Cooking endeavors
I forgot to mention the other thing I wanted to post about, the pork stew I made yesterday.
Prep time wouldn't have been too bad if I hadn't had to deal with a broken canister of sugar and the stupid smoke alarms. It required broiling the vegetables and browning the pork. While the stew was cooking, the flavors seemed to be a bit simplistic and lacked depth, so I ended up adding some cumin, two bay leaves (a staple in traditional Mexican cuisine), a little bit of a red chile powder blend from Spice Market, and some smoked salt. We just had some for lunch and it was fantastic. I forgot to garnish with cilantro and that would have only added to the flavors.
The recipe could easily be halved, if you have a smaller crockpot, but mine is gargantuan and cooks at a freakishly high temperature and if I hadn't, it would have easily burned.
Pork Stew in Tomatillo Sauce
3 lbs tomatillos, husked and rinsed
6 - 8 serrano chiles, stemmed and seeded
1 white onion, halved
2 cloves garlic
1 corn tortilla, chopped
2 cups chicken stock, plus more as needed
pinch of ground fennel
3 Tbs vegetable oil
2.5 lbs lean port stew meat cut into 1.5 inch cubes
2 Tbs chopped cilantro
salt
4 oz Mexican queso fresco, or feta cheese
Preheat the broiler. Place the tomatillos, chiles, onion, and garlic on a baking sheet and broil, turning occasionally for 5 - 7 minutes or until blackened. (This is where I had the smoke detector/sugar incident. Not fun.) Remove from the broiler and transfer to a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, chop veggies. (I added a step here: I peeled the outer membrane off the chiles because they don't cook down and have almost a plastic-y texture. When the chiles are roasted, the outer skin separates from the flesh. To encourage this, you can put the peppers in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap for about 10 mins...the steam will make the process a bit easier.)
Transfer the veggies to a blender and add the tortilla, stock and fennel. Puree until smooth. Add more stock until the desired thickness is achieved. (I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't have a ginormous food processor. I pureed the veggies, then mixed everything once it was in the crockpot.)
Heat a large saute pan over medium high heat and add the oil. In batches if necessary, add the pork and brown on all sides, about 8 - 10 mins. Using tongs, transfer to the slow cooker.
Pour sauce over the pork. Cover and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours, until the meat is very tender. Stir in the cilantro and salt to taste about 10 mins before serving.
Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle cheese over the top. Serve immediately.
Like I mentioned, I ended up adding some salt, the bay leaves, chile powder and cumin about halfway through the cooking process. I also had to add more chicken stock part way though, probably because of my crockpot cooking temp issues. Seriously, the keep warm setting is more like low and the low setting scorches the food within a few hours. I served this over rice, with tortillas and avocado on the side. I'm definitely making this again.
*********
I also just got the nicest surprise from my SP 11 secret pal! Bill plopped a box from Amazon on my lap while I was typing out the above which confused me, since I'm on a spending hiatus at the moment. I opened it up and in it are two more ways to distract myself from my studies:
I can't wait to get started on them! Yay, thank you secret pal!!!
Prep time wouldn't have been too bad if I hadn't had to deal with a broken canister of sugar and the stupid smoke alarms. It required broiling the vegetables and browning the pork. While the stew was cooking, the flavors seemed to be a bit simplistic and lacked depth, so I ended up adding some cumin, two bay leaves (a staple in traditional Mexican cuisine), a little bit of a red chile powder blend from Spice Market, and some smoked salt. We just had some for lunch and it was fantastic. I forgot to garnish with cilantro and that would have only added to the flavors.
The recipe could easily be halved, if you have a smaller crockpot, but mine is gargantuan and cooks at a freakishly high temperature and if I hadn't, it would have easily burned.
Pork Stew in Tomatillo Sauce
3 lbs tomatillos, husked and rinsed
6 - 8 serrano chiles, stemmed and seeded
1 white onion, halved
2 cloves garlic
1 corn tortilla, chopped
2 cups chicken stock, plus more as needed
pinch of ground fennel
3 Tbs vegetable oil
2.5 lbs lean port stew meat cut into 1.5 inch cubes
2 Tbs chopped cilantro
salt
4 oz Mexican queso fresco, or feta cheese
Preheat the broiler. Place the tomatillos, chiles, onion, and garlic on a baking sheet and broil, turning occasionally for 5 - 7 minutes or until blackened. (This is where I had the smoke detector/sugar incident. Not fun.) Remove from the broiler and transfer to a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, chop veggies. (I added a step here: I peeled the outer membrane off the chiles because they don't cook down and have almost a plastic-y texture. When the chiles are roasted, the outer skin separates from the flesh. To encourage this, you can put the peppers in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap for about 10 mins...the steam will make the process a bit easier.)
Transfer the veggies to a blender and add the tortilla, stock and fennel. Puree until smooth. Add more stock until the desired thickness is achieved. (I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't have a ginormous food processor. I pureed the veggies, then mixed everything once it was in the crockpot.)
Heat a large saute pan over medium high heat and add the oil. In batches if necessary, add the pork and brown on all sides, about 8 - 10 mins. Using tongs, transfer to the slow cooker.
Pour sauce over the pork. Cover and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours, until the meat is very tender. Stir in the cilantro and salt to taste about 10 mins before serving.
Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle cheese over the top. Serve immediately.
Like I mentioned, I ended up adding some salt, the bay leaves, chile powder and cumin about halfway through the cooking process. I also had to add more chicken stock part way though, probably because of my crockpot cooking temp issues. Seriously, the keep warm setting is more like low and the low setting scorches the food within a few hours. I served this over rice, with tortillas and avocado on the side. I'm definitely making this again.
*********
I also just got the nicest surprise from my SP 11 secret pal! Bill plopped a box from Amazon on my lap while I was typing out the above which confused me, since I'm on a spending hiatus at the moment. I opened it up and in it are two more ways to distract myself from my studies:
I can't wait to get started on them! Yay, thank you secret pal!!!