I Like Big Butts

Big pork butts, that is. Which strangely, is not meat from the posterior of a pig. Pork butt comes from the shoulder. Unlike a rump roast of beef which really is cow butt.

And really the best thing to do with a pig's shoulder is to make it into Chili Verde. Green Chili. There are only a few restrictions when making this dish, one of them being that stuff must be green. (except the butt... shoulder... green butts should not be used in this dish)

Hatch chilis are apparently the ideal, but I'm nowhere near New Mexico where they grow, and I was lucky enough to find both tomatillos and Poblanos in the grocery in the same week, so I grabbed all of the tomatillos in the store. All of them. I'm evil like that. Plus, most recipes I'd seen called for a pound, and I had no idea how many tomatillos constitute a pound so I bought them all. (still don't know, I just used all the ones I bought)

Chili Verde

What You Need:

• ¼ cup oil
• 4-4 ½ lbs pork butt
• 2 onions
• 4 coves garlic
• 2 Anaheim peppers
• 2 Poblano peppers
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 12 tomatillos
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp coriander
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 bunch of cilatnro
• 3 tbsp masa (corn flour)
• 4 cups water or chicken stock
• lime

What You Gotta Do:

Like most chilis, this one starts out with a bunch of chopping. It's really not too bad though, just kinda repetitive since you have to seed and chop a total of at least 8 peppers.

Seeding them is easiest done by cutting around the top of the pepper, then popping the top off. You should get most of the seeds out this way.

I found 2 Anaheim and 4 Poblano, so that's what I used, but feel free to mix it up and use whatever kind you want, as long as they're green.

Chop the onion, garlic, and cilantro as well, then start in on the tomatillos.

First thing you have to do with them, is peel them.

Then, they get a bath to wash off the sticky. They're sticky under that papery stuff, and I think it must be some kind of protective surfactant, because they totally make suds in the water. 

Once you've got them chopped and set aside with the rest of the veg,

it's time to start in on the meat. I always do the meat last so I only have to dirty one cutting board.

First thing to do is trim off the lovely layer of pork fat.

I cut that into chunks

and froze them individually on a bit of plastic, then tossed them into a freezer bag. They're perfect for adding to a nice big pot of beans.

Then trim as much meat as you can off the bone. (I packaged the fat chunks after the trimming)

You start out with a 4 pound butt, but really, once you get it all chopped up, there's nowhere near 4 pounds of meat there. (And there's a naughty joke in there somewhere, I just can't find it)

Heat the oil in a big pot over medium high, and start browning your pork chunks.

It took me about 3 batches to do this. You don't want too much meat in there at once, or it won't brown nicely and leave those yummy little brown bits on the bottom of the pan (which are the whole point of this step).

Once you've got all the meat seared and removed from the pot, you can drain off any excess fat. I'll leave you to define excess for yourself (I didn't drain anything).

Now, most recipes will tell you to start with the onions and cook them for 5 minutes, then add something else and cook for another 5 minutes... to a stew that's going to be simmering for 3 hous.

I did the onion thing, and then added the spices

And then decided there was little point in adding the rest in stages. Hell, I'm no longer convinced the onions need that 5 minute head start.

Dump in your veggies all at once.

You are welcome to give them a few minutes to get acclimatized to their new surroundings (I did), but again: 3 hours. It's not like this is some kind of delicate pastry. It's a freaking stew that's going to be in a pot for the better part of the afternoon.

Now we can dump the pork back in, and toss in the masa along with it.

Some recipes will insists that you pre-toss the meat in the masa, but again, I'm seeing nothing more than extra steps with that. It's all going to end up stirred up together, and the meat is going to cook until it falls apart, so it's not like the masa really neeeeeeds to be on the meat.

Just stir it all together and then add the liquid. Water, broth, stock, or any combination thereof, just make sure you've got about 4 cups of it. I had about a cup of broth in the freezer, so I used it and 3 cups of water.

Bring this to a boil then reduce the heat so that it's just simmering when the lid is on.

And now the fun part.

Go do something else for three hours.

Sure, you can come back and stir from time to time, but that is really your only obligation for the rest of the afternoon.

Me, I did math.

Until the meat was so soft and tender that it fell apart when you pressed it against the wall of the pot with the spoon.

