Today, the name of my blog should be sólo una mujer en la cocina!
I have long held that at some point in my weekend, I would cook from scratch a delicious meal but the requirement is, it is going to take me all day...I love to get out recipes and books, look and research different variations on what I want to make. I generally peruse those resources for ideas on herbs, spices or other secret tips that someone might offer. Might be a traditional recipe and a lighter version comparatively just to see how to cut out on some of the calories, carbs and fat but still retain the flavor profile of the traditional recipe. I like to take the time to prepare all the components from scratch to keep my culinary skills sharp!
The meal today is Pork with Hatch Green Chile Stew. I compared a traditional recipe with a lighter version and came up with my own variation of which I was very happy.
Living in the Southwest, we were spoiled with fresh produce coming from local as well as regional farmers and markets. One of our favorite grocers was Food City and a couple carnicerias in town. The main stream markets were always more expensive in the produce department than the two I mentioned. Generally FC and the carnicerias had fresher produce that was less expensive. It was a no brainer to shop at those places for our produce since we used so much in our cooking. Fortunately, we have found one here in Fort Collins that gives us that same beautiful produce and variety we know and love.
One of the landmarks of Hatch is Sparky's, little hamburger joint in the heart of town. Lip smacking green chile cheeseburgers await your taste buds. They even gave us child size ice cream cones for the dogs when passing through. A great respite when traveling that area.
Here are the steps I used to achieve an excellent batch today and served with jalapeno bread, tortilla, queso fresca and limon.
First, assemble all your ingredients and equipment. I find it very helpful to have everything at the ready to make it easy on myself!
With this Green Chile Stew, I used a mixture of chiles and peppers that were starting to turn for the worst and needed to be used. Thank you to my co-worker Todd for his contribution of red beauties! I had the combination below, it really is whatever your taste is for heat. You could just as well use poblano, Anaheim or Big Jims. What a better way to enhance the flavor of the stew than to grill them all over a nice wood fire? Michael does the grilling for me. He loves grilling over wood, it is a bit tedious and time consuming, but the results cannot be beat compared to charcoal or gas. We prefer mesquite wood, but the supply we brought back from our trees in Tucson is depleted, so we purchase mesquite chunks at the store. The perfect char that blisters the skin of the veggies awakens the senses and my mouth waters just a little bit in anticipation.
Once those are done, the chiles need to be drained and de-seeded. I like to keep some of the seeds, but remove the majority. I put them on a cutting board to dry out while I prepare the meat.
At this point, you could omit the meat if you were looking for a vegetarian option. I don't know that any protein substitutes like tofu or tempeh would work in place of the pork, but it could be an experiment if you wanted to try. I don't have enough experience with either to give an intelligent opinion.
But, since this is a pork green chile stew, I used a cast iron skillet and heated it to medium high with a couple tablespoons of quality extra virgin olive oil. I used four pounds of cubed pork, browning in batches so that the meat is spread out and doesn't steam instead of brown. After each batch, adding a bit more oil and by the end you have beautiful brown bits at the bottom. I omitted using flour in the browning stage for a thickener. I didn't find it necessary, which was one way to keep it lighter.
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| start with skillet on medium high heat |
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| All the beautiful brown bits |
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| brown in batches so the meat doesn't steam |
Once the browning is done, I put the meat in a pan into the oven on warm. I then take the grilled onion, shallot and garlic that I diced and put it into the pan, using a whisk to loosen some of the brown bits. The kitchen is smelling so good at this point, I open the windows in the house so the neighbors can be comforted by the aroma.
After a minute of sauteing, I take the reserved veggie liquid and use it to deglaze the pan, using the whisk to really get the brown bits up and incorporated with the onions and garlic. Letting it simmer after each 1/2 cup or so to reduce the liquid. I continue until all two cups are used.
Now, I transfer the base to my stockpot and really build on the ingredients.
Using fresh tomatoes from our memorial garden at work as well as romas from Sprouts, I seed and dice these luscious beauties and add to the stockpot.
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| work garden tomato, we have some beauties! |
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| larger dice on these as they will break down in cooking |
I add the tomatoes to the pot and mix well with onion garlic mixture
The diced chiles and peppers are added to the pot. Such beautiful vibrant colors, just love using the rainbow!!!
Once that is all mixed well and simmered for a few minutes, I add the meat along with any juices to the stockpot. Giving a nice stir, I check to see the consistency. If it is too thick, which it almost always is, I add additional water, in one cup increments just until all the veggies and meat are covered. Then I bring to a boil, turn down the heat to medium low and let simmer on the stove for two hours. This tenders the meat and makes a luscious stew. If preparing as a vegetarian stew, you would cut the cooking time to about an hour to give the veggies time to meld and develop their bright flavors.
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| browned meat to add to the pot |
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| all ingredients are in the pot - coming along swimmingly! |
La comida está hecho!
You could serve this with diced avocado, tortilla, crumbled queso fresca, lime and maybe crema if desired. The wine I chose is Oak Creek, a Chardonnay that paired perfectly with the dish in my humble opinion.
So there you have it.
A wonderful comfort food as we are headed into the colder days of fall and winter.
Always a good time to make a soup or stew.
Disfrute de la comida!
