Kitchenelly

Spicy hot, deep-flavored green chile stew

I’ve been traveling to New Mexico since I was a teenager, and I would say the flavors I tasted there contributed to awakening of my youthful palate. Blue corn tortillas with a heavenly deep red chile sauce was a favorite at The Shed, and we always made a pilgrimage to Rancho de Chimayo for the Green Chile Rellenos and sopapillas. That covered the abiding question you always hear in New Mexico, “red or green?” But a standout for me was the entire green chile experience. We would go to Jackalope Pottery when Hatch chiles were in season and while they roasted big cage drums of chiles we would investigate the prairie dog village (!). The amazing smell of the chiles filled the air, and the sky was always that perfect Santa Fe blue. Then our black garbage bag full of hot chiles would be ready for us to take. We’d sort them into ziplock bags and, along with other hard-to-find ingredients like blue corn flour and ristras of dried chiles, we’d haul ‘em back to Oklahoma.

They’ve always been roasted like this as long as I can remember, with super-hot propane roasters in these drum cages

Hatch chiles are special. They are grown in the valley along the Rio Grande River around and to the north of the small town of Hatch, New Mexico, located between Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences. The chile varieties grown there have been consciously cultivated over decades by the local farmers as well as New Mexico State University to take advantage of the specific climate and soil conditions of the valley, and they just don’t taste the same grown elsewhere. The town has an annual Festival celebrating this famous crop, and for years you could only get the fresh chiles in New Mexico. Now a number of farmers will mail you chiles (here’s another one) or they may come with a truckload to your town and roast them while you wait. My local grocery store, Bristol Farms, invited a vendor to come and roast in the parking lot, and it was a huge hit.

You have to buy them by the box! I found someone to split a box with me — I have more than enough chiles to last me for a while

Once roasted the cage is opened and the chiles slide down into a bag that is inside your original box

The chiles vary in heat from year to year, and part of the joy is to discover how hot this year’s crop will be. They are picked green for roasting — on the vine they mature to red and are braided into ristras and dried. The crushed or pulverized dried red chile is the smoky, distinctive red chile flavor so dominant in New Mexican cuisine.

When you get roasted chiles home, take the time to remove the seeds and veins, and peel them as well. They freeze beautifully laid flat in ziplock bags (I put about 12 in a bag), with most of the air pushed out.

So for me, today, the answer is green.

Hatch Green Chile Stew | 6 to 8 servings

This will serve eight if you have some petite eaters, but for hearty servings it will feed six.

10 to 12 roasted, seeded and peeled green chiles
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 thick bacon slices, coarsely chopped
2 pounds boneless pork butt or shoulder, in two pieces
2 yellow onions, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 large pinch dried oregano
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock
6 to 8 fresh sage leaves, minced, or 1 teaspoon dried sage
1 very large potato (1 pound), in 1/2-inch cubes, or small potatoes equally 1 pound, cut into chunks
3 cups cooked hominy (29 ounce can), drained
1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
Chopped cilantro
Sour cream

Prepare the chiles. If unroasted, roast on the grill or over a flame until charred on all sides. Place the chiles in a brown paper bag for 10 minutes to steam. Remove and slice up one side lengthwise, opening the chile up. Using the blade side of a knife, scrape up toward the stem to remove the veins and seeds. Trim off the stem, along with the veins and seeds. Turn the chile over and using the dull side of the blade scrape off the charred skin. Chop the chiles. You should have a one full cup and maybe a little more.

These are almost done but not quite

Scrape the veins (which hold a lot of a chile’s heat) and seeds up and away, taking the stem with them

Use the dull side so you don’t take all the blackened bits away or scrape off the oils

Depending on how hot you like your chile stew, you may want more or less!

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Heat the olive oil in a large ovenproof stew pot over medium-high heat. Cook the bacon pieces until browned but not crisp and the fat is rendered. Remove and drain. Sear the pork pieces until browned on all sides, about 15 minutes.

This is boneless pork shoulder, with the fat trimmed — it is what is called the “butt,” the cut at the top of the shoulder. The “picnic” cut also works fine, or you’ll find it simply labeled “shoulder.”

I turn my several times to deepen the sear on the pork, and I find that it fits better in the stew pot when cut into two pieces

When the pork is seared, remove it to a plate. Cook the onions, carrots and celery in the pot until the onion is translucent and browning, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, ground cumin and oregano and cook another 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock and sage.

Having everything chopped will save time

Cooking the cumin with the vegetables before adding liquid will bring out its flavor

Nestle the pork down in the liquid

Cover the stew pot and cook the pork in the preheated oven for 2 1/2 hours, or until the pork is very fork-tender.

When the pork is tender, remove the pieces to a large plate. Using two forks, shred the meat into thin strips. Discard any large fat pieces. Return the shredded meat to the stew pot, along with the potatoes, hominy, roasted chiles and salt.

It is almost impossible to go wrong with pork shoulder — it is always tender and delicious

I used a mixed bag of small potatoes, mostly for the wonderful color

Everything going into the stew

Plunge the potatoes down into the stock so they cook evenly

Cover the pot and return it to the oven for another 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Serve with cilantro and sour cream on top.

Be sure to bookmark the chile sites so you can score your own for next year!

Kelly McCune © 2012

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Lisa’s beautiful kitchen garden in Mosier, Oregon — see the amazing blue-green kale peeking out from behind the tomatoes?

Just returned from a stay in the Columbia River Gorge where we played all day in the spectacular surroundings and cooked all night from the most wonderful supply of local ingredients. It’s a big beer-brewing area, too, so that didn’t hurt! The house where we were staying had a lush kitchen garden, surrounded by a big deer fence, of course, given the area. In abundance were tomatoes and kale, the popular kid on the block. We used kale almost every evening, and more would be there in the morning, just like that. It looked like this:

As the leaves remain on the plant they turn a wonderful gray-green — new growth is deep blue-green but the leaves all turn a uniform color by the time you get them up to the kitchen

I made one simple dish that was decidedly worth repeating, and that’s the one I’m posting here. The kale in Lisa’s garden is Tuscan kale, also called cavolo nero, lacinato or dinosaur kale. I also love it roasted, which I do here. There were also fat onions, bursting out of the ground, and several pots of cherry tomatoes which we ate like grapes at a Roman feast.

Things just plucked from the ground are almost impossible to make taste anything but perfect

Sautéed Kale with Onions and Cherry Tomatoes

This is one of those “recipes” that is not a recipe at all — no precise ingredients, just go for it.

Tuscan kale, about 3 leaves per person
Olive oil
Sweet onion, quartered and sliced, about 1/4 for 2 people
Cherry tomatoes, about 3 per person, halved
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Trim the bottom inch of stem from the kale, rinse and pat dry. Slice crosswise into 1/2 inch ribbons.