9.24.2007

Tomatillos!

Red or green? Those 3 words make up the offical New Mexico state question. With the Balloon Fiesta around the corner and 2,230 miles between us we can’t help but think about green chile harvest season in New Mexico. Luckily, we received a nice batch of tomatillos from Steve at Parker Farm and decided to use these as a base for our pork chile verde. Given we did not have green chilies to make this truly authentic, we found poblanos to be a worthy contender.

The first step to a great chile verde involves lots of roasting. We grabbed our largest baking pan and threw in our tomatillos along with four jalapenos drizzled with oil.

We roasted our pepper pan at 500 for a good 20 minutes until the skins were slightly charred. While those were roasting in the oven, we utilized all four burners on our gas stovetop as a make-shift chili roaster for the poblanos. The chilies finished around the same time and the house smelled SPICY!

In our over-sized Le Creuset we slowly browned four pounds of pork shoulder and to this we added a puree of the roasted tomatillos and peppers, four cups of chicken stock and cumin to taste. Set to low heat, we walked away and let our stew simmer for 6 hours.

After the stew was done simmering, we had delicious filling for our enchiladas topped with fresh cilantro and jack cheese.

The Salted Cod is not one for showboating but this was an excellent chile verde and we couldn't have been prouder. It brought us right back to our stay in New Mexico.

9 comments:

Jenn said...

Hola!! We just got back from Playa del Carmen on the Maya Riveria in Mexico. It was fun. Your chilis look awesome - probably better than some of the "Mexican" joints we found in Playa. Though we did discover a few fun haunts!

Otie Wheeler said...

I'm thinking of moving into your apartment as resident food taster.

Trevor said...

Otis, your always welcome in Slummaville! Im sure your dad could even fabricate some doors and close off the drum room for you...
Jenn, oh man I'm jealous!!

Anonymous said...

I'm jealous you can roast chiles in your kitchen! Can't do that on the lame-o electric stove I have.
In other news, last night I made an awesome salsa with tomatos, chiles, chives, and the only watermellon all from my garden!!! I had to include bought cilantro, garlic and lime from Unholy Foods though
Sweet and spicy!! mmm....

Unknown said...

That looks incredible.

Boston Chef said...

Wow - AWESOME chili verde... your hard work paid off!

We're tomatillo fans, too: http://bostonchef.blogspot.com/2007/01/chipotle-tomatillo-salsa.html

Boston Chef said...

duh - chile verde!

Chef JP said...

Really enjoyed this post---you really captured the spirit of Southwestern cooking--nice job!

Trevor said...

Thanks for the kind words, I really can't wait to make this again!