Recipe: Green Chile Stew (using pork)

GREEN CHILE STEW

8 fresh long green chiles
1 medium onion -- chopped fine
5 cloves garlic -- minced
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 pound lean pork -- cut into 1" cubes
cup chicken stock -- or less
Salt
black pepper
hot green chiles to taste -- see note 2
1 tablespoon olive oil

Chilies should be roasted, peeled, seeds removed and cut into coarse chunks (note 1) Heat Dutch oven or medium saucepan over high. Saute onion, garlic, oregano and cumin until onion is clear. Add green chiles, saute and stir. Add pork cubes and stir to seize all sides of the pork; add lime juice and mix. Now add chicken stock, stopping when most of the pork cubes are covered with liquid. Stir well, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and set the timer for 30 minutes. Check occasionally to make sure the stuff isn't scorching on the bottom. When the timer goes off, check the consistency and either add more stock if it's gotten thicker/drier than you like it, or raise the heat and cook uncovered to thicken if it's too runny. Add salt and black pepper now. Serve with fresh corn tortillas, a pepper-garlic-onion garnish I'll describe shortly, and lots of cold beer, horchata, or Jamaica. You can also serve this with sour cream, which is nice.

Garnish:
I've taken to chopping up fresh chiles to make my own food hotter, since the kids max out at Anaheim chiles. My base mild mix is to cut up an ancho or poblano chile (the dark green glossy ones, triangular and medium-pungent) into 1/4" dice, as well as about a quarter of an onion and a clove of garlic. Add a little olive oil and some dried oregano, stir well and salt to taste. Sprinkle this on the chile verde, roll it up in your tortillas, use it in omelets or even on Texas-style chili.

Notes:

1. Long green chiles: If you can't find them fresh, you can use canned but the taste will be slightly different; the canned variety add lots of citric acid as a preservative. You might want to cut down on the lime in that event. I used fresh Anaheim chiles from my garden last year, and will do so again this year as the Anaheim is producing earliest (four chiles!) but I'm anxious for my New Mexico varieties to get going.

2. Hot chiles: The Anaheims are pretty mild. Some people like to add jalapenos to this, but I preferred the serranos when we had the pepper garden last year. I liked six Anaheims and six serranos when it was just for me and Kim, but the girls wouldn't touch it, which is why I started making the garnish. You can also garnish with chopped fresh cilantro or epazote if you can find it; we're growing that and I love it so far, it's like a cross between cilantro and sorrel in flavor.

Source: Scott Fisher