Saturday

Chile Verde

I learned how to make this from a woman I played bunco with. Don't remember much about that particular group - I do remember her family kept 'sneaking' in to get more chile more often than we changed tables.
I had never even heard of a Texas sweet onion at the time, in fact my knowledge of Texas at the time was bad, bad memories of Hell Paso twenty odd years prior. Long before the home grown chile project.
Chiles will survive everything else it seems, even with city water restrictions and severe neglect. Although I confess, I am looking into a greenhouse, just an 8 x 8, for the weenie tomatoes ... winter is headed in. I - frankly - am already in full teeth chattering mode. All the more reason this is the dish is hitting the stove as we speak... er, as I type...
This is not the kind of chile I made last week to go with conrbread, or as later reheated by the little one, with -- AHHHH -- fritos and cheese... And yes, I know most people make this with pork. I make it with beef.



- Chile Verde -



4 1/2 lbs stew beef
1/2 garlic, minced
3 tbl canola oil
1 large texas sweet onion, sliced thin

1/2 purple onion diced
20 oz Ortega-style green chiles
2 cups petite diced tomatoes
2 grilled, peeled, ultra finely diced jalapenos
1 grilled, peeled, osterized habanero
3 cups tomatillo sauce




Cut the meat in approx ½ inch cubes.


Salt and pepper the meat, then brown it with garlic in 2 tbl of the oil on low to low-medium heat to ensure full cooking. Nice and toasty!




Move to crock pot when cooked. Use the same pan to sauté the onions in the 3rd tbl of oil and also move them to the crock-pot. Add chiles, tomatoes, jalapenos, habanero and tomatillo sauce. Cook on low heat in the crock-pot for at least 6 hours.




Wooie, that's it! Serve as is on the plate or mix with refried beans in burritos. Can be frozen.
Remember, the mini food processor is the habeneros best friend!




Don't know how to do chiles? Ask.




Need to know how to make mexican rice, ask, never, ever resort to using rice a roni - puh-leeeeeas!

Salsa

Made salsa.

Lots of it.


I'll give you my little recipe


The huge one in the very back is a cuban chili.




This is the largest of the yellow tomatoes this year.







Oh, you know I had to compare it to the size of that last apple




.... if you remember when I had small apple trees.....
















Salsa
I use;



serranos, jalapenos and for this batch I had two very big Cuban chilis I received as a gift.










I planted Habaneros however, they did not survive summer.





Grille the chilis.




This batch I did not grille them on the BBQ.




The lad bought a new dutch oven at the surplus store recently –and while he was there he bought ME, this cast iron skillet. . . broke it in grilling chilis.

Turn them occasionally so that they get toasty and crispy on all sides.










They might seem overdone, no worries ~ you will not use the outer skin.




When toasted, place them on a damp towel and put a second damp towel [I use an old cloth napkin] on top.

Press gently.

The towels will steam the skins off.
You will hear the chili ‘pop’.











Peel them, cut the stem off and set the chili aside or remove the seeds.
The seeds are the hottest part and serranos are hotter than jalapenos.



You decide if you want to remove the seeds.
Cut the skinned chili's up in strips.






































For this batch I also put the molcajete into use for the very first time [ … you know, a poi pounder - a mortar and pestle] I had received it some 20 years ago and kept it filled with dried rose buds.
But alas, pupzilla ate those too – so after I gave it a thorough washing and sanitizing … I decided to try it.

Those pioneer women must have had some serious carpal tunnel.
It was difficult to mash the chilis.
Imagine using such a tool to grind grain?


One part grilled mashed chiles to two parts green Ortega chilis.
Those I put into
my little Oskar food processor. Another 20 year old kitchen gadget. I think I bought it to tide me over until I could afford a ‘real’ food processor. Something else always took precident (shhhhh .... penny pincher).
In a bowl mix the one part chiles, t
wo parts ortegas, which have been pulverized in the food processor. Add at least 6 parts tiny
diced tomatoes.
I use canned
tomatillos. Yes, yes, big fat cheater. Never saw a tomatillo in a California store, now that I am in Texas and routinely encounter them in the grocery store I am reassured I will one day venture into steaming and peeling those as well. [If you cannot find tomatillos, try this. It's pretty common.].

Add 4 parts tom
atillo sauce.
One large red onion, diced small.
An entire bunch of cilantro leaves, try to remove stems. Chop tiny as well.
Few dashes of pepper, salt, garlic salt and lemon pepper.
If you want to make ahead to freeze, leave
out the cilantro and add it the day you will be using.
See? Easy peasy!

Thursday

.Pistachio Salad:

.Pistachio Salad:

1 pkg pistachio pudding
1 appx 20 oz can crushed pineapple
appx 10 oz bag mini marshmallows
1 cup chopped nuts, pecans or walnuts
1 large tub non-fat cool whip

Open pudding and pour dry into bowl. Add pineapple, including any juice in the can;
also add marshmallows, nuts and cool whip.
Mix gently.
You can refrigerate in a bowl or jello-mold sprayed with pam and then turn over for a molded jello or just refrigerate and scoop like we do.
[have been making this one so long the recipe is TYPED!]