Even vegetarians love bacon.
God, country, mother, apple pie, and bacon.
There’s a restaurant here in Marin County called Bacon. It’s probably not the only one in the U.S. I attended a conference once on Amelia Island off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, and must have been assigned one of the last available hotel rooms because I was right next to the kitchen. And every morning I woke up to the aroma of bacon cooking. I did not mind.
After I bought a house I hired a gardener to keep the property clean. We have something of a wild garden and plants grow profusely. We also have big trees, lots of them. Oaks, a Tri-Colored Beech, Dogwoods. We had a Persimmon tree but it died of old age. It was about 100. After a while Fernando and I became friendly enough for me to ask him if his wife made green chile. It’s my favorite Mexican dish. He told me no, his wife did not make green chile pork, but his mother did. I handed him a $20 and asked if he could bring me a serving of green chile the next time he came to clean up my property. He did, and this routine kept up for about a year. But then I let the gardening crew go, figuring I had better start doing more physical work myself to stay fit. That’s when I decided it was time to make green chile at home.
It’s not that daunting of a dish. You just need the right tools. Namely, a big ass Le Creuset. I’ve written about Le Creuset earlier in this blog. I have about 12 of the vessels in various shapes and sizes. This is the big boy at work, my 9-quart pot. I have a 6-quart version in blue that is excellent for roasting a 3-4 pound chicken with halved onions and whole carrots. I’ll make green chile, aka “pulled pork” with the 6-quarter Le Creuset or even my 5-quart (in orange!) pot if the pork shoulder and butt I buy is only three or four pounds. But when the chunk of meat is seven+ pounds, I need the big boy.
The second key to making this dish is having enough fresh, rough-chopped garlic on hand, and two, not one, yellow onion.
The third key to green chile – for the flavor profile I like, is a good amount of dried Mexican oregano. I added almost a half of couple to the fried onions and garlic. But first you brown the meat. Set the oven at 450, added a third of a cup of vegetable oil to the bottom of the pot and sprinkle that with either chile powder or cayenne pepper, the latter of which I did with this dish. Make sure the meat is dried off before putting it fat-side down on top of the oil and cayenne. Season the top of the pork shoulder with copious amounts of ground cumin, black pepper and garlic powder before placing it in the oven to roast, for about 40 minutes.
After the meat browns, extract the meat from the pot and put it on a large platter. This is no easy task, as the meat is huge and you don’t want to pierce it. I used a large metal spoon and large metal spatula to get the meat out of the pot. Turn the oven down to 325. Then cook the onions and garlic. Once the onions soften, I added two or three pasilla peppers and one diced jalapeno or fresno chile – whichever I have on hand. I also add smoked paprika as this phase of the cooking.
Once the vegetables are mixed well together, add the meat back to the pot and pour any juices from the platter on top of the meat. Add two cups of chicken stock, put the lid on tight and put the Le Creuset in the oven. After 90 minutes or so, turn the oven down to 200 and let it cook another 90 minutes. The meat will be fork tender.
We’ll normally have a meal when this dish is done. Just take a flour tortilla, smear a little chile-mayo on the bottom, a handful of arugula, some shredded meat with juices on top of that, plus a very light serving of grated cheddar cheese to enjoy a soft-shell taco.
The rest of the meat, vegetables and juices I pack in multiple containers, one of which I freeze and is mostly just the meat. That meat will come in handy a couple of weekends from now when I invite friends over for Cubano Sandwiches. That’s the pulled pork in the Cubanos.
The container I pack with most of the peppers will be a dinner in a few nights, with sticky white rice and a side of chayote squash and carrots boiled and finished in a little bit of butter. A big and hearty Zinfandel pairs well with this meal.