B is the Best.

Barbie is not only one of my best friends, she is also one of my favorite cooks.  In any emergency, in doubt or simply in need of inspiration her ideas and approaches to cooking will never fail me as a somewhat undergifted home cook.   During our nearly daily early morning chit chats she was mentioning the other day making chile verde for dinner (a meal in her regular winter rotation), and I decide I finally have to try this. Having guests in town the weekend of the Eat My Blog bake sale, I think it will be fantastic if I can prep it for my crock pot Thursday evening, turn pot to "Low" Friday morning and come home from a long day of working and driving to good friends and an already cooked meal. And fantastic it was.

We started with about 3.5 lbs pork loin, and D trimmed it within an inch of its life.

 

D rubbed it thoroughly with salt, pepper, oregano, ancho chile powder and cumin.

 

Make sure all sides of the meat are well rubbed.

 

Start the process by browning all sides in a non-stick pan.

 

Don't forget to answer text messages, Twitter and FB as needed.

Next, deglaze pan with chicken or veg stock, add pork to crockpot with the deglazing liquid, a roughly chopped jalapeno, lots of split garlic cloves, a chopped onion, and 4 of those small cans of green chile sauce. Cover the lot with broth, I used chicken.  Jeff from Rosso Wine Shop asked for the recipe. See below. Changes I made are bolded.

Chile Verde

2 pounds of boneless pork 3.5 lbs

1 Large Can of Green Chile Sauce 4 small cans

8 cloves of garlic-chopped 12 cloves

Olive oil

1 Small Poblano Chile-chopped 1 large Jalapeno

1 large white or yellow onion chopped

Chile powder Ancho chile powder

Oregano

Salt pepper

Cut pork into 3-4 inch cubes.  (rubbed loin whole, uncubed) Season liberally with salt, pepper, oregano and chile powder.  Add olive oil to barely coat the bottom of a non-stick sauté pan and when the pan is hot add the pork and ½ the onions.  Brown meat (I add even more chile powder if needed-until the pork is speckled with red) and onions for about 10 minutes.  Add meat to crock pot and deglaze the pan with veg or chicken stock.  Add deglazed bits to the crock pot. Add green sauce, garlic, poblano or jalapeno and more stock (if needed) to barely cover the meat. 

Cook forever. (cooked for 1 hour in high, 10 hours on low)

I make bowls of black beans, cilantro, cotija cheese, and I serve with homemade style corn tortillas (green chile-Mi Abuelita brand) and flour tortillas.

Monica taught me to warm the tortillas wrapped in a damp kitchen towel microwaved for about 2 minutes.  This keeps them really soft and amazingly fresh.

Love B

Spicy deliciousness, served just the way B suggested with black beans, avocado, cotija cheese, cilantro and green onions on large plates and in big bowls.

Cut to...6:30 AM Saturday morning.  Scene: driving through Echo Park and DTLA in a state of abject depression over macaron failure of epic proportions.  Looking for an open bakery of excellent to stellar stature in which to buy a couple dozen artful pastries for Eat My Blog bake sale to erroneously label with my blog name and url.  B and I plot my options. Pan dulce? Donuts? Cheese danish? I think of The Red Lobster's cheese biscuits which are empirically the best item coming out of their kitchens. We discuss. As I drive maniacally toward Echo Park's own recently less ghettoized Von's on Alvarado, she searches recipe databases for possible biscuit recipes.  We seize on this one from Gourmet magazine, and bastardize it with jalapenos and bacon. 

Gourmet. September, 2004. RIP.

Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal (preferably stone-ground; not coarse)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 oz extra-sharp Cheddar, coarsely grated (2 cups)
3 tablespoons finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
3 scallions, finely chopped
1 1/3 cups well-shaken buttermilk

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 450°F. Butter 1 large baking sheet.

Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, then blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in cheeses and scallions with a wooden spoon, then add buttermilk and stir until just combined.

Drop dough in 8 equal mounds about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool to warm, about 10 minutes, then cut in half horizontally.

 

I doubled the recipe, and wow did this seem like a lot of cheese.  B and I agreed that nothing is made worse by bacon, and yes that is Jimmy Dean pre-cooked bacon in a box on my kitchen counter. In the background is my archaic Braun food processor with a couple giant jalapenos diced into tiny pieces.

 

Cornmeal and flour. Next time I might try a smaller flour:cornmeal ratio, just to make the gluten intolerant people happy. That, and I love cornmeal.

 

The Braun handles the bacon easily.

 

Drop biscuits make life beautiful.

 

Each one filled the palm of my not-too-large hands nicely.

 

My house, for the second day in a row, smelled of savory goodness.

 

Enfin. Something worthy of selling at the Eat My Blog bake sale.  Three dozen of them in less than an hour.

 

With a couple to spare for K & I to eat for lunch Saturday afternoon with leftover pork chile verde.

 

Thanks, B.