Emulsified Green Chili Salsa

Green Chili Salsa

Salsa Verde - An Emulsified Green Chili Salsa
This recipe came from my attempts to make a Salsa Verde that I found at Dos Coyotes Border Cafe their Green Chili Salsa is one of my favorites. While I still don't think I 'Nailed it' I do believe I've made some batches that were better! This recipe will give you a fresh, light, exotic green salsa with a hint of heat.  As with most of my recipes, I strive to give you the basic building blocks of the recipe, so that you can make it your own my changing it. This recipe will give you a fresh tasting, rather exotic salsa with just a hint of heat.

Green Chili Salsa

Salsa Verde Ingredients:

2 Poblano or Pasilla Peppers - these are large fat mild Chili Peppers
2 Jalapeno Peppers - these are  small smooth skinned hotter Chili Peppers
1/2 Large onion
1/2 cup Canola or other vegetable Oil
1 Bunch Cilantro leaves stripped from the stems

A Chili by any other name? There's lots of confusion concerning the names of Chilis: Poblano, Ancho, Pasilla. Here's a picture of the ones I use http://www.worldcrops.org/images/content/Poblano_peppers_in_S._Deerfield_-_550.JPG

Roast the Peppers and onion, I like to separate the layers of the onion

Green Chili Salsa

Once the pepper's skins have been scorched - place them in a closed plastic container to steam and cool down. Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the tops, skin and seeds.

Place the oil in the blender and either add each ingredient separately between bursts of blending, or turn on the blender and add the Onion, Peppers (I cut them into strips), and cilantro.

Serve it with traditional Tortilla Chips, Crackers, as a vegetable dip, and as a topping for your favorite Mexican dish.

For Taste Sake

Green Chili Salsa

It's the emulsification of the oil and the moisture in the peppers and onions that gives the salsa it's unique color

The oil does add to the flavor, so experiment with different oils.

Add Salt and pepper to taste

When adding salt to this recipe, remember to take into account the amount of salt that may already be present on the chips that you're serving it with - be sure to taste it with a chip and not just with your finger

Roasting the onion releases the gas that gives onions their 'bite', so if you like the bite of raw onion, don't roast the onion.

Roasted tomatillos add great flavor - cut them in half or quarters and roast them with the Chili Peppers and onion - you'll have to add extra jalapenos to keep the tomatillos from diluting the heat.

You can also throw a raw garlic clove or two in the blender with the other ingredients to step up the flavor.

Serve it with traditional Tortilla Chips, Crackers, as a vegetable dip, and as a topping for your favorite Mexican dish.

If you have a really good blender, you don't have to strip the cilantro leaves from the stems - the blender will pulverize the stems.

The Chili Peppers can be roasted on a BBQ grill, on a gas stove burner, gas or electric oven broiler, turn them often until the skin has been scorched and blistered

Mexican Pork Riblets

Mexican Pork Riblets

This is my all time favorite Pork dish. Tender fall of the bone pork, slow cooked in a flavorful Mexican sauce. This dish can be made with any cut of pork. I think it's best with riblets.
This can be served as a main dish or as an appetizer. If you choose to make it with boneless Pork, then this makes a wonderful taco or burrito filling.
There's a great deal of talk about peasant food - cheap, common food often raised to gourmet level. 'Riblets' are pork rib timings. When a rack of pork ribs are trimmed, especially when trimmed for Santa Fe style there's not much else that can be done with those trimmings, it's too much trouble to separate the meat from the bone, often the riblets are thrown away. Some places will sell them. Many people, myself included, think the flavor of the meat closest to the bone is better.

The Recipe is simple and the results are outstanding.
3 to 5 pounds or so pork cut into 1" cubes, riblets should be cut into pieces - cut between the bone
3 - 7.75 oz. Cans of El Pato Mexican Tomato Sauce
1 or 2 Tbsp ground Cumin spice
1 Medium to Large Onion sliced

Place the pork, onion, sauce and cumin in a Crock Pot, stir so that everything is coated in sauce. Cover and put on low for a minimum of 5 hours. When the meat can easily be pulled apart or pulled off the bone, they're done. You can turn the heat down to warm until it's time to eat.

I commonly will prepare everything in the removable crock, and put it in the refrigerator over night. In the morning, just before leaving for work, I'll put the crock in the holder and set it on low. Nine or so hours later, when I arrive home, the house smells delicious! It only takes a few minutes to prepare a side dish, and sit down to a delicious dinner.

If you're in a hurry - you can put everything into a large pot, add some broth (Chicken or Vegetable) or even water to thin out the sauce, turn the stove to medium high and stir ever 5 to 7 minutes until tender.

For Taste Sake
This can be served with the traditional refried beans and rice.
Another good alternative I enjoy them with is whole wheat angel hair pasta. This is one of the few dishes that is hearty enough to not get overpowered by the whole wheat pasta. Regular pasta is also a good side dish.

For children and those faint of heart you can control the heat by using only tomato sauce, or 2 cans tomato sauce to one El Pato, or 1 can tomato sauce to 2 El Pato. You can further increase the heat by adding chipotle peppers either finely minced or blended in.

You can also experiment with the amount of cumin you add to the dish, for those who really like the flavors of Mexican cuisine - you can easily add another tablespoon or two.

Just a note to be aware of the bones in this dish, when cooking for long periods of time the bones can begin to disintegrate, so chew carefully.

Fred's Famous Fresh Salsa

The key to this recipe is the fresh ingredients - you can vary the recipe to your own liking. Experiment and make it your own.







