Behold:

While I didn’t actually prepare the cure for either of these batches, I did take at least my share of time at the smoker to insure their juicy-salty-goodness.

You’ll need a bunch of peppers. We used dried ancho and negra chilies, fresh green chilis and poblanos, and one small, red dried chili I can’t recall the name of, though I suspect it may have been a pueblo.

To cover 5-6 lbs. of meat (I like rabbit, but chicken is cheaper and still tasty) you’ll need 8-10 pods from each of the larger chilis, and about two cups of the small dried red chilis. Roast the fresh chilis on a hot grill until the skins blister and start to blacken, and the dried pods until they started to fill back up to their original, pre-flattened shape.

(This is also a good way to meet your neighbors, since the smell of toasting chili peppers is likely to fill the whole block. Be sure to plan on making extra sauce so you can invite them over when they stop by to ask what smells so good.)

You’ll also need about 1/2 cup of toasted sesame seeds and 1 cup of lightly-toasted sliced almonds. The last ingredients are 3 oz. of Mexican chocolate, two crispy-fried corn tortillas, and 1/2 cup or so of breadcrumbs.

Put the dried chilis and nuts through a spice grinder, and then fry everything (fresh chilis first in one batch, followed by dried, then the nuts + chocolate) in a thin layer of lard in a hot skillet. (You could be a wimp, and use canola oil, but you’re probably going to end up with a lame, oily sauce at the end.)

Transfer everything to a big, flat-bottomed saucepan, add about 4 cups of stock (again, I used rabbit, but chicken stock is traditional and fine) and bring it to a simmer.

After about 20 minutes of simmering with light stirring, the stock and solids should be pretty well combined. Turn the heat off and let it cool for another 20 minutes or so. Then, use a hand-blender (or transfer to a regular blender) to puree the whole mix, and bring the heat back up for a half hour, still stirring occasionally.

After that, add the cooked meat (we used ~6 lbs. of rabbit) and let it simmer (on the grill, in our case) for another 90 minutes. You could just as easily use a 350 degree oven, if you’re good and keep it clean enough to not fill your house with choking smoke like mine does.

Top it with cilantro and cotilla cheese, and serve with warm tortillas, beans, rice, and salsa.

We smoked two small heritage birds, and roasted another free-range one with our “traditional” Guinness-and-butter basting method. (The hams in question are Isaac and myself, of course.)

the risotto is pretty bog-standard, but the ribs are actually a creation of mine. they’re pretty easy: put two racks of lamb ribs in a wide oven-safe pan, brown slightly in a bit of olive oil, then cover with a generous pile of chopped tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, and onion. add a cup of red wine, and a couple of tablespoons of balsamic or banyuls vinegar. cover and braise at 350 for 2-1/2 to 3 hours.