Green Chile Stew

Last week I saw green chiles had arrived and knew I would soon be making green chile stew. Living in New Mexico in the early 90s I had eaten green chile stew a few times. Pork? Chiles? What's not to love? Some years ago I found a recipe for green chile stew and tried it out. The stew was tasty but I didn't remove the skins from the chiles before cooking so removing them after cooking (from my mouth) ruined the experience a little. Several years passed. Last year I tried the recipe again, this time roasting the chiles and removing their skins before adding to the stew. Again, the stew was tasty, but I thought the so-called extra hot chiles I bought could have used some more heat.



This year's green chile crop has found its way to a local grocery store and snatched up a couple of pounds to produce stew. Last night I roasted the chiles and wow what a wonderful smell. I remember being in Albuquerque around this time of year and I swear someone was roasting chiles on every corner. Good smells.


The recipe for green chile stew I have is

1 lb cubed pork
1 large onion diced
3 diced garlic cloves
2 tbsp oil
1.5 cups of green chiles, roasted and skins removed
3 medium potatoes
1 cup of chopped canned tomatoes
flour for dredging
1 Tbsp salt
4 cups of water

Dredge the pork in the flour and brown in the oil, adding the onions and garlic. Cook the onions until transparent. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 1 hour. Easy!



I picked up the extra hot chiles again. This year's verdict is HOT! Yeah, these were extra hot. The stew was tasty and very spicy. If I am able, I will be grabbing another load of chiles from the store and freezing them after roasting so I can enjoy this year's crop a few more times.



Enjoy! I did.

Potluck Time

Last week I was invited to a potluck celebrating the start of the new academic year. Although there may have been a little sadness marking the end of summer vacation. Years ago I would told you that potlucks are lame for all the usual reasons (bad food), but I have fallen in with a crowd that cooks well and is fun to hang around.

I wasn't sure what I should bring to this one. I opted for this cake.



When cut it looks a lot like the picture in the recipe link. When I get more skilled at baking I may try one of the variants posted at the above link.

Cake. Tasty.

Pickles!

A few weekends ago I made these pickles. This was the second time I had used this particular recipe. Here are some pictures of the process. The cucumbers and onions are salted.



Then they go into the syrup



I put them in a Pyrex casserole dish for storage in the refrigerator.



I made pickles! If I make them again I will probably toss in some dried hot peppers to add some zing. There looks to be a variant on the recipe here. At some point I would like to try and make dill pickles. They seem like much more work though.