Posts tagged ‘chile’

November 14, 2009

Green Chile Stew

It’s a rainy cold day here in New Jersey, so I thought I’d cook up some of TJ‘s New Mexico Green Chile Stew.

Here’s what you need

one pound ground beef (I use 80/20 since it’s cheaper and the fat adds more flavor, but I’m sure lean is fine)

3 cans Rotel (i use original)

3 cans stewed tomatoes

3 cans Old El Paso Green Chiles

2 russet potatoes

garlic salt

salt/pepper

red pepper flakes (bc i’m insane)

Brown the ground beef in a pan, and empty the cans of rotel, stewed tomatoes and green chiles into a big pot.  You can put the pot on the stove and start heating this mixture.  When the beef is browned, pour it (including the grease – that’s the flavor) into the pot with the tomatoes and chiles.

Take the potatoes and chop them into small chunks, about the size of the last joint of your index finger.  This is an inexact science, but i think that’s about optimum size.  When you get the potatoes, chopped up, dump the potatoes into the pot with the rest of the ingredients.

Add garlic salt, salt and pepper to taste.  I also add some red pepper flakes because I enjoy a little extra kick.

The point of cooking this on the stove is to cook the potatoes, so you only really need to cook this until everything is hot and the potatoes are cooked – by my judgment, an hour is a good amount of time.  You don’t want this to boil out of control, so keeping the heat a little lower and stirring occasionally is a good thing.

Here’s the tomato mixture heating and beef browning:

And here’s the complete mixture

October 10, 2009

Carnitas

Thanks to my friend TJ, guru of New Mexico cooking, for passing along this great recipe.  It’s all the things I love about cooking – cheap, delicious, really easy to make, really hard to screw up, and easily customizable to particular tastes.

It’s adapted from a book called “Hungry Monkey”.  I made some minor adaptations to the initial recipe.  First, because I’m an idiot and did some stuff wrong.  Second, because I like to make things simple and easy.  Third, because I like to put things in the way I want them.  I added the chile, the cilantro and serving in the tortillas.  Obviously you could add cheese, tomatoes or some other food you like.

This is really one of my favorite cooking principles – cook with food that you like.  Don’t add peppers if you don’t like peppers – switch it to something else.  You don’t enjoy it, you won’t eat it, then you’ll be back picking up chinese and eating cereal for dinner.

Carnitas

3 lbs boneless pork shoulder or country style ribs, trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 large onion diced (chopped into small chunks)
1 cup chicken broth (i used a small can)
1/4 cup tequila
2 tbs lime juice from a lime (squeezed)
salt and pepper (add to boiling water – be generous)
small tortillas
1 bundle of cilantro (chopped)
2 cans of old el paso green chile
1. combine all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil. reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered 2-3 hrs until the meat is tender (i did 2 hours), and the broth is evaporated (if necessary, turn up the heat near the end of cooking to evaporate the rest of the broth.) at this point you may optionally refrigerate the carnitas before continuing. they will keep several days in the fridge.
2. ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE EATING NOW – heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat. add the carnitas and cook, stirring occasionally until they are heated through and well browned. even burt or crispy in places.
3. Heat tortillas in microwave for 30 seconds.  Put carnitas, chile (generous spoonful) and cilantro (generous spoonful) into tortilla.  Enjoy
I love that you can cook, this for yourself and all it takes is a simple pan cooking (5 mins max) to prepare this for the next eating.  Leftovers are awesome.
Here’s how mine came out:
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