I love getting exciting about a new food especially when it contains peppers! Southwestern and Mexican ingredients are simple and few but sometimes something comes along and its as if you're looking at those same elements through a prism. When I heard my sister R talking about green chile sauce with pork on my trip to Colorado I was intrigued. We ordered a dish from a local Italian slash Mexican restaurant named Victorio's they called Mexican Lasagna where this sauce was laid over the dish. They used ground pork. Hmmm...sounded strange but upon tasting I sort of fell in love. And the look was different than anything I'd eaten out here in NY or in San Francisco.
When I returned home I began to do research and it seems that that area became very famous for it's green chile's especially down in Hatch, New Mexico and then something happened with the crops and others started growing similar peppers in Pueblo etc. They also experimented and grew several varieties out there, hybrids, its intense. Well this mild to hot chili had a great distinct flavor when roasted and folks did some cool things with it out in Pueblo.
Then you get into the Green Chile Sauce versus Green Chili to which there are tons of various recipes but these are two disconnected dishes. Anywho, I was looking for this
gravy like sauce that included pork and red tomatoes, nothing like a green chili or even pork chile verde. Then I discovered the 'Slopper', which is a now famous burger covered with this pork infused green chile sauce that was featured on the Travel Channel's Food Wars in 2010. This was it, the sauce! It originated in Pueblo it seems.
It wasn't that easy finding a recipe but reading several of them, you see its a simple sauce and the main difference is that it starts with a roux. You don't have to spice it up too much, mainly garlic and cumin and you let the flavor of the roasted pepper do the main work here. A good, rich chicken stock also is key to bringing the magic as the pork stews in the stock to become tender and also adds its own rich flavor. I worked with this recipe...www.food.com/recipe/chriss-pueblo-green-chili-sauce-21076 because it sounded closest to what I had tasted in Colorado City. My sister said what we had wasn't even the best she'd had at all, so I had to imagine the flavors much deeper. And I could. Oh yeah, I could imagine deeper richer, pork, gravy, ooooooooh.......
It took a bit but I found good peppers from Met Food on Smith because all their produce guys are Mexican and they always have fresh tomatillos, and several varieties of peppers, the best cilantro. Whoever the buyer is, he knows what he's doing. These were hotter than I expected and there is a chance they come from New Jersey but I had to work with them. I added a couple of Poblano's because I know their roasted taste is close.
These peppers are a bit more work to roast and peel as they are skinnier and you use a lot of them. I can see why many people buy them frozen and ready to go in and around Pueblo.
I sauteed the onions and garlic, then added the flour and spices for the roux, let that darken and become cooked. I slowly added the chicken stock until smooth then the diced, seeded, peeled, roasted peppers and Rotel tomatoes with chiles. The pork I browned in batches before adding to the sauce. Brought this to a boil then simmered until the pork was tender and all the parts became one.
This is something to try folks, no kiddin'. You think you've heard it all but man then here comes this skinny green chili that has a lot to say. This sauce would be amazing poured over your dirty socks people! I made some crisped chicken and zucchini tacos and just poured that sauce right on over. P said words like
Damn! and
Holy shit! so I knew I wasn't nuts. This is going in regular rotation and even though I'm all the way out here in New York City no where near the West, I now have this emotional connection to this pepper and will continue with the spirit of the West, experimenting and hopefully creating new traditions.
Everyone who creates deals with those big lulls in inspiration or drive. Even if it goes away for couple of days one can fear the loss forever. Also, you begin to wonder if you ever did, in my case, cook anything great tasting ever to begin with. I've been eating cereal for dinner more than a few nights. The stove is cold and I find myself opening and shutting the fridge hoping to jolt some big idea. Suddenly at work today I was struck with a craving for that amazing Pueblo Green Chile Sauce that is so famous there. But my rule is I must dance with the food I brought home that week. I try my best not to let produce or meat go to waste ever. I actually had a sack of Poblano peppers. Pathmark never carries those for some reason but this time they had them and they were all a deep forest green color right out of the Crayola box.
I also had turkey thighs unthawed along with a pound of ground turkey. Now I had forgotten that in order for this sauce to truly shine, she must have her pork meat to allow the flavors to develop. But I made it straight with the roasted chiles off a simple web recipe. It was good but I'm telling you when you eat that green chile sauce made right, there is something magic about it. The kind of sauce you want to lick the plate afterwards. I think it's because of that flour based element type comfort thing but mixed with the punch of a mild pepper and small bits of meat in a gravy like consistency.
Poblano's have a different flavor than those Hatch chiles when roasted so I figured now I was in uncharted territory anyway and went rogue. The base sauce I ladled over the turkey thighs after browning on the stovetop and stuck them in the oven covered for an hour and 1/2.
I took my ground turkey meat and added it directly to the simmering pepper sauce. The meat browned right in the sauce and also melted it's meaty goodness into the sauce. So then that took on it's own new flavors. I was able to put this over almost everything I ate over the next few days. Oh yeah!
I learned another food lesson this week and that was just like pestos or soups, one can follow the same basic blueprint of a recipe but use a variety of ingredient combinations to come up with new and amazing foods. The difference in pepper and meat lent a bolder sauce, which could then go with different pairings.
I served the thighs with a buttered polenta and just pulled the sauce in with each bite. Awwwwwesome!
I can't define art but I know it when I see it. The mind is marvelous and mysterious. When its doors open you must enter trustingly and promptly, graciously. Understanding the most fundamental concepts in life, at least for me, is very fleeting and I think art is when you do see clearly even for a moment something deep and somehow bring it to surface successfully in some form. So that when anyone hears it, tastes it, sees it, knowingly and collectively says, yeah that's right. As if all the truths of the world are all wrapped up in that one thing. The knowing is almost a recognition as if we've all seen and known perfection before in a very distant past. This sauce wasn't that but at least it pulled me out of my rut and I am inspired again to create something that is.
