Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Chile Verde 2.0!

Before we start I want to take a moment to be very serious. Today is the first anniversary of the first COVID-19 casualty in the U.S.

Over 500,000 souls in this country have been lost since.

That just makes me want to fucking cry. 

Again.

I found this out a few days after writing this post so forgive the interruption. But please take a moment to consider.

Thank you.

Now back to your regularly scheduled dick-jokery.

Good Sunday morning everyone. Yes, it’s that time again. Time to get gravy-fied.

I don’t want to jump the gun too early on the whole pandemic timeline shit but I do feel, optimism? A little at least. Outbreaks and infections are starting to trend downwards, the schools in California are gearing up for re-opening (why don’t we go ahead and let the teachers decide when they’re ready to go back) and more and more counties in the state are moving out of the “purple tier.” That’s basically the worst one and we’ve been in it here in L.A. County for-fucking-ever.

I just hope we can make it to the finish line where we get our vaccines and things calm down instead of losing patience and jumping on a goddamn plane filled with lunatics because, “Waah! I haven’t travelled anywhere in over a year. Waah!” Or rushing off to a fucking casino to lose all of the money that you didn’t spend over the last 12 months.

Fuck off with that Boyo and let’s finish this fucking thing properly. My next tentative flight is in July of 2022 and even that is very fucking tentative. I ain’t booked shit yet.

Now back to the kitchen where our asses belong!

We’ll do what we’ve been doing for a goddamn year now. We’ll cook delicious fatty things that give us a modicum of comfort in this fucked up world. And we’ll wait goddammit. That’s the main part. We’re getting close.

A couple of weeks ago I made mention of the possibility of seeing a “2.0 recipe” this season.

Let’s go ahead and call this one a “2.0” something.

I’m going back to the well on a couple of things. The first thing will be delicious, delicious pork and the second thing will be the actual dish itself.

Chile Motherfucking Verde!

Let’s venture back to the ancient days of lore. Let’s say 2016! I did the first iteration of this dish way back in that simple and innocent age. We were all so trusting and naive!

You can compare the 2 posts if you like. I’m a lot more detail oriented and more forward with the photography now too. Two things jump out at me. The banner image from the first post is the first thing.

Tomatillos, Anaheims, Pasilla and a couple two-tree jalapenos. The second thing that jumps out at me is the rating I gave this dish at the very bottom of that post. A “3.5 out of 5.”

That’s…Not great.

We are going to attempt to bump up that score today with a couple of ideas I’ve got rolling around. Starting with…

That’s a whole batch of green working. See any new kids on the block there? That’s right! Those are some serranos too.

The plot thickens.

If we were to fire roast these beauties, add some seasonings and onion, garlic and shit? Maybe some chicken stock? Then combine all that with our favorite slab-o-meat…

Now slow cook that fucker to perfection?

Let’s get after this shit.

Just to cover the basics, chile verde (translation: “green chile” – no shit) is more Southwestern in origin than traditional Mexican. Hell, New Mexico and Colorado would probably throw down in armed fucking conflict over who’s is better or more original. More of a stew than a chile, the chile name is obviously proper nomenclature since it’s got, you know, a shitload of fresh chilies in it.

No joke, if you ever visit Denver see if you can find a restaurant that DOESN’T serve this.

It’s fucking ubiquitous.

Chile Verde 2.0.

Let’s count up all them green things.

1 Pasilla pepper (or poblano or an Anaheim or two would work)

5 Fresh Jalapenos

2 serranos

11-15 tomatillos.

Okay then.

Then you’ve got your:

5-6 cloves of garlic – minced

1 slab of pork shoulder bone-in. This one was about 3 pounds or so.

1 large onion – chopped

1/2 tablespoon of ground cumin

1 teaspoon or coriander

1 teaspoon of chile powder

1 teaspoon of dried Mexican oregano

Olive oil – 2 applications today maybe 1-2 tablespoons for each application

2 1/2 cups of chicken stock – store bought works fine

Salt and pepper to taste.

Let’s start the proceedings by fire (actually oven) roasting our peppers/chilies/tomatillos.

Preheat the oven to 425.

Shuck them tomatillos right out of their sticky little paper sacks, rinse and dry then slice them in half.

Get a baking sheet and line with foil if you like. Then line up all of the green stuff.

The whole tomatillo in the photo was just to give you an idea what an “un-sacked(?)” tomatillo looks like.

Baste everything with some olive oil. Both sides please.

These will roast in the oven for 15 minutes, then turn them over with some tongs and give them 10-15 minutes more. Again, we’re trying to char the skins.

When the skins are charred, put the vegetation into a paper bag and close the bag. You can also get a big bowl and throw everything in there and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

We want these to steam for about 5 minutes to make everything easier to peel.

