Chili Verde II

Found a damn good recipe for Chili Verde and one that is pretty easy!  What I really love is how easy it is, especially compared to the other recipes I've tried.  Seriously easy!  I was roasting tomatillos, jalapenos, and other peppers for the base of the green sauce.  Between the prep work and the cooking time, it was pretty much an entire afternoon.  While I liked the result, I tried a number of different things and was kinda iffy on the whole thing.

In my search I serendipitously came across a jarred Salsa Verde (yes, a jarred salsa) that I really liked. Frontera Tomatillo Salsa, it was developed by Rick Bayless -- and anyone who watches way to much food TV knows he's one of the best chefs cooking Mexican-style food and star of the long running TV series 'Mexico:  One Plate at a Time'.  While the salsa isn't as chunky as I like, its got a great taste.  I was wondering about using this in my Chili Verde when I ran across the recipe from the Dad Cooks Dinner blog.

I am a subscriber of Dad's blog and have gotten lots of useful tips, tricks, and recipes.  This one struck me for two reasons.  The first is it uses a pressure cooker, which cuts down on the cook time dramatically.  The second is that while he includes a great homemade Salsa Verde recipe, he also includes a cheater version using the same Frontera Salsa Verde that I recently discovered, along with some canned diced green chiles.  So both prep time and cook time cut down from an entire afternoon to about about an hour.  The longest item is cutting, trimming, and browning the pork.  I also added some fresh diced peppers and cilantro to up the flavor a bit more.  Once I discovered that my regular grocery store had canned Hatch Green Chilis, I was done!  So here is the recipe, hope you like it:

Ingredients

Salsa:

• Canned Diced Green Chilis, about 24 oz.  I like Hatch Green Chili's.  They come in 4 oz cans here.  I also like Ortega Fire-Roasted Diced Green Chilis, but prefer the Hatch even though they are not roasted
• 4 Jalapeno chilis, medium dice (if you go much smaller they pretty well melt away, and I am after the bit of texture you get as well as the flavor
• 4 Anaheim chilis, medium dice as well
• 1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro (leaves and stem), separated into two piles, half of it chopped (for cooking) and the other half simply roughly chopped for garnishing
• 16 ounce jar tomatillo salsa or salsa verde, like stated earlier, I like Frontera.  I they also won the taste test on America's Test Kitchen.  If you are going to use jarred salsa, make sure it's one you like to eat, there are a few really awful ones out there.  If you want to go the whole, fresh salsa route, click on the link from Dad's above and check it out.

Chili

• 4 pounds pork shoulder, cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch cubes trim off most of the visible fat and hold onto the bone.  I like adding the bone during cooking,  I have tried cooking the shoulder whole and then shredding it, but not in a pressure cooker. 
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (for the meat)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, medium dice
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (for the onion)
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon roasted ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon roasted ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 cup chicken stock or water

Now the fun part.

• Mix the salsa ingredients and let sit, remember only use half the cilantro, the chopped cilantro
• If the pork isn't already cut, it's time.  I usually cut and season the meat with salt as I go.  Once I have enough cut to start browning, I get that going as well.  Dad Cook's recipe called for 1 1/2 inch cubes.  I usually go a little smaller, but no larger than 1 1/2 inches.  If you go too small, or a mix of larger and smaller, they might cook uneven.  Remember the meat will shrink during cooking, but if you go much larger than 1 1/2 inch cubes, you may have to cut the meat as you eat.
• Brown one side of the meat in batches small enough to avoid crowding the pan.  This is one of the tricks I saw on Dad Cooks Dinner.  Browning one side give you the brown-bits on the pan you want for flavor, without having to spend tons of time browning all sides.  It takes about 4 minutes a batch and you have less chance overcooking the pork.  Browning all sides takes forever, and while you do get lots of fond (french for 'brown bits'), you also run the chance of over cooking.  Think about it, a 1 inch cube has 6 sides, that's 24 minutes of cooking!  If you only do two sides, you get fond, but you really don't add enough to change the flavor profile you get from one side. The other consideration is trim off the visible fat!  Since we are only browning the meat on one side, that means there is a lot of fat that might not get rendered, so if you don't trim it carefully.
• Remove the meat to a bowl.
• Empty all the fat and return 1 Tbs back to the pot.  If you leave all the rendered pork fat in there, your chili will look and taste greasy!
• Put the diced onion and peppers in the pot and season with 1/2 tsp kosher salt.  Cook until softened.  Using a large wooden spoon or spatula to move them around and also scrape up - deglaze for those who like fancy  terms - those delicious brown bits left over from the meat.  This should take about 5 minutes.
• Clear the center of the pot and put in the spices (garlic, cumin, coriander, and oregano).  Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Do not burn your spices, you will regret it!
• Add a little stock or water and scrape the bottom of the pot one more time, make sure the pot is deglazed, then add the rest of the stock/water and the salsa.
• Return the meat, along with any juices, to the pot and close the pressure cooker and cook for 25 minutes for a stove top cooker or 30 for an electric.  Which sure beats the 2 1/2 to 3 hours in a dutch oven or the 10 hours in a slow-cooker!
• Let the pressure release naturally, and check the seasonings.  You might need a little pepper, but the canned salsa verde is usually salty enough.  Bottom line, if it tastes flat, it needs salt.

