You're probably thinking, "Hey! that chili is red, not green."
The chiles in the chili are green. The tomatoes turn the overall color red. 42 oz tomatoes out-colors 27 oz green chiles. There is also jalapeño chiles but the tins are much smaller.
No matter what I do along these lines I am always pleased with the result. I've tried all cuts of pork, beef, lamb, and chicken and they all work very well.
As to what is not shown, it is all in tins except for an onion and the cloves of half a garlic bulb.
I thought I would go easy this time. One small pork roast, one 27 oz tin of Hatch type roasted green chiles. Three 14 oz tins of diced tomato, two medium size tins of jalapeño chile peppers in strips. That would amount to a small batch, so I thought.
Herbs, of course: coriander, cumin, cayenne chile pepper powder, sea salt, black ground pepper.
The pork was still partially frozen. When I cut the pork into cubes it became very wet there on the cutting board. I had already seasoned it and I didn't want that rubbed off. In two batches, I dusted the pork cubes with flour to absorb the wetness. This instead of a paper towel because of the herbs already on it. You can see the seared caramelized flour encrusted the pork. As the pork released moisture and steamed, it picked up the fond stuck to the pan and adhered it to the surface of the pork. So a textured surface developed. Those cubes of fond-encrusted pork were utterly delicious just as they were. I ate six of the cubes for sort of a first course.
Then the onion and garlic.
Then everything in the tins. This may sound to you like a cheapskate low down no good dirty rotten shortcut-take'n can-openin' inauthentic, gringo-choice-makin'n way of doing this, and maybe it is, but I roasted piles of chile peppers before lots of times on the grill, in the oven, broiled, stove-top, gas, electric, peeled the charred skins, I've peeled fresh tomatoes, I've peeled the sticky paper off tomatillos, found and used weird herbs like epazote, and insisted on specific cuts of pork, but honestly, when it all boils down, and it does boils down, it's not that I cannot tell the difference between fresh and tinned, it's that I don't care. It's all fantastic to me.
Flour tortillas were made the usual way.
* 2 cups a/p flour
* 3 tablespoons lard
* 2 level teaspoons baking powder
* 1 cup warm water
Water added in increments until a workable dough is attained. This dough has salt and pepper and Mexican oregano. I guess it's not usual to season tortillas, but hey, what the heck. The dough balls are rolled out and fried.
2 comments:
Do you have access to fresh-rendered pork lard, available at Mexican grocery stores here in Chicago and, I assume, elsewhere? Flour tortillas made with fresh-rendered pork lard to me become an important part of the dish, not just a background element.
Anon, that is a very good suggestion. Yes, Denver does have Mexican markets that carry freshly rendered lard, and nearby too.
Another person suggested bacon grease. What do you think about that?
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