillet (don’t wash it out), saute the onion, garlic and bell pepper until the onions are lightly browned. Add the salt and chile powder.
4. Add the tomato sauce, red wine and water. Gently simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Add the bison or beef slices and beans back to the pot and simmer it all together for about 5 minutes…just enough to cook the meat.

OPTIONAL ..serve with chopped cilantro, chopped white onion, lime wedges and grated cheddar cheese...leave out the meat if you are vegetarian.