Guajillo-Spiced Pork and Potatoes

The Guajillo (wha-hee-oh) chile is the most common dried chile in Mexico after the Ancho. The flavor of the Guajillo is distinct, slightly fruity with a strong piney, berry under taste. Guajillo flavors dished easily so a little goes a long way. This chile is between a 2-4 on the heat scale of 1-10. Guajillo, combined with the Passilla and Ancho, form the holy trinity of chiles used to prepare the traditional mole sauces.

Suggested Use:
A mildly hot chile. Use in sauces, salsa, soups and your favorite chile. A little goes a long way.

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Ingredients:

6 medium (1.5 lbs total) redskin boiling or yukon gold potatoes, cut into 6 wedges
1/5-2 lbs boneless pork shoulder roast, cut into 1-inch cubes
8 medium (2 oz total) dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded, and torn into flat pieces
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
2 tsp dried oregano, preferably Mexican
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt
Cilantro and chopped white onions for garnish

Instructions:

Spread the potatoes over the bottom of your slowcooker and top with the pork.

Set a small (8″) skillet over medium heat and once it’s hot, toast the chile pieces, pressing them against the pan with a spatula until they are aromatic and lightened in color underneath–about 10 seconds per side. Transfer the chiles to a blender.

Add the tomatoes, garlic, oregano, oregano, Worcestershire, a generous amount of salt (about 1.5 tsp.) and 1 – 1.5 cups of water (I would choose this based on your slowcooker’s history for drying out foods, how much liquid is already in your tomatoes, etc. I will do closer to 1 than 1.5 next time). Blend until as smooth as possible, and then strain the mixture through a mesh strainer directly into the slowcooker. Mix everything together.

Cook on high for 6 hours (I cooked on low for about 10 hours and then a little on high when I got back so I could reduce the liquid slightly).

Serves 6.

From ellysaysopa.com