Bertha's Chile Verde

This is another not-quite-a-soup entry. My department at work had a chili tasting contest at our last expanded staff meeting. My entry for the contest was my wife Bertie's Chili Verde. It is actually a recipe handed down from her mom Maria so technically it is Maria's Chili Verde but Bertha is such a cool name I had to go with that.

Back in the 70's and 80's when we were first seeing each other and early in our marriage Bertie and I, along with our daughter Shawna, would go to Maria's house on Saturdays as would Bertie's 6 brothers and sisters along with a host of kids. Shawna loved getting to see and play with her cousins, Bertie got to visit with her sisters and I got to use my Spanish. I didn't let on for several weeks that I could speak enough Spanish to understand much of what was being said around the house which was fun since I was the only white guy in the family and several years younger than Bertie, some of the conversations were hilarious. But the best part of these weekly visits was Maria's cooking. Her menudo was the best I've ever had, still. Her posole' was wonderful, her beef soup with cow's feet was delicious, her carne asada was excellent. She made her carne seca by hanging thinly sliced flank steak on her clothesline in the back yard. I loved spending time with her in the kitchen because she always made sure my plate was full. I wish I had made a point of watching her prepare these dishes and writing everything down because none of her daughters know all of the recipes and Maria had them all in her head. I did get a chance to make my Albondigas for Maria before she died so that was really nice. I'm sure I was her favorite son-in-law.

Now on to Bertha's Chile Verde. This recipe will feed about 4-5 people, the batch we made for the chili contest was about 3 times this one. By the way, Bertha's Chile Verde won first prize in the contest's open voting and 3rd prize in the executive voting. We got $100 in gift cards which was really great. I haven't seen them since I brought them home.

INGREDIENTS

• 4-5 Country Style Pork Ribs (boneless or bone-in, doesn't matter)
• 5 medium size yellow chiles (if they have an orangish tint to them you'll find these to be quite a bit hotter.
• 5 medium to large tomatoes with the core removed
• 1 tsp of minced garlic
• 3 green chiles sliced in long thin strips (best if you roast your own or canned will work)
• Salt

METHOD

1. Cut the pork into 1/2 inch cubes. If you're using bone-in ribs you can keep one or two of the bones and put into the skillet while browning the pork for a little added flavor. You can remove some of the fat while cutting up the pork but be careful not to lean it out too much or you'll lose flavor and end up with dry pork
2. Brown the pork in a large skillet with 1 level tablespoon of salt. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. If there is any fat to drain when done, do so. Leave the pork in the skillet and put aside.
3. Meanwhile, place the tomatoes and chiles in a pot for boiling. Cover them with water and boