A week of New Mexican Chile Verde

Well, I suppose it was four days actually. But still, that's pretty good for me. I knew it was going to be a full and busy week, without much time for cooking, so I tried to plan ahead. I don't always do well with the planning ahead, because I get taken by unexpected craving mid-week, and get bored easily, but this is a keeper I think.

You may recall I was working on a fairly major pork project last Sunday, and set off the fire alarms a couple of times. I am pleased to report that the experiment turned out very well despite my un-neighborly noise. Last week I defrosted Sean's last pound or so of New Mexican Hatch chili's, and picked up two pounds worth of pork shoulder, to turn into a vague approximation of New Mexican chili verde with pork. I had never tried it before, so I felt pretty adventurous and not at all certain of my success.

The pork shoulder was a very inexpensive cut of meat, and so good for braising and long stewing, and was ultimately very flavorful. A little went a long way, which was the guiding principle of this week's meal-planning.

So, this past week we dined on four different variations of this chili verde and braised pork stew, served on a bed of steamed rice and steam-fried greens. The main difference between each evening was the greens. I had a few bunches of thai broccoli and baby bok choy from the market, and every time I reheated the stew and the rice, I steamed one or the other of the greens in garlic, olive oil, and chicken stock, and then just served it in a layer between the rice and stew.

For the stew itself, I adapted a recipe I found online. It was surprisingly difficult to find "authentic" sources...not sure what that was about. I ended up going with an Emeril Lagasse recipe, which is not something I tend to do (his approach is way too over-the-top for my taste usually), but his version was the most promising I could find.

I adapted it using a few suggestions from the comments on the recipe's webpage. I started by browning the pork shoulder with a lot of olive oil in my Dutch Oven, and got it quite dark (hence the fire alarms). That part was a bit stressful...I haven't fully worked out my technique yet. Once well browned, I took out the pork to rest, turned off the heat, and cooled/loosened the browned bits at the bottom of the pan with some chicken stock and olive oil. I added the chopped onion, oregano, bay leaf, cayenne, and salt and pepper called for by the recipe, browned a bit in the residual heat, and then returned the pork and covered with water, to begin the long braising process, turning the heat back onto medium-low. I gave the pork about an hour and half in the water, which is quite a bit longer than the recipe.

While the pork was simmering, I chopped and semi-de-seeded the thawed green chili's, and prepped the onion and garlic and half a fresh jalapeno for the chili verde.

Once the pork was "done" (i.e. I couldn't wait any longer), I took it out and put it on the chopping board, drained the braising liquid, and threw out the remaining solids. I gave the Dutch Oven a bit of a rinse, since I was going to be starting from scratch on the chili, and put it back on medium-low heat with a glug or two of olive oil. In went the onion, garlic, and jalapeno, along with more oregano, salt, and cumin. After a few minutes of sauteing, I added a spoonful of flour and let it all meld nicely without browning the flour, and then added the chopped Hatch chili's and the chicken stock. I threw in a bunch of chopped cilantro stems too, which was my own addition. I let it all simmer while I shredded the pork (see photo), and eventually re-added the shredded pork to continue cooking in the chili verde mixture. I left it, checking and stirring occasionally, for another hour and a half (student papers needed to be graded).

I felt it was a bit meat heavy at this point, so I decided to add a can of drained kidney beans, which I think was a good decision.

After full cooking, this was an easy dish to ignore, so I just let it simmer on low for hours, and turned the heat off to let the flavors meld and deepen over night. We had it the next night, with steamed rice and greens, and it turned out pretty spectacularly, if I do say so myself. Despite my anxieties, it was nice and spicy and well-balanced, with a bright green chili pepper flavor, rounded out by the rich pork, the toothsome kidney beans, and some crumbled goat's milk Jack and chopped cilantro. The mellow steamed rice and greens gave it a solid base that kept it from being over-powering-ly meaty or hot, and we tore up pieces of corn tortillas to eat like croutons on top. We got almost a full work week's worth of dinners out of it, so I hardly had to do any more cooking that week (which is good, because it felt pretty labor intensive as it was).

I'm including the ingredient list from the original recipe, and you can find the complete original recipe by Emeril Lagasse on the Food Network website. I doubled all the quantities.

Pork Braise:
1 pound pork butt, trimmed of fat
2 yellow onions, quartered
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
Chile Verde, recipe follows
Corn Tortillas, accompaniment

Chile Verde:
1 pound fresh mild green New Mexico chiles, or Anaheims
1 pound fresh hot green New Mexico (Big Jim) chiles, or anchos or poblanos
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped white onion
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced, seeded jalapeno pepper
2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken stock, or canned low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro