things wot i made then ate: pork chile

Pork chile using tinned mild green chiles and various other pantry items. Homemade flour tortillas using both AP and WW flours with lard. Lard? Yes, lard. For soft and puffy tortillas totalmente auténtico.

This is the pork shoulder from yesterday with one of the strips removed from the package.

The remaining strips are cut into cubes. The cubes are salted and browned on each side in three batches. There is enough pork to nearly fill the largest pot. I think it is the largest pot, I never actually measured.

Most of the fat is removed from the pot but not all of it. The following flavors are included in unmeasured amounts that seemed to be right for this quantity of pork without overdoing it.

* three large garlic cloves, smashed

* fresh sage

* sea salt

* black peppercorns

* Mexican oregano

* whole coriander seeds

* whole cumin seeds

* whole fennel seeds

* house mixed dry chile flakes

White wine halts the frying action on the garlic and lifts off the fond stuck on the bottom of the pan from frying three batches of pork cubes. Something different this time: vinegar. The liquid in the pot is now officially a dressing. Water is added to the top of the pile of pork cubes. The liquid is brought to a boil, the heat cut back to low. The pot covered to simmer and the pork left to braise.

Pork cooks a lot faster than beef.

ARTS !

The broth was tasted after the inclusion of the whole green chiles in the large can. The two cans of chiles on the left, serano and chipoltes, were not included. Those would increase the capsaicin quotient significantly but they were deemed unnecessary. This is a very large pot of chile. A number of options are still available if along the way a hotter chile is desired for whatever purpose. See? Now that there is maturity -- leaving open options.

The cooked pork cubes are shredded with a fork.

The finished chile is good but fairly simple. Another bag of sun-dried dried tomatoes is included doubling the amount of tomatoes. This bag is smoked sun-dried tomatoes which alters the flavor of the whole pot slightly. A tin of corn is included as well. This is the first time that I ever put corn in green chile, and the first time in my life I ever used corn from a tin. I wanted it out of the pantry. It's not at all bad. A few tablespoons of masa harina is whisked into the liquid to thicken the broth slightly from a water consistency and to impart its uniquely Mexican aroma.

So that is it for the chile. It is quite good, addictive actually. It is impossible to have just one bowl.

Flour tortillas are fashioned from 1 cup AP flour with 1/3 WW flour, 1 rounded tablespoon lard, 1 rounded teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, 3/4 cup warm water. The dough is torn into golf ball size wads and rolled immediately one at a time as they are quickly fried in an un-oiled cast iron pan. To keep the tortillas soft, they are fried less than 1 minute.