Chile Verde

I guess this green chile was good, because after I ate a bowl of it last night I fell asleep on the floor next to the dog.

None of the recipes I looked at were quite the classic New Mexican green chile I was looking for, even from the usually reliable James Peyton. So here's what I did.

1 pound tomatillos
1 pound lean boneless pork, cut into 2" chunks
2 small or 1 big onion
2-5 cloves garlic
1 carrot
half a bell pepper...red here
roasted green chiles - about 8, or half a Food City bag
vermouth (or beer or white wine or something for deglazing)
water (or chicken or pork stock)
1 sprig fresh oregano
cilantro
salt

I simmered the tomatillos for about 10 minutes in a few inches of water, turning them over so they got soft all over. I whirred them in the food processor for a few seconds.

I browned the pork in a little olive oil and then removed it. Then I sauteed the onions, carrot, bell pepper and garlic, in that order. Deglazed the pan. Tossed everything but the cilantro together and let it simmer for about 3 hours until the fat had cooked out of the pork chunks. I put the cilantro in during the last 30 minutes.

The carrot and bell pepper were minimal, really just to round out the flavor a little -- it's mostly about the pork and the chile. And I expected it would need thyme or cumin or something, but it really didn't. Even with just water, not stock, it was super flavorful.

I just served this with tortillas, and it was plenty of food.

Diagnosis: Purple Soup

The strange cooking slump continues. This has never happened to me before for more than a few days: it's like I've lost both confidence and sense. I've made some good food and some crummy food, but I haven't felt right about any of it. It's like being a pitcher or shooting free throws -- something is off, and I don't know what, but the fact that I know it's off reinforces the offness of it.

Too abstract? Here's an exhibit.

I made chicken tortilla soup a few nights ago. Homemade stock, nice roasted chicken, green chiles, tortillas fried in a mixture of peanut oil and schmaltz [I have a newfound academic interest in schmaltz thanks to Melanie] -- good stuff. I had some red cabbage in the fridge that I wanted to use up. "Cabbage would be good in tortilla soup," I thought to myself. But my cooking sense should have followed that up with "Green cabbage, maybe. Red cabbage would turn the soup purple."

But that second voice never spoke, and indeed, the soup was purple.

Tasty, but purple.

Now that I've identified the problem, I think the only way to solve it will be to ignore cooking for a short time -- to keep doing it, but to just stop thinking about it. Again, exactly like shooting free throws.

So last night we had grilled cheese sandwiches with pickles on the side. They were excellent. For lunch today I'm having black beans from a can mixed with cheddar and hot sauce and heated up in the microwave. It hardly counts as cooking. That's the idea.

Meanwhile, in the absence of cooking mojo, there has been more knitting. I made Lawson a kickass scarf. And here is part of a hat.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I don't think I've ever made tortilla soup. I looked at some recipes but didn't end up using any except to learn how to handle the tortillas.

The biggest surprise for me was that the tortillas end up being an integral part of the flavor and consistency of the soup. After they've sat in there for a few minutes, they thicken the soup slightly and pull all the flavors together.

Next time I roast a chicken again I will make this with the leftovers again.

Here's how I made it.

• 6 corn tortillas
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into 3/4" cubes
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup sherry
• green chiles. I used one can whole, diced up, but fresh would be better
• chicken broth -- I used half homemade and half high-quality carton stock
• hot sauce or other heat adjuster -- I happened to use homemade Tabasco sauce
• fresh lime juice
• salt
• pepper
• a few cups cooked chicken, shredded

Cut corn tortillas into strips and pan-fry them until golden/brown in a little peanut oil. Drain on paper towels. Set aside.

Saute onion lightly in olive oil. Add carrots, then garlic, and saute just until you can smell the garlic. Add sherry and cook it off, then broth and green chiles.

Simmer 15 minutes or so, until flavors blend.

Add salt, pepper, lime juice, and hot sauce to taste.

Add chicken and bring back to a simmer.

Put a handful of fried tortilla strips in each bowl and ladle the soup on top. Let sit for a few minutes. Serve with avocado slices and lime wedges.

Spinach Quesadillas

There is no easier, more comforting meal for me than a quesadilla.

Ever since I learned to make microwaved tortilla-and-cheeses as a kid (open-faced -- just grated cheddar on a white flour tortilla: I would nuke it until the oil separated from the cheese and I could pour and blot it off, then microwave it some more until the degreased cheese became hard and crunchy) this has been a standard meal.

