February 3, 2013 Dinner – Tomatillo, Squash, Pork and Black bean stew

February 3, 2013 Dinner – Tomatillo, Squash, Pork and Black bean stew

Today’s meal started during my trip to Pro’s Ranch market on Thursday to buy limes (2 lbs./$.99) to replenish our larder.  I saw the nicest tomatillos I have ever seen for 3 lbs./ $.99); large, fully matured and bursting out of their husks.   Pork chops were also on sale for $.98/lb., so I bought 6 lbs. of them.

On our drive back from Taos on Saturday we discussed making a meal with tomatillos and pork.  I had made a Rick Bayless Mexican Kitchen recipe last Fall with chayote, tomatillos, epazote and squash, so I was familiar with the concept and Suzette and I have made a tomatillo sauce before.  In fact we made one for the enchiladas last week.  So we decided to make another tomatillo sauce and to add it to a squash, black bean and pork stew. 

So Sunday morning I began by mincing three small onions, 4 or five cloves of garlic, and about 3 lbs. of tomatillos, which Suzette sautéed in a large enameled pot with a generous dash of salt, while I diced six or seven Mexican squashes, about three lbs. of pork chops, a medium sweet potato, 1 poblano chili, ½ red bell pepper and Suzette diced up about four carrots.  Suzette then browned the pork with another dash of salt and cooked the pork bones, and squash and carrot trimmings again with a dash of salt in water to make a broth.  Then she added some of the pork broth to the tomatillo/onion/garlic mixture in the enameled pot and she used the new immersion blender to puree the tomatillo mixture into the most delicious tomatillo sauce I have ever tasted (a great example of how wonderful ingredients cooked simply can create a great result.  The sauce was a newly discovered taste, a fresh radiantly flavorful sauce made with the most basic of ingredients.  Mexican Cuisine at its best).  In fact we took a break at around 10:00 a.m. to make breakfast -  a PPI piece of enchilada with a fried egg over easy smothered with the tomatillo sauce.

After breakfast at around 10:30 Suzette started making the stew.  She poured some pork stock into a large bean pot and added the diced Mexican squash, pork, three 14 ½ oz. cans of black beans, about 1 lb. of frozen yellow squash from our garden picked last Fall, the carrots, red bell pepper, poblano chili and minced sweet potato.  We then added 2 cups of tomatillo sauce and topped off the mixture in the bean pot that covered the ingredients with more pork stock.  We turned up the heat until mixture in the bean pot began to simmer and then lowered the heat to a simmer and cooked the stew for about 3 ½ hours until the squashes were soft.    

While the stew was simmering I made guacamole with eight avocados, about 2 Tbsp. of onion, three cloves of garlic, the juice of 3 small Mexican limes, about ten drops of Cholulu Hot Sauce and about 3 Tbsp. of chopped cilantro.

At around 3:00 p.m. we tasted the stew and decided it needed something so I added about 1 Tbsp. of ground coriander and 1 Tbsp. of dried Epazote and a dash more salt.  That addition seemed to fill out the flavor profile sufficiently to make it taste like a stew.   At 4:00 we ladled a pot full of stew and put the guacamole into a bowl and went to the Palmers for the Super Bowl. 

Susan had made fresh corn bread, brownies, and a lovely chopped fresh salad with butter lettuce from Costco, radicchio, yellow tomatoes and cucumbers with a vinaigrette dressing made by their daughter, Lisa, and her boyfriend.  Susan also had bought BBQ brisket and BBQ sauce at Costco and made a pot of pinto beans and had laid out an impressive array of snacks, like sour cream dip, potato chips, corn chip, cheese sticks, salted pecans, chopped fresh vegetables.  Charlie had recorded the game beginning from the Pre-kickoff show and so Charlie was able to Tivo the TV to the beginning of the Pre-kickoff show and we watched the entire game with breaks as we snacked, drank beer and a gin and tonic.  During half time we ate and fast forwarded through some of the festivities and the 35 minute interruption when the lights went out in the Superdome.

We loved the game because it was very competitive and was not decided until the last four or five minutes.  Toward the end of the game, Susan served pomegranate tea and the brownies.

At 8:45 p.m. when the game ended we went home with a few extra pieces of corn bread and our empty pot in a good mood and ready to watch Downton Abbey.

Bon Appétit