On the weekends, I like to pick up a few pounds of whatever meat is on special for under $3 a pound at the supermarket and either braise or stew it. Last weekend, I stewed some cubed boneless chuck roast in a mild red curry sauce with rum that ended up tasting almost like a beef bisque (which was a good thing... mmmmm). This weekend, I did a hearty pork stew with pork loin chops and it came out great.

I have a wife who is breastfeeding our new son, and I have an older a son who's closing in on 4 years old. Therefore hot and spicy is not really an option. I love it, but I'd be cooking for one. But you don't need to go hot and spicy to get "south of the border" flavors.

MEAT PREP

• 2.75 pounds thick cut pork loin chops, cut into medium cubes (3/4 inch or so)
• 6 cloves peeled garlic
• 2 ounces olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbs ground coriander packed
• 1 tbs ground cumin packed
• 1/4 white onion

I have one of those powered mini choppers that's just brilliant for quick purees. I threw all those ingredients, except the pork, into it, and spun the blades until it was a thick, pungent liquid. I then threw the pureed mixture into a one-gallon zipper bag with the pork and worked it around so all the meat was coated. I removed all the air I could, sealed the bag, and put it in the refrigerator to marinate for an hour.

BROTH PREP

• 2 12-oz cans tomatillos
• 2 14-oz cans chicken broth
• 2 4-oz cans fire roasted whole green chiles
• 3 Knorr garlic seasoning minicubes (got them in the Mexican foods aisle at WalMart)
• The other 3/4 of the onion, coarse chopped
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tbs ground coriander
• 1 tbs ground cumin
• Dash of salt, dash of pepper
• 1 10-oz package of frozen chopped spinach
• 3 tbs bacon grease

The last ingredient you may not have laying around. I'd done some bacon on a rack in the oven for a brunch we had a couple of weeks back, then drained the grease into a Dixie cup and put it into the freezer to harden so it would be easier to throw away. When I went for the frozen chopped spinach, I noticed it and decided to use it. You can render a few slices of bacon and use both the grease and meat, or you can just substitute more olive oil.

Warm the bacon grease or its substitute in the bottom of your stock/stew pot, then begin sauteeing the onions.

While the onions sautee, drain and puree the tomatillos and roasted green chiles. You may have to do this in two batches if you have a small chopper like mine. Do one can tomatillos and one can chiles together.

Once the onions have mostly softened, pour in the cumin, coriander, and oregano, and sautee a minute with them. Then add your puree and let everything come to a boil. Add in the garlic seasoning cubes and chicken broth and bring to a boil again.

As the broth mixture comes to a boil, heat a skillet to a very hot temperature and begin searing your pork cubes in batches. They're lightly coated in oil, so they shouldn't need any added cooking fat. You want to get some browning on them because it brings out more flavor. As each batch is browned, dump it into the broth.

Once all the meat is in the broth, give it a stir so all the meat is covered by the broth, cover the pot with a lid, reduce heat, and let it simmer for 3.5 hours. In the meantime, leave out the box of frozen chopped spinach to defrost on a plate. During this time, your house is going to smell awesome. Anyone who walks in from outside will begin drooling.

When the 3.5 hours is up, your broth should be savory and the pork should be tender. Unwrap the frozen spinach and put it in the stew pot. The spinach will still be cold, so raise the heat to bring the stew back to a boil. Boil for 7-8 minutes, stirring to break up the spinach and incorporate it into the stew.

Take the pot off the heat and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before serving. I recommend ladling it over some rice to make a hearty and filling meal. I often use a short grain rice to go with unthickened stews like this, because the short grain rice is starchier and will provide its own natural thickening when the rice and stew are combined.

Enjoy!

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 21st, 2008 at 7:37 am and is filed under Cooking & Recipes, Home Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.