Chili verde

The Instacart guy working at King Soopers this time downsized the vegetable portion intended for this chili on my order. A lot less tomatillos and a lot less Poblano chiles and a lot less jalapeños. 

To balance this shortcoming the pork is reduced too. I kept the broad fat band for this and the bone. The remainder was frozen. 

And I added a few vegetables.

I'm not going to use all this fat. Are you kidding me? It grosses me out.

There you go. The whole pile is seasoned up with salt and pepper and cumin but not with any chile powder that might change its color to red.

And no corriander (root) or cilantro (leaf). I'm over this plant for today.

And it's frying. Right now. Boom. Frying. It's on.

And garlic, three large garlic cloves sliced thinly like Paulie does in Goodfellas with a razor blade.

All frying away.

These chiles were roasted and and then allowed to steam themselves in this bowl with a plate for a cover. That loosens the skin considerably as they cool and you'll be all, "Hey, this is ace."

Why is the inside of one of Poblano chiles orange? I do not have the answer to this mystery. 

This is the first time that I've put potato in chili.

But why not? Both chiles and potatoes are New World vegetables.

This is totally a New World deal right here.

Except onions and garlic coming from Central Asia.

Other than those things this is totally a New World deal.

Except for the salt and pepper that come from some foreign country. Probably. I'll bet.

Other than that this is a totally New World deal.

Now that the potatoes are in, the timing is set. When the potatoes are done then the chili is done. And that will be rather quickly.

Out of high school a Latino friend mispronounced these tor-tilly-yas. There was something doubly funny about the stupidity of it coming from a Latino spoken with uncompromising sincerity.

His mother made the best tortillas that I've ever eaten. She and her daughters made them by hand. They didn't roll them out, rather, they smacked them into shape back and forth between their hands. Lard. Hot water. The whole bit.

It lacks a unifying element. It's very good. I could scarf the whole thing. The potatoes are a little bit weird. It needs another taste element to pull the whole thing together. 

I smash all the potatoes in the bowl and the watery liquid thickened. I taste it again. The smashed potato with the fat diffuses and carries the Mexican oregano and the cumin throughout evenly, all the flavors mix in, and there is the unifying element.

This woman uses a blender. And powdered chicken stock.