Serve with the lime juice, fresh chopped cilantro, and maybe some sour cream.  I have also served this over rice, which worked out perfectly.

Does the version using all fresh ingredients taste better?  You know, for me it's a toss up.  The two taste different, but I can't place one over the other.  So since the two are about at the same level for me, I'll stick with the quicker version for now.

I plan on playing a little with some of the ingredients.  For example I wonder how beer will work instead of the stock, or upping the liquid content and cooking the rice in the chili.  On second thought, 25 minutes in a pressure cooker might be too much for the rice.  Anyone ever try rice in a  pressure cooker?  Well in any event, be sure and have some fun with it.  Thanks again to Mike Vrobel and his Dad Cooks Dinner Blog.

Santa must like to eat! (Chili Verde)

Let's see, Santa brings my wife, among other things, a new computer and a Blue-Ray DVD player. I get a new 9.5 quart enameled cast iron dutch oven and the full 10 years of America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. Around here, that's pretty normal. One year I got a wok and she got a CD player. So in my opinion, Santa must like to eat because I have new toys to play with in the kitchen! Chili Verde, here I come! Anyone have a great recipe?

Now before you start digging, I prefer the spicy New Mexico style of chili verde, at least I think I was in Albuquerque. We were traveling so much it might have been Tucson. No, I think it was Albuquerque. I am pretty sure that in New Mexico when asked if you want green or red, green is spicier than the red. in Arizona it was the opposite. Luckily I like spicy so when I got them confused I wasn't disappointed because while the red wasn't as spicy -- it was delicious. Now the poor Major I was traveling with . . . well let's just say he will never forget which is which!

So seriously, anyone have a really good recipe for spicy New Mexico-style Chili Verde? Here is a recipe I am thinking of scaling up, in volume and maybe in heat. I got it from the Food Channel, courtesy of Mary Sue Milliken & Susan Feniger! Yea, the 'Too Hot Tamales' themselves!

Ingredients

• 4 pounds pork butt or shoulder, trimmed of fat and cut into 2-inch cubes
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Flour for dredging
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 yellow onions
  
• 2 green bell peppers, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 Anaheim or Poblano chiles, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2-3 jalapenos, seeds removed, and finely chopped
  
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds tomatillos, roasted, peeled and chopped
  
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons coriander seeds, crushed and soaked in a scant amount of water
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 bunch cilantro leaves, cleaned and chopped
• 4 cups chicken stock

Directions

• Season the pork meat generously with salt and pepper, lightly flour.
  
• Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium high heat and brown pork chunks well in small batches, on all sides.
  
• Lift pork out of pan and place in a wide soup pot.
  
• Discard fat and place the onions and peppers in the same skillet and sweat over moderate heat, stirring occasionally until limp, about 5 minutes.
  
• Add all of the chiles and cook an additional 3-4 minutes, then add the garlic and cook 1-2 minutes more.
• Add the Sauteed vegetables, chopped tomatillos, dried herbs and cilantro to the meat, cover with the chicken stock and bring up to a boil and reduce to a slight simmer.
  
• Cook for 2-3 hours uncovered or until the pork is fork tender.