And then keep doing that until the meat is all nice and shreddy.

Then add a squeeze or two of lime.

And serve it with a bit of sour cream, and some chips on the side.

The pot full of chili verde gave me a total of 4 sets of dinner/lunch freezer bags. And it's killing me to not eat them every day for the rest of this week.

What could you eat for dinner every night of the week?

The 32 Hour Day

I need one.

I do promise that eventually I will make Creamsicle cookies for Lyra. But omg math. I spent 9 hours on one day of the long weekend doing homework (more on other days too!) and I'm just managing to keep up. I've also started hiding in empty boardrooms on my lunch break so I can scribble numbers in peace. This is not looking like my funnest summer ever.

And after eating sandwiches and cereal for dinners last week I decided I really needed to make freezable meals again this weekend. Not that I object to cookies for dinner from time to time (you so have and you know it) but I just don't think a full week of it is a good idea.

So instead, I made meaty balls. Froze them. No pics.

And chili.

Or at least, what I call chili.

I'm sure there are purists of all kinds who are going to complain about one thing or another but you know what? Go make your own freaking chili. No beans allowed? Too bad. I love the musical fruit so they're in there. Ground beef? Yup. Deal with it. Tomatoes? Holy freaking crap you'd think the world was gonna end if someone put tomatoes in chili. But you know what? I did. And I still have an assignment due next week so obvioulsy it can't be that catastrophic.

Chili, The Way I Felt Like Making It

What you need:

• about 1 lb of lean ground beef
• 2-3 onions
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp dried crushed chilis
• 1 chipotle in adobo sauce
• 3 poblanos
• 2 anaheims
• 2 sweet red peppers
• 1 jalapeno (at least)
• 1 c dried pinto beans
• 1 c TVP (I'll explain later)
• 2 c crushed tomatoes
• 2-3 c beef broth

What you gotta do:

Chop your onions and garlic and combine them in the biggest pot you have (you know, the one you have to put on top of the cupboards because it doesn't fit inside them) with the ground beef and oregano.

While that's cooking (stir it from time to time to bust up the meat) chop your peppers. A coarse chop is fine. They're going to be in there all day simmering and will break down quite a bit, so save yourself the work.

Speaking of saving work, since you're going to be adding heat and seeds to this, don't worry about picking every single seed out of your peppers. If you just cut around the top:

And then pop the core out:

Good enough.

It's particularly easy to do this with poblanos, but it works on any pepper really.

Do it to them all, chop em, and toss em in the pot.

Give it a stir and then pile in the spices.

May as well stir them in too.

Now, add the dry stuff. Beans and TVP.

Textured Vegetable Protein. Yeah, I see you making that face. But you've probably already eaten it. I first learned of it from a vegetarian roommate. He'd use it to make spaghetti sauce, meatballs, pretty much anything that would normally have meat in it. It's cheap, fat free, veggie sourced protein and when it's reconstituted it has the same texture as ground beef. Even some restaurants use it (yup, you've probably eaten it). You can find it at most bulk stores, any health food store, and even at some supermarkets.

And it makes a pound of beef make a lot of chili.

But it is dry, and needs liquid. That's where the tomatoes and beef broth come in. You could use water, beer, or any other liquid you like. Start with about a cup and a half.

After a while, the beans will be wrinkly.

But then they'll start to puff up. You might need to add more liquid. I did.

I cooked mine on fairly low heat with the lid on (do not need the extra humidity in here). But still, check it from time to time, and add more liquid of choice if it seems too dry. And then eventually, you'll have something that looks like this:

And you'll be able to mash a bean against the side of the pot.

And the peppers will have broken down, and the TVP will look exactly like the beef, and the whole house will smell freaking amazing.

And since there was no way I was turning the oven on (it's finally warm here and I'm really thinking I need to get myself a little window AC unit) to make corn bread, I had it with corn chips. Organic blue ones. Fun!

And then I bagged the rest and froze them for later this week.

And probably for dinner next week as well since I really don't like eating the same thing for dinner every night. Except, apparently, when it's a bowl of cereal.

I really need a couple 32 hour days so I can get all the crap done that needs to be done. Like feeding myself.

What would you do with a 32 hour day?