When you’ve peeled the slimy bastards put all of the roasted bits into a blender and give it a whirl.

Set aside for now.

Time to work on the pork element.

Once again to exactly nobody’s surprise I’ll be making beans as a side dish. Rather than using bacon for the pork addition to the beans, let’s trim a little fat off of the pork so it can slow cook with the beans from the beginning.

Yeah. Just a bit. You’re gonna fucking love what the fat does to the texture of the beans.

My god.

Now let’s get to chopping.

We’re going to cube this up rather than using bigger slabs. We want the chile verde sauce to penetrate all of the porcine bits.

Season the pig chunks with salt and pepper and sear in a hot skillet or pan. Sear on all sides. Maybe 5 minutes per side. Work in batches. Remove the cooked chunks to a bowl and set aside for a moment.

I used my Dutch oven for searing the pork. No need to clean out the pan before this next part.

Next let’s get to cooking the onion. Add the onion right into the pig juices in the pot and cook down for about 10-12 minutes. We want these almost caramelized. Add the garlic for just a few seconds until aromatic.

Then in go the seared pig bits.

Add in our green sauce from earlier.

Next let’s get everybody else into the pool. All of the cumin, coriander, chile powder, oregano and then season with salt and pepper. Finally pour in the chicken stock.

Let it simmer on!

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, put that slightly ajar lid on there and cook this fucker for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Give a stir every 20 minutes or so.

While the chile verde is simmering? Guess it’s about time to get them beans going.

You know the drill.

Stolen directly from an earlier episode:

“Clean and sort the beans.

Now make a pot of beans.

Get them in the pot.

Standard rinsed beans, 6 cups of water, onion, garlic, cumin, chile powder, salt and pepper, chile de arbol application. Two and a half hour cook time on low simmer crap as we always do.

Yes, we will finish with some bacon fat as per usual.” This time we cooked the beans with the pig fat right from the beginning so skip that shit about the bacon grease this time.

Now let’s check on the chile verde.

Nice! This is about 2 hours in. The pig is getting tender but we want to get it to the point where it just starts breaking apart.

How are the beans doing?

Look at that silky fucking texture there. This is after all of that delicious fatty pig fat has been basically fully absorbed and incorporated into the beans.

Let’s see if it’s party time yet.

There it is! Notice how the pork is beginning to fall apart and it’s becoming one with the sauce.

That’s like some motherfucking Zen shit right there.

Grab me a fucking plate before I die!.

I did enough work today so those are store bought tortillas.

I’ve been doing this shit for so long now that I have to actually explain when I don’t make my own homemade “Everything.”

Anyway.

Goddamn beautiful isn’t it?

Let’s get a closer look.

This is the type of meal that can hurt you. I’m going to make you very aware of that. Not “hurt” as in give you indigestion or force you to spend prolonged periods of time on the toilet type “hurt.”

No, the kind of “hurt” where you literally have to force yourself from going back to the stove for a 5th helping.

Sure, sure I can hear you now, “But there’s still so much left, what’s another portion going to hurt?”

Hold on a minute there Andy Reid, just hear me out before you consume the entire fucking pot.

If you eat it all in one sitting you’re going to miss the opportunity to make these.

Chile verde enchiladas!

Fuck. Right. OFF!

Roll the pig bits up in some corn tortillas and use the leftover sauce as the enchilada sauce. Sprinkle some cheese on that shit?

This amazing creation came about because I backed away from the plate that first night I made this, froze the leftovers and had them on hand when I made this motherfucker at a later date.

Restraint ain’t always easy, especially with something this goddamn delicious, but sometimes your restraint will be rewarded.

Some other uses for chile verde? Ladle some over a burrito, better option; over a breakfast burrito. Smother some tamales with it. Put a scoop on a cheeseburger. Shit, man. The sky’s the limit on options. Or just eat straight from a bowl with some beans and tortillas.

This is supremely tasty.

Final summation. Adding in the serrano chilies amped up the heat level that was sorely missing from “Version 1.0.” Not to the point that it was “Burn your mouth” hot but enough where it woke up your damn taste buds and made them do a little song and dance.

The floral notes from the vegetation, the smokiness from the “fire” roasting, the slow simmer of heat from the chilies and running through the entire thing? That glorious, glorious pork.

This was the best chile verde I’ve ever had. Hands down, No fucking bullshit. I’ve had it prepared dozens of times and this was the best.

Period.

Final score? On a 1-10 scale? A “9.9.”

Stop answering “11” when someone asks you to rate on a 1-10 scale. Shit’s ridiculous.

There you go!

I mentioned last week about repetition being the gateway to greatness. Got some proof right here.

Thanks for reading folks!

Always a pleasure.

We’ll see you next week.

Stay Safe.

Stay Healthy!

PEACE!