Ingredients

10 Chili Peppers (Anaheim, Sweet Italian, Banana,  Pasilla) - Roasted & peeled
1 Medium Onion - minced
4 Medium to Large Meaty Tomatoes (Beefsteak, Plum, Shady Lady, Better Boy) - diced
1 Bunch Cilantro - chopped
Coarse Salt, Cracked Pepper, Minced Garlic or Garlic Powder to taste

The peppers are the most time consuming aspect of this recipe - they can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated.
The chili peppers have a very thin, very tough skin on them that should be removed. Some sort of flame makes it easy - BBQ, Gas Broiler, Gas Stove, Blow torch. The chilis can be roasted in an oven but it's not as effective. Place the chilis over direct flame and rotate them until the skin becomes charred and blistered as much as possible. Remove the peppers from the flame into a plastic or paper bag, close the bag and let them sweat, steam until they're cool enough to handle. The skin should now be easy to remove by hand.

With a sharp pairing knife, cut off the top of the pepper, slice it open from the opening to the tip and lay it open. Scrape out the seeds. If you are storing the peppers for later use, simply storing them in a bowl will result in a bowl of slimy peppers. I place a saucer upside down in the center of a medium or large plate. Stack the peppers on top of the saucer and wrap in saran, and store in the refrigerator. The slime will drain it's way to the under plate, away from the peppers.

I like this style of salsa rather dry and chunky. So I dice the Tomatoes, Onions, and peppers on the bigger side. Chop the Cilantro well, you can pull the leaves off and chop them, but you can also getaway with bundling it up tightly and cutting 1/8" slices off the bundle. Avoid chunks of stems in your salsa.

When dicing the tomatoes, I put the cutting board on a slant and let the juice run into the sink. I only use the meat of the tomato, discarding the seeds and juicy portion surrounding them.

So mix all the ingredients together, add salt, pepper (preferably fresh cracked), minced garlic or garlic granules or powder to taste. The salt will draw even more moisture from the produce - I like to drain the salsa when juice starts to accumulate. You don't have to throw the juice away - it's great in Bloody Mary's - I hear it cures hangovers
Serve with tortilla chips, over dishes like grilled Salmon etc.

For Taste Sake
Fresh minced garlic might be too much for some people - the Minced Garlic in a jar is less potent.
Experiment with different types of onions, Yellow, White, Brown, Red, Sweet Walla Walla, Maui, Torpedo) Torpedos are my favorite they can be spicy.
A great addition to this salsa is corn - either freshly cut from the cob or roasted first.
Fire roasted Tomatoes (like you did with the peppers) makes a great variation.

This salsa is at it's very best when made fresh but tomatoes and chili peppers aren't always available - you can experiment with canned chopped tomatoes (some are available with Italian or Mexican spices) and canned chopped chili peppers.

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Chili Verde Recipe

Chili Verde is one of my all time favorite Mexican dishes!
DELICIOUS tender chunks of pork simmered in a wonderful green sauce.
I've order this dish in more restaurants than I can remember an I've enjoyed them all - Here's how you can enjoy it and serve it for others to enjoy.

This is a very simple dish, your results depend on your dedication to maximizing the flavor.

Pork cut into small cubes any amount will work - calculate 1/3 lb to 1/2 lb fresh pork per person.
1 Onion Per 2 lbs of Pork sliced as you desire (minced or sliced is typical)
Ground Cumin about 1Tbsp per pound add as much as you wish
Green Enchilada Sauce or Roasted Tomatillo Salsa (15oz can per 2lbs of pork)

Start with an inexpensive cut of pork - the better the cut - typically the more tender and leaner the meat. An inexpensive cut can be improved by trimming away as much fat and gristle as possible. Tenderness can be achieved by cooking the meat longer. It's pretty hard to 'Over Cook' pork - the longer you cook it the more tender it becomes.

The simplest method is the 'Unattended Crockpot' - let the crockpot do all the work - Mix Pork, onion, cumin and Enchilada sauce together - put the crock on high or low and come back in a few hours - this is a great way to put a meal in the crockpot in the morning and come home from work with the house smelling WONDERFUL and a ready-to-eat meal waiting for you when you walk in the door!

The 2nd More Flavorful method is the "Attended Crockpot' - The pork, and onion have quite a bit of moisture in them - which is great if you're leaving the crockpot unattended but that moisture does dilute the Enchilada sauce. So to increase the flavor, we need to let the moisture evaporate throughout the cooking process - this evaporation, concentrates the flavor of the dish. So if you're going to be home enough to supervise the crockpot - You can let it cook enough with the top on to thoroughly cook the pork. Then take the lid off and let it cook uncovered for several hours, stirring the dish and scraping down the sides of the crockpot so that the sauce doesn't burn on the side of the crockpot.

The 3rd and most flavorful method is to precook the onion and pork - this requires more work but the flavor is worth it! Start with a small amount of oil, Chicken or Beef  broth, or water in a skillet add the cubed pork and onion, eventually the moisture will start coming out of the pork and onion - you'll have almost a soup - just keep the heat on it until the moisture evaporates. You'll be tempted to pour the liquid off (which you can do) - but there's flavor in that liquid! Keep cooking untill the bottom of the pan is DRY. Once it's dry - add the Pork, Onion, Cumin mixture to the Enchilada Sauce in the crockpot and cook it in the crockpot until tender.

This dish is typically served, scooped on a plate with Spanish rice, Refried beans, and tortillas on the side, but it makes a wonderful taco and burrito filling.

There's various Green Enchilada Sauce and Roasted Tomatillo Salsas on the market "Las Palmas Green Chile Enchilada Sauce" is probably the most common but experiment with different brands.

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