Chili and more Chili

One of my favorite dishes is Chili. Now I make two versions, depending on my audience. I have a mild -- well mild for me -- that most folks seems to like. The other has been nicknames 'Uranus Buster' and 'Chili from Hell'. Here is the recipe I got off of America's Test Kitchen and made a few tweaks. It's my mild recipe and I am planning to make it next weekend to take into the office for no special reason.

Ingredients

• 4 strips of bacon
• 2-3 lb chuck roast -- I like chuck because of the flavor and marbling. It's perfect for low and slow.
• One 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes.
• 1 can Chipotles in Adobo Sauce
• 1 medium Onion
• 4 Jalapenos
• 3 tsp Chili Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp of Cumin
• 1/2 tsp of Dried Oregano
• 4 gloves of garlic
• 4 cups of water
• 1 tbs of dark brown sugar
• Masa flour or corn starch for thickening
  

Prep work

• Cut Chuck Roast into 1 inch pieces. Make sure you remove any hard pieces of fat or very large fat deposits.
• Small dice the onion
• Core and seed the jalapenos, then finely dice.
• Seed the chipotles
• Run the tomatoes and chipotles with the adobo sauce together through the food processor until smooth.
  

OK, time to build your chili

• Cut the bacon into 1 inch pieces
• Crisp the bacon in a dutch oven, rendering all the fat.
• Remove the bacon to a paper-towel lined plate and the fat to a bowl.
• Add back a tablespoon of the fat
• Brown the meat in 2 or three batches, adding more bacon fat as necessary. It's critical for taste to brown. If you overcrowd the pan, the meat will just steam.
• Once the meat is done, set it aside
• Add another tablespoon of bacon fat and then the onion. Cook until softened.
• Add the jalapenos, cook until you can smell them
• Add chili powder, cumin, oregano, and garlic. By doing this in a relatively dry pan, you can bloom the spices and release the oils.
• When that is fragrant, add about a cup of water and de-glaze the pan (scrape up any bit from the bottom of the pan, those equal flavor!
• Add the rest of the water and the tomato/chipotle mixture
• Return the crisp bacon, beef and any drippings back to the pan.
• Also add the brown sugar
• Bring to a simmer and simmer covered for an hour.
• Then uncover and simmer for another 30 minutes. (Whether or not you need more depends on the meat. At this point it should be ready to fall apart. If it's still tough, give it another 15-30 minutes as an uncovered simmer.
• Toward the end of cooking (about 5 minutes before you are done), add 2 tablespoons of Masa Harina Flour, or 2 teaspoons of corn starch to a small bowl. I prefer Masa because of the corn taste.
• Mix in a small amount of cooking liquid and whisk together. This lets you add a thickener without getting any lumps.
• Mix into the simmering chili and cook for 5 more minutes. You should notice a thickening of the sauce.

That's it, a hearty, meaty chili prepped and cooked in about two hours. I have also done this in a crock pot and cooked on low for about 8 hours. The only thing to be careful of is getting all the goodness from the pan you brown the meat in! Next time I plan my hotter chili, I'll post the recipe. For a teaser it used Spicy Italian Sausage and habanero peppers!

One alternative to Masa or corn starch is crumbled up tortilla chips (corn variety) or corn muffin mix. I haven't tried the crushed tortilla chips, but it was in an episode of Good Eats and might be a fun change. I would watch the salt level on that one. With the corn muffin mix, mix 2 tablespoons in a bowl with a couple of ladle fulls of the cooking liquid to remove the lumps. Whisk until well blended, the microwave for 1 minute. Then stir this into your pot and simmer for another 5 or so minutes. You should see it thickening. I have tried the corn muffin mix and it worked well. Whatever you do, avoid corn meal. It's like sand and not in a good way.

One other note. I have found it's nearly impossible to know just how hot your jalapenos will be. I have had some as spicy as okra and others that I swear rivaled habaneros. So if you are worried about something being too spicy. Add two and see how the liquid tastes after about 30 minutes. You can add more then. If you wait too long, the jalapenos won't break down and add their goodness to the whole pot. That's not a bad thing, because the little bit of raw jalapeno can come across like a garnish.

As for additions. I usually don't add any. But I have used some chopped fresh onion, cilantro, cheese, and even sour cream. Usually one at a time. They can add a little something, but I find it isn't really needed. Crackers are a matter of choice, and I do prefer oyster crackers over saltines. They hold their shape where the saltines dissolve like glue.