pork chile with rice and beans

No wait.

Dayidiz.

The axiom among chile elitists of Texas is, "Whoever puts beans in chile don't know beans about chile." They're against it. That attitude excludes this chile from competition. But I don't care, I'm not competing. The thing is, I have this rice and beans from down there ↓ that is pretty good but could be improved. So I get to think'n about enhancements and my mind goes naturally to chiles. Lot's of chiles. Different kinds. And then I go, "More meat too." And then I think how much I liked that green chile (that was red) from about five posts ago, and how it ran out too fast. And how even though it wasn't the best batch I ever made, how much I enjoyed it with fresh hand-made flour tortillas, and how oddly, and this is kind of a little teensy bit gross, how much it improved my entire GI tract, and by GI I don't mean soldiers.

Plus I'm still scrounging and seeking to clear out the freezer and the pantry or at least whittle the contents down some. I have two large pork roasts and one lamb roast. They're taking up room in the freezer that could be occupied by seafood and chicken. And ice cream.

One pork roast, cubed and fried.

One package of frozen Hatch chiles roasted road-side at one of those festive Hatch chile endeavors where New Mexico natives have branched out spreading the plenitude of the produce of their land and the good news of the gospel of these famed green wonders, improved through centuries of wise chile-husbandry. Or something.

The pork roast was bone-in. A bit of a problem cutting around the bone but not too bad. I did want to extract every last iota of porkly goodness off of and out of the bone. So into the pot it went.

If I had a dog, and gave that dog this bone, I'm certain it would look at me quizzically, like, "WTF? Couldn't you have left a little for me? Where's the marrow? I hate you."

Not really. Dogs totally appreciate every little thing, no matter how stingy.

* coriander

* cumin

* bay leaf

* Mexican oregano

* dried thyme

* sea salt

* excessive mad grinds of black pepper.

The Hatch chiles were insufficient. Could barely taste them. I added a medium size can of jalapeños. Tasted. Still insufficiently hot. Boy, beans must really soak up capsaicin. I added another smaller can of jalapeños. Tasted. Aún no es bien caliente. Still insufficiently hot. Plus it's kind of two-dimensional chile-wise. Added another small can of jalapeños plus the remainder of a small jar of habanero sauce, which amounted to two teaspoons, which expanded the chile profile to three types. Tasted. There. That did it.

I have my flour tortilla act DOWN. It is now second nature to whip them out, just enough for that one meal. This means I don't have to buy a dozen tortillas and then have the remainder around until they're gone, getting worse and worse with each passing day. I learned to cook them stovetop as briefly as possible in order to keep them soft and wonderful.

Incidentally, the bowl pictured above was given to me by a Boston friend presently living in San Francisco. He's the person I just now mailed this birthday card that I made. His birthday is Friday. I'm tracking the card by USPS priority mail tracking service and I'm a little bit worried it might be late. I've noticed that California doesn't have the best of all mail service.

rice and beans

It's January first, so what else? I think this supposed to be black-eye peas but I don't have any of those so I used pinto beans instead. I still have some mung bean sprouts left over from the sukiyaki and they don't last forever, ya know. And shitaki mushrooms, aaand baby bok choy aaaaaand frozen peas, aaaaaaaaaaaand an old jar of hoisin sauce so what would you do? BANG! Dayidiz.

I totally invented this.

Hoisin is like a weird thick sweet jam. It's counterpunctual to salty soy sauce or tamari.

My pinto beans were dry and I didn't soak them so I pressure cooked them instead for the same amount of time the rice steamed in another pot. It was just a guess, and it worked.

Steamed a small amount of broccoli, fried a small chopped onion, added the mushrooms then all the other items. The thing is, I wanted vegetables to go with the beans and rice.

rice and beans

With banana, garden tomato, and balcony basil.

salad with rice and beans

* ginger and garlic and mustard

* oil and vinegar and salt/pepper

* rice steamed on low heat 25 minutes + no heat 10 minutes covered for the full 35 minutes. Shaped inside a dampened ramekin.

* beans with ham hock prepared previously.

Moros y Cristianos

Is that politically incorrect? Fine! Beans and rice then. First, sofrito dun my way, with jalapeno, cumin, and coriander. Those orange things down there are capsicums, not carrots.  And in'nit purdy? 

Cooked the beans in a pressure cooker and it accidentally went to high instead of staying on beany low and that made the tender beans go a little bit splody, but I don't care, I love them anyway.