Taste of Mexico

11 years ago

There is a wonderful little Mexican store in Victoria, that sells just about every ingredient necessary to cook Mexican. They also carry a few different cheeses that are hard to find.

Dinner Thursday night started with

a pitcher of Sangria.

Main course - Filete Al Chipotle (Filet of Beef with Chipotle Chile Sauce)

served with Pinto Beans

and homemade corn tortillas.

Filet of Beef with Chipotle Chile Sauce (Filete Al Chipotle)

Adapted from The Taste of Mexico by Patricia Quintana

Will serve 2 to 4

Sauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 dried Chile ancho
1 to 2 canned chile chipotles (to taste)
1 white onion cut into 1/8ths
4 cloves of garlic whole
1 can of Tomatillos
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup Cilantro

Beef

2 to 4 Beef tenderloin filets cut 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 cup beef broth.

2 to 4 Corn Tortillas
2 to 4 slices of Queso or Manchego Cheese or Monterrey Jack
Cilantro

Heat Vegetable oil in frying pan. Add the peppers and sauted for a minute or two. Remove peppers from oil and reserve. Add onions to oil and cook over low to medium/low heat until the onions are golden brown. Stir occasionally so onions brown evenly. Add the garlic cloves and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. Add the canned tomatillos and 2 cups of chicken broth and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour the mixture into a blender, add the cilantro and the reserved peppers and blend.

Pour mixture into sauce pan and simmer over low heat until the sauce thickens and the oil rises to the top. Spoon off excess oil. Remove sauce from heat.

To cook the Steaks, heat a heavy frying pan and add the olive oil and butter. Brown steaks on both sides. Be careful not to over cook. Set steaks aside and pour 1 cup of beef broth into pan and simmer until the broth is reduced by half. .Add the sauce to the beef broth and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes on low. Heat the steaks in the sauce again being careful not to overcook. Beef should be rare to medium rare.

To serve, fry the corn tortillas in oil and place one on each plate.. Top each tortilla with a steak and cover steak with a slice of cheese. Place under the broiler to melt the cheese. Spoon some of the sauce over each steak and sprinkle with chopped cilantro and serve.

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Comments (22)

doucanoe
11 years ago
Allright, Miss Ann... It's 9 o'clock in the morning and I am craving Mexican food (and sangria)! It's all your fault!

Looks scrumptious!

Linda
annie1992
11 years ago
Oh my, how could I not love that rare beef. Yum.

Annie
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plllog, does this mean I will never like the taste cilantro? I am doomed to never taste some dishes that cilantro is an integral part? I use parsley as an alternate. Lars, have to agree, those itty bitty thyme leaves are a booger, and anyone who says to pull the leaves off the stem with your nails hasn't encountered my thyme! I grow both regular thyme and lemon thyme (lovely on fish), but I have to make time to pull/pluck the leaves. Sleevendog, you had to mentioned fried sage! Mmmm! I make chicken cutlets to which I add the sage in the saucepan, flavoring the cutlets gently, and serve the delicate crisp sage on top with white wine brown butter sauce. Also a roasted butternut squash filled ravioli with a fried sage and brown butter sauce. Feathers11, I know what you mean... I used to add rosemary to steaming water and sit with my face over the steaming bowl... loved the scent and heat, but it made me think it was for cleansing only! Now I love it, especially with chicken. I'll even heat a bundle on the grill to smoking. I've heard it keeps mosquitoes away but all I know is it smells lovely : ) Love oregano... as I said, I love all herbs, really. I long for summer now!
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triciae
11 years ago
Alright, Ann. That's mean. Mexican is our favorite cuisine. We have two Mexican restaurants - one in Mystic and one in Stonington. They are both beyond horrendous. The Stonington restaurant tries so hard to be artsy that it's not even authentic Mexican cuisine. Mystic's is just horrendous - they don't even have an excuse. We're still "camping" out in our home and doing zero cooking so I can't do a darn thing about the craving you've created with this post. Drat you!

/tricia (who is rethinking whether roast chicken will be the first meal we cook)
wizardnm
11 years ago
Oh my, on my way to the grocery store this afternoon...

Sounds delicious.

Nancy
Lars
11 years ago
I love chipotle sauce but never buy canned chipotle chilies. It's very easy to smoke/grill your own chilies, and I use mesquite charcoal for this. I have a special grill cage/basket that I put the chilies in before grilling them so that they will be easy to turn. I have found that trying to smoke chilies in the smoker does not work - they require high heat over charcoal. I make a fairly large amount of chipotle sauce at a time and then vacuum seal it in small jars. It is definitely worth the effort, and if you cannot find the chilies, they are extremely easy to grow.

