Palm Society Stew - chile verde, illustrated

[DoomsDave]

Howdyall:

A few of our friends near the Mediterranean wanted to grow some tomatillos, and I pointed out they were good and rather noisily suggested cooking some chile verde with them.

Now you can witness the birth of Palm Society Stew, for the potluck at the PSSC's May meeting in Mission Viejo.

http://palmssc.org/new-page-6/

First, the view out the kitchen window. Those are Dypsis leptocheilos trunks.

[DoomsDave]

That picture was taken through a screen. A bit a la Monet, oui?

Here are the ingredients. If you can, try to get the Mexican ones, but the gringo ones will work, too. (They did in Ohio.)

Pork stew meat

Jalapeno chiles

Nopalito, Opuntia cactus pads, whole (more on that later)

Tomatillos! Culture like tomatoes, but don't use interchangably. Raw, they taste like "warhead" candy from 7-11; cooked, well . . . good. Note the husk, and removal.

White onion and Mexican green onion. The latter is a fat bottom green onion with a strong, spicy taste, like shallots. DON'T mix them up with scallions, the familiar gringo green onion.

White onion will work if you can't get fat bottom greenies.

garlic! Use a lot! Unless your family is a bunch of vampires. . . .

I'm using two heads of it. Good! Trust me.

[DoomsDave]

Preparation.

Okay. Seems obvious, but, well, not always.

Cactus is a bit problematic. They have spines, so they can bite back. So, you need to de-fang them. Scrape the spines off with a knife.

Cut them into little squares.

And the others.

And the garlic.

and some salt

Place it all in a nice big pot. Turn on the heat.

high.

[DoomsDave]

Fill up the pot, overflow it. Cook for a crowd, need a bit of stuff.

Cover to hold in the heat, let the stuff give up their juices, which gives the flavor.

Uncover, as the juices flow.

Take a taste of the liquid. It should have tangy notes, with garlic, salt, and heat from the chiles.

Go ahead and slurp noisily.

[DoomsDave]

Turn down the heat to low, stir.

Post on Palm Talk. Talk about how wonderful the upcoming PSSC meeting will be. All the good friends you'll meet. Or, not.

Stir and scrape the bottom of the pot about every 15 minutes. You don't want it to burn.

Or at least not too much.

As the liquid cooks down and the flavors intesify, tell your significant other that the flavors resemble . . . never mind.

Getting near ready.

Take a taste. Ahhh.

Three hours from start. Allow time.

[DoomsDave]

Sample it. Won't do to foist untried Palm Society Stew on your friends without a good, thorough taste, would it?

[DoomsDave]

Variations

If you don't want to use pork, veal will work.

Or, even better, like the Aztecs, use turkey. Instead of tossing it in at the start, let the vegetables cook for a couple hours, then put in the cut up turkey and cook another hour.

You can get cactus cut up, but cut up your own. Cactus calluses wounds, which means that pre-cut cactus won't give up the liquid that makes it taste so good.

You don't have to use two heads of garlic for 8 pounds of pork. But use some.

[John Case]

No Anaheim chiles? That s the base for all of my veggies. I am interested in trying this out. I have a nopales in the yard just for such an endeavor!

Thanks, Dave,

JC

[DoomsDave]

Anaheim might work, too. Nice, mild chiles are a good base, you can add hotter ones.

DON'T use habaneros, for the love of Dieties. Too hot.

[sur4z]

no beans???

[DoomsDave]

no beans???

Beans are served on the side, along with rice, and beer. Or sweet tea. Or water.

This isn't to be confused with what's called "chili" in the U.S., which is often made with, tomato, beans and ground beef and is the focus of many "chili cook-offs" all over the place. (Good, too. GotPalms made us PSSC-ers a nice, giant, pot of chili when we had the meeting at his place. I had two bowls.)

Chile verde is a completely different dish.

[Josh-O]

All I gotta say is I ate some this past Saturday and I went back for seconds and it was all gone.

Great stuff Dave!!