I stuck a draft version of my recipe for this Southwestern American/Mexican recipe in Feeding Amsterdam. The dish is, if anything, even more popular with the Dutch than my chile con carne. And since tomatillos are next to impossible to find in the Netherlands, it’s something that most Dutch have never even imagined. See the end of the recipe for a variation using chicken.
INGREDIENTS
4.5 lbs. (2 kilos) of Boston Butt pork roast. I tried using “fresh ham”, by which I mean uncured meat from the hind leg of a pig. This excellent meat is not easy to find in mainstream America because the vast majority of these legs are turned into hams, but you can find it in specialty markets. It’s very lean with little connective tissue between the large muscle divisions. I get mine at Casa Guadalupe on Mission Street, where it’s called pierna. As much as I like this cut for other purposes, it’s actually a little too good for a Chile Verde because here we want the extra fat that’s in the Boston Butt. Besides, the Boston Butt is a lot cheaper. Don’t we just love it when the cheaper alternative turns out to be better.
Lard or oil for browning the meat.
2 pounds (0,9 kilos) tomatillos. The tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica) is in the same genus as the poha (P. peruviana) and in the Solanaceae (nightshade) family with the tomato. You cannot make real chile verde without them, and when i’ve made this dish in the Netherlands, i’ve used tomatillos smuggled in from San Francisco. That said, you might be able to find them in Amsterdam at a groente juwelier (a très très upscale produce market in which the fruit and vegetables are displayed, and priced, like jewelry). Note: Store the tomatillos in a paper bag (not plastic!) in the refrigerator vegetable bin so that the paper husk will lift right off easily.)
1 pound (0,45 kilos) mild green chiles. I especially like Pasillas, but or Anaheims or Anchos are also good. You don’t want “sweet” or bell peppers.
Fresh jalapeños. The number of jalapeños (Capsicum annuum) is entirely dependent on who’s coming to dinner. Take into account that they will lose some of their piquancy as the dish cooks down, but be gentle. This dish should not be as “hot” as Chile con Carne.
2 bunches of fresh green onions.
1 large bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro).
2 or 3 stalks of fresh green garlic. Of course if you’re making this dish outside the short fresh garlic season, you’ll have to use 1 head of dry garlic instead.
Salt.
TECHNIQUE
- Trim the excess fat off the meat. There is typically not much because good butchers everywhere tend to trim pork well, especially fresh ham because you’re paying a premium for it.
- Cut the meat into 1 ½ in. (3-4 cm.) chunks and then, in small batches, pat them dry with towels and brown them in the oil or fat in the bottom of a large, heavy pot, transferring the batches into a large bowl when done. Drain off the remaining fat and return the browned cubes to the pot.
- Husk and stem the tomatillos, and wash off the sticky sap. Seed the peppers. Trim and chop the onions and garlic. Throw the last inch off the stems of the coriander into the compost and chop the rest. Reserve a double handful of the leaves for the end of the recipe.
- Puree all the vegetables in a food processor and dump them into the pot with the pork. Bring to a simmer. To get it going, you may need to add a small amount of stock or water, but not too much because the vegetables and meat will yield some liquid as they cook. Adjust the heat to maintain the simmer, and cook until the meat is almost falling apart and the green vegetables have cooked down into a thick green sauce. You may have to add a little more liquid, but remember that you want the sauce to be quite thick at the end.
- When the sauce gets thick enough, it will start to stick and burn if left unattended, so just before it burns is a good time to throw in the reserved coriander leaves, stir for a couple of minutes, and call it done. Well, assuming that the pork is fork-tender. Cooking time varies according to the pork, how well you browned the pork, and the altitude – around a couple of hours for fresh ham or around three hours for Boston Butt. You want it very tender, nearly falling apart.
VARIATION
In the summer of ’08 my friend Stephen invited me to a garden party for our friend Ian, and I volunteered to bring Chile Verde. Too late, I remembered that many of the guests don’t eat red meat and are not deceived by labeling pork “the other white meat”. So what to do? Well, I considered just making a regular Chile Verde and calling it “Long Chicken in Green Sauce”, but I knew Ian’s extensive residence and study in Polynesia and the East Indies would allow him to see right through this subterfuge.
So I went down to Casa Guadalupe and bought a six pound stewing hen (una gallina vieja). I simmered her for 3 hours in a mixture of half chile verde green stuff puree (see above), a quarter water, and a quarter chicken stock. Pulled her out, broke her into quarters, and let her cool while I boiled down the cooking liquids and sucked the fat off with a bulb baster. Tore the chicken off the bones and broke up the meat into chunks. Threw the chicken with the reduced cooking liquids into a casserole and simmered it another few minutes while I watched Andy Roddick humiliate himself on the court, taking his nation down with him, until I could bear it no longer. Turned off the TV, turned off the fire, covered the casserole, stuck it into a carrier, and Segwayed to the party.
Never before have I taken to a party a dish that got as many requests for the recipe.
And oh, that schmaltz I skimmed off the top? It was a pale green and richly, richly flavored from the chiles and vegetables. Delicious for a variety of uses.