Posts Tagged ‘make it do’

My dad is the man in the kitchen.

This recipe is his creation and it’s so darn good I’ve eaten it for leftovers for the last three days.  Now that I’ve licked the bowl clean, I’m thinking of making another batch.

OK.  That might be too much of a good thing.  Maybe.

Years ago my dad ate Chile Verde on a trip to New Mexico.  He loved it so much he asked the proprietor of the restaurant if he would be willing to share the recipe.  Being a flattered, but typical restaurant owner, he generously gave my dad a few vague instructions.

Since this was years ago, he was left to try to recreate Chile Verde without a recipe or (gasp!) Google.  The results have long been a family favorite.

New Mexican Chile Verde. Green Chile.

My grandmother used to call Chilly Vurdy.

If you’ve never eaten Chile Verde before, I’m the first to admit it looks a little daunting, but give it a try, you’ll probably fall in love.  In case you’re not convinced, yes, even my kids love it.  Need more proof…  my sister’s picky eaters love it too.

New Mexican Chile Verde

• 4-5 lbs. pork loin, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 3 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 27 oz cans green chiles (or 3 lbs fresh roasted)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 Tbs. garlic, chopped
• 2- 14.5 oz cans Swanson’s low salt chicken broth
• 1- 14.4 oz can Western Family tomatoes with chipotles
• 1- 10 oz can Rotels diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 1/3 cup flour (for thickening)
• ½ tsp. salt (or to taste)
• ¼ tsp. pepper (or to taste)
• ¼ tsp. celery salt

Heat a large dutch oven or sauce pot over medium high heat.  Add two tablespoons oil.  Sear pork in batches.  Season with salt and pepper each batch after meat sears.  Spoon pork to a plate and set aside.  Add remaining oil and saute onion until translucent.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add the chicken broth being sure to scrape up the brown bits in the pan as you pour it in.  Add the pork back into the pot.  Add tomatoes, chopped chiles and seasoning and simmer for 3 hours until pork is fork tender.

Just before serving, take out a cup, or so, of the broth and mix with flour.  Mix with a wire whip to make a thin paste.  Stir into mixture and simmer for about 5 minutes to cook the flour. Stir several times to prevent sticking on the bottom.

We love it served smothered over bean burritos.

Click on over to my Tasty Kitchen Recipe Box for the printable recipe.

On New Year’s Day I headed up to my mom and dad’s home with camera in hand to watch him in action.

There’s the line up.My dad uses pork loin or pork loin chops like these…. which ever is the best price that day. Trim away any fat and chop into bite-sized pieces.

My dad chops an onion like a pro.  Also chop up the garlic.

Chopping the chiles… don’t worry about the seeds.  These chiles are MILD.  Do be sure to remove any larger pieces of blackened skin, it’s tough and not appetizing.  He loves Embasa brand chiles since they consistently have less of those pieces of skin.  It’s just hard to find the larger cans sometimes.

Give the chiles a rough chop.

Brown the pork in batches so you don’t crowd pan.  I didn’t show a photo of the onions….

I also didn’t show scrapping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan while adding the broth (or in this case stock)… but that’s an important step.  That’s a lot of lovely flavor.

Pour the tomatoes and chiles in too. A word about the Rotel tomatoes, they are where this dish gets it’s heat.  If you like things REALLY mild, you can use Rotel Mild as a substitute.

Celery salt is one of my dad’s favorite seasonings.  He puts it in just about everything!

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Simmer for about 3 hours until the pork is really tender.

Add the flour to a small container.  Ladle in about a cup of the broth.

Whisk it together, so there are no lumps.

Add the flour mixture back into the pot, whisk it in and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often.

Serve it smothered over a flour tortilla filled with beans and a little cheese.

My dad makes his own beans and Mexican rice… but those recipes are for another day.

Buen Appetito!

Several people have asked about the pattern for our favorite felted slippers that my mother-in-law, Kit, makes for us.  I’ve done a bit of checking and they are a Fiber Trend Pattern called Felt Clogs.  She uses one pattern for children and another for adults.  Here’s a link to purchase the pattern from Fiber Trends as a downloadable PDF.  If you prefer a hard copy pattern (mailed to you) here’s a link to purchase the Felt Clogs Pattern for Adults and for children.

Kit tells me the pattern is well written and is fast to make.  It does take a lot of counting and concentration and is suitable for an intermediate knitter.  They have a double sole that is comfortable and helps them last.  You do need to use 100% worsted weight wool for the felting to work.  Kit buys her wool from the Wool Cabin in Salt Lake City, which is also where she bought her patterns.

If you’ve never been there and you are in Utah, The Wool Cabin is one of my favorite shops.  They have a great selection of yarns and patterns, but that’s not the only reason I love the Wool Cabin.  The ladies there have been so sweet to our family.  I used to knit there every Wednesday when my son was a new baby.  We would sit around and knit and laugh.  My son was officially dubbed the “Wool Cabin Baby.”

When I was pregnant with my twin girls I started knitting little Debbie Bliss sweaters for them.  I was halfway through the first sweater when the unexpected happened.   I went into early labor and ended up having my girls at 26 weeks.  Unknown to me, Allison, one of the owners of The Wool Cabin, arranged to get the yarn and finish the sweaters for me.  It was the sweetest gift.  If you drop in, be sure to say hi from me.

It’s snowing and cold here and we are very happy to be wearing our cozy slippers.

I will be posting sporadically until after the New Year since we have lots of fun in our plans.  I wish you all the same!