Anyway, this dinner took 5 minutes to make.

The night before, I started a batch of beans in the crockpot, adding the seasonings the next morning before work. They were steamy and soft and delicious by dinnertime.

The quesadillas consisted of:

• whole wheat tortillas
• chopped fresh garden tomatoes, drained in colander
• fresh spinach, lots of it, since it cooks down so much
• slices of queso fresco. I don't grate the cheese, because I hate washing the cheese grater, so I just cut slices and they melt just fine.
• a sprinkling of grated Parmesan. I love cotija, too, but when I don't have it, feta or Parmesan works well.

I usually just heat up a pan on medium, put the tiniest bit of olive oil or butter in the pan, and toast the quesadilla on both sides. I'll put a lid on during the early part to help the cheese melt, but too much of that will make the tortillas too soft.

We ate the quesadillas and the beans with some fresh chiltepin and ordono chiles from the garden. Salsas are nice, but they take time, and this was supposed to be a fast dinner.

Other things I have put in quesadillas:

• scrambled eggs
• leftover pork, chicken, or beef
• chorizo
  
• leftover grilled fish
  
• sauteed shrimp
• black or pinto beans from a can or homemade
  
• any kine cheese
• leftover cooked collard greens
• arugula
• mixed lettuces
  
• avocado
  
• roasted green chiles or red bell peppers
• fresh chopped bell peppers
• a chopped chipotle, preferably mixed with beans or something to distribute the heat
  
• caramelized onions
  
• chives
• cilantro
• watercress
• lime zest
  
• Herdez salsa verde

What have I missed? Anything else I should try?

Spicy Pork Tacos!

Spicy pork tacos! I don't know why that requires an exclamation point, but it does.

Lawson smoked a pork butt last week. We ate the meat with his homemade barbecue sauce for the first few days, but then I decided to try something else. I added chopped roasted green chiles, a fresh green chile, some diced tomato, lime juice, and salt to the leftover smoked pork, and I served it with corn tortillas. On the side we had roasted cauliflower. It was pretty delicious -- the smoked pork stood up really well to the roasted green chile flavor. I will try it again next time we have smoked pork around.

Note to readers: Kris/Mom is going to be on the road for the next 40 or so days, so it'll just be me posting...and she'll have a lot to catch up on when she returns.

Green Chile with Pork

I'd never made green chile in the crockpot before, but it worked really well. I bought assorted pork cuts: some lean boneless loin, which I cut into cubes, and the leanest, meatiest country ribs I could find. Piggly Wiggly always has different cuts of pork on sale, so I might buy something different on another day -- I just made sure I got some bones and some lean stew meat, about three pounds in all.

I browned the meat in olive oil, then removed it to the crockpot, then sauteed two onions in the same fat and spread those on top of the pork. I added:

- one bag roasted green chiles from Food City in Tucson, Arizona, peels and seeds removed. (Mom, how big are those bags? Two pounds?)
- two diced carrots
- two cloves garlic
- two bay leaves
- fresh oregano
- salt
- water not quite to cover

I cooked it in the crockpot for about 15 hours, but less would have been fine -- just long enough so the pork fat renders out and the broth gets good and brown. I removed the rib bones and served it with homemade tortillas.

Salsa and Quesadillas

The other night we made two salsas and ate them with quesadillas and salad.

On days I have a big, meat-containing lunch, I often want a very minimal dinner like this. The quesadillas were simple -- cheddar, jack, and a tiny bit of queso anejo inside, sauteed in a pan with a touch of olive oil. Queso anejo is wonderful -- have you tried it? It's the feta of Mexico, all salty and chewy and weird.

Lawson makes a carrot-habanero salsa from Belize that blows my mind and lasts all year in the fridge. The carrots keep it from being unbearably hot, but it's still quite tasty. It is neon orange. He made the first batch of the year the other night.

I made a classic tomatillo salsa: boiled tomatillos, chopped fresh green chiles, lime, salt, garlic, onion, and cilantro. It tasted fresh and well balanced but ultimately not enough better than a can of Herdez salsa verde for me to make it again.

Kris is out of town, by the way, for those of you who are wondering. She and my Dad are visiting family in Massachusetts and will no doubt return with tales of scrod and kelp.

