February 4, 2018
I got sick the week before Christmas and have been fighting back for the past 6 or so weeks. As a result the only blog posts I’ve written have been about my reading – which is about all I’ve been up to doing.
But now I’m feeling better so we hosted our annual Super Bowl party with the group of couples we’ve celebrated with for almost 10 years I think. Usually I make my El Cid Chili (spoiler alert: use top sirloin instead of chuck roast) but I thought I’d mix it up this year and do a green chili.
I made this last winter but wasn’t thrilled with it; I experimented later with chicken and loved it; so I brought those adjustments back to this recipe and it turned out pretty darned well if I do say so myself. As a bonus, it’s relatively quick and easy to prepare – as opposed to the El Cid which takes most of the day. This recipe comes from Serious Eats – one of my favorite cooking blogs. I haven’t made my own copy of this recipe for sharing because it would be 90% the same as the original. The takeaway is that this is one of the rare dump-and-cook recipes that really works; no searing the meat ahead of time and no charring the chilis in advance.
We start with the vegetables; anaheim, poblano, jalapeño, and serrano chilis, tomatillos, onion, and garlic. Roughly chop the chilis and onion; husk and quarter the tomatillos, and remove the papery skin from the garlic.
Then trim the excess fat from four pounds of pork shoulder and cut into large – 2-inch pieces. If you are feeling fancy, toast some whole cumin seeds and grind with a mortar and pestle;
otherwise, use pre-ground cumin.
Toss everything in the pressure cooker with the tomatillos and chilis on the bottom; Turn the pressure cooker onto high and listen for the sizzle – stir a few times and the liquid will start to express. Notice there is no added liquid in this recipe – the tomatillos and chilis will give up enough liquid to allow the cooker to come up to pressure.
Add a hefty pinch of salt, the cumin, – and a bit of soy sauce if you are me.
Closes the lid and cook under high pressure for 30 minutes; followed by a quick pressure release.
At the end of cooking, remove the pieces of pork to a bowl and cutting board; maybe cut or shred some of the larger pieces. Add a bit of cilantro and a tablespoon of fish sauce – it isn’t fishy; it adds umami flavor – and blend the liquid with an immersion blender or in a kitchen blender – be careful it is HOT.
Look how much liquid you have! This is after blending the liquid and re-adding the pork.
Taste for flavor and add a bit more salt or whatever.
Dish up a bowl and eat up.
[EDIT: Feburary 7, 2018] I removed a picture of the chili in a bowl for serving. The picture just didn’t work. I took a few different photos but none of them did the dish justice. I’ll leave you with the final picture in the pressure cooker (above).
I removed the seeds from the jalapeños and Serrano so this was very mild. If you like hot, try the method used in El Cid chili. Instead of removing stems and seeds from one of the jalapeños, leave one intact and slice it vertically 3 times from below the stem to the end of the chili; put in the pot and cook. I haven’t tried this but I bet it would definitely bring the heat.
Oh my we had so much good food – as usual. Mark made some tasty/spicy buffalo chicken meatballs; and the nachos you’d swear you’d never eat but that are SO good. Christie made a tangy veggie dip. Herb brought his wings; and Dianne brought home made cookies. This crowd knows how to cook. We missed Norm and Kim – Norm is a professor at the OSU Cascades campus in Bend. He has an 8:00 class on Mondays and it is a bit too far to drive home to after the game. We got to see them at the Christmas dinner and ornament exchange this group has every December.
Bonus: The Philadelphia Eagles hung on to defeat the New England Patriots. For the first time in a few years we were all rooting for one team.
RATING; ★★★★
I think this is a great meal for company.