I have that same book by Patricia Quintana. I like her recipes because they are simple and easy to make and remind me of what I've had in Mexico.

Does the store in Victoria sell fresh corn tortillas?

Lars
whgille
11 years ago
Double wow! Ann, that meal looks so delicious! And I just came from a restaurant near my house called Jalisco and had for lunch margaritas, camarones a la plancha (BBQ shrimp with veggies) fresh corn tortillas, refried beans.

Silvia
User
Original Author
11 years ago
Lars, I haven't seen fresh Chipotle peppers here. I use both dried and canned chipotle peppers. I did buy some fresh poblano peppers. I roasted them and made chile rellenos last Tuesday for dinner. No, they don't have fresh corn tortillas. But that is okay, because I like making them. They do sell fresh tamales though.

~Ann
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
11 years ago
What a memorable meal!

The beef looks perfectly cooked.

dcarch
foodonastump
11 years ago
Ann, as always you're an inspiration. Unfortunately your recipe left out a critical part: Ensure that the base and blade are properly installed on your blender.

(Edited to delete gross picture that detracted from this great food!)

Fortunately we're already half-full on corn chips and Annie's amazing salsa. Thanks Annie!!!

This post was edited by foodonastump on Tue, Jan 29, 13 at 22:35
diinohio
11 years ago
Oh no Foas!

At least you have a sense of humor about it, hope you had some sangria to ease the pain.

Di
annie1992
11 years ago
Oh geez, FOAS, that looks like something I'd do!

I'm glad you like the salsa, I guess that's something...

Annie
User
Original Author
11 years ago
I'm sorry FOAS, I'll edit the recipe right away. Blame me.

~Ann
User
Original Author
11 years ago
We had Mexican again tonight.

Chicken Tacos. Dinner took less than an hour to make. Moe had the oven on when I got home from work. So I just had to season the chicken breasts (bone in) and get them into the oven. While the chicken roasted, I made the corn tortillas. I had salsa leftover from the other night so this was a very quick and simple dinner.
User
11 years ago
This thread is making me anxious for real Mexican food oh those tacos.............13 sleeps I'm thinking after looking at these pics I might just have to try the Little Mexican Cooking school while I am there.
ntt_hou
11 years ago
I really really really really need to move close to Ann_t.

I'm hungry now... I'm going to heat up some Salvadorian Tamales :)
jimster
11 years ago
Seeing those perfectly baked corn tortillas makes my mouth water. Nothing is more evocative of the taste of Mexico.

Jim
riverrat1
11 years ago
I just had dinner and I'm hungry again after looking at these photo's for the second time. We even had homemade black bean and corn salsa with a side of crispy skin salmon...didn't do it for me. I want your corn tortillas tonight, like right now.
gwlolo
11 years ago
This looks great.. Love the tacos with lime.

Ann - can you post your corn tortilla recipe. We make chapatis all the time and I think tortillas should be doable.

Were your chili rellenos baked or fried?
User
Original Author
11 years ago
GWlolo, I have a Pictorial for Corn Tortillas on the blog.

I make chapatis too, and flour tortillas are similar. But with corn tortillas you need a tortilla press. And the heavier the better. I found that the light weight aluminum presses are not nearly as good as the cast iron one that I now use.

I make Chile Rellenos using fresh roasted Poblano peppers when I can find them, or canned when I can't, and they are dipped in an egg batter and fried.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chile Rellenos
lyndaluu2
11 years ago
Ann,
Your dinner looks so yummy!! Great pics
We had chicken Fajitas for dinner last night (no pics)
Chicken, red bells and sweet onions in whole wheat torillas
Marinated the chicken in a orange, chile and lime sauce.
Linda
Lars
11 years ago
I have an iron tortilla press but have not gotten around to using it yet, and I've had it more than a year. I like the idea of making my own corn tortillas because here the packages are so large that it is difficult to use them all before they go bad. I've got leftover smoked chicken that would be good in tacos. I've had many tacos in Mexico that look like the ones you make!

Chipotle chilies are typically smoke-dried, and so you would only find dried ones in the store - or in cans. They are typically made from ripe (red) jalapenos, but I add habaneros to the grill when I make them. The last batch I made came out so hot that it is lasting me a very long time, but I still love it. I have several habanero plants in my garden with chilies on them, but the jalapenos are finished.

Lars

This post was edited by publickman on Wed, Jan 30, 13 at 12:15
gwlolo
11 years ago
Ann - thanks for linking to your photo tutorial. Looks very doable. I always avoid Mexican as the packet of tortillas always goes to waste. My family tires of it after 2 meals. But this looks totally doable. Cast iron tortilla press. I will check in my local Mexican market or amazon.

Taste of Mexico

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