Breakfast Burrito

Last night we had Zucchini with Bacon (and onions and tomatoes) from Rustic Italian Cooking, roasted potato wedges, and salmon patties. The squash was okay, but not as wonderful as the title sounds. But both the squash and potatoes had new life this morning in this sensational Breakfast Burrito.

Saute together leftover squash, leftover cooked potatoes, and green chiles if you have them.

Add 2 eggs and cook until scrambled. Toss in whatever cheese is in the house; in my case this was feta and white cheddar. Roll in a big flour tortilla and top with salsa.

Be satisfied.

Coq Au Crappy Vin(o)

It wasn't a resolution, exactly, but several months ago I decided I would a) drink more wine and less beer (beer makes me stay up too late), and b) pay no more than $7 a bottle for wine, and preferably much less. It's been entertaining -- I am not too picky and have found some decent $5 wines. Anyway, last weekend I bought two $4 wines that were on sale at the liquor store. One was fine; it was a California Merlot. The other, a Sangiovese, was extremely unpleasant. It put to rest any worries I had about having no wine standards. It was foul.

I decided to use the foul wine for cooking. This violates Julia Child's fundamental rule that one should never cook with wine one wouldn't drink, but I'm too cheap to pour wine down the drain unless it actually makes me gag. This was merely Really Bad.

I thought I'd make Coq au Vin, but I wasn't in the mood for subtle French flavors, so I decided to invent a version with red chiles. This is the second time I've made chicken stewed in red chile sauce, but the wine changes everything. It was really good.

I floured chicken breasts and thighs and browned them in olive oil in a dutch oven, then took them out again and sauteed some onions. I pureed 4 soaked red chiles with some roasted red peppers -- I don't think the peppers would always be necessary, but my latest ristra is HOT, so I have to use the chiles sparingly. With less picante chiles I'd use maybe 7-10. Then I put the puree and the chicken in the dutch oven along with the whole bottle of crappy wine, and I let it all simmer for an hour or so. I think I added a little oregano and cumin, but maybe not -- it was many days ago.

The crappy wine magically turned tasty, and the whole dish came out purple and spicy and wonderful. I served it with beets (roasted, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and the juice of one tangerine -- so good), homemade whole wheat tortillas, and papaya.

Southwestern food

I wish I could eat some Patagonia tamales! Last Christmas I made green chile and pork tamales and froze a bunch; if I have time at New Year's, I may do the same thing.

It's been a Southwestern cooking frenzy here for the past 24 hours. We had huevos rancheros for Christmas brunch. I made a surprisingly good recipeless salsa using broiled tomatillos, a few soaked New Mexican red chiles, a can of diced tomatoes, half an onion, cilantro, garlic, and lemon juice from Lawson's very bitter Meyer lemon tree. My egg-frying skills mysteriously abandoned me, but salsa is good for covering up messes like that. We had some excellent pineapple on the side.

Then, because the border foods cookbook you gave me is so inspiring and because Lawson gave me a tortilla press for Christmas, I made red chile sauce and homemade corn tortillas and assembled some stacked New Mexican sour cream enchiladas for dinner. We ate them with Anasazi beans (my last bag). The tortillas were not quite thin enough, but that was fine for stacked enchiladas. They had wonderful corn flavor.

For lunch today I made some flour tortillas, and we ate them with melted cheese and the rest of the salsa.

I love a lot of things about that Peyton cookbook, but I especially like that he confirms many of my own cooking methods. I never presoak beans, and he says most cooks he interviewed don't either. I always use the blender to puree soaked red chiles for enchilada sauce, so there are tiny flecks of chile skin in my sauces; I tried a food mill once, and it was messy and inconvenient. The book says my way is standard home technique. I use olive oil to make the roux for red chile sauce, something you taught me, and that's what he recommends as a substitute for lard in that particular instance (not all -- he says tamales require lard, and I agree). I never realized how New Mexican my cooking is -- I always figured I'd just adapted and bastardized things, but actually my red chile sauce recipe is completely identical to his.

I also like how well he describes the profound craving for Mexican food that he experienced when he moved overseas -- some need for the combination of chiles, corn, and cheese that no other cuisine can match. I felt much the same thing when I moved out to South Carolina, and it's only in my own kitchen that I can satisfy it. In no restaurant outside of New Mexico can you get proper New Mexican enchiladas.

Tonight I'm going to use my beautiful new Le Creuset casserole. The Peyton book has a recipe for rabbit stewed in red chile sauce; I think I'll use chicken parts.