Thursday, September 15, 2011

Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth

I got a little $3 package of pork meat and I remembered one of the first real recipes I got excited about making was from my Fanny Farmer Cookbook. I read that book like the bible. I still have it. Unfortunately due to my misspent youth, my recall is shot to all hell and I don't retain information very well and I often have to relearn things over and over. The recipe was Chili Con Carne, Real Texas chili with cubed beef chuck. Very simple recipe but it helped me understand that I could actually make something fabulous by just learning a technique. The technique was searing and then braising. I wish they would have named it that actually because it would be a few more years before I knew that's what it was.
So anyway I figured I could do a great pork chili, same method, stovetop. Roll the cubed pork in seasoned flour. Sear it on all sides, then add onions and lots of garlic. At this point its good to add a nice big bottle of beer but I just had chicken stock. For the chili powder, I went with a cumin powder blend with some chili but more cumin, cilantro and coriander and a bit of smoked paprika. Cover in a heavy bottomed pot and simmer for 2 hours.
It felt great to just make this quickly as if it were just boiling water. I'd come a long way from running back and forth to my recipe book. Serve this with some nice warm flour torts and beans and rice if you want a hearty meal. Now, what was it you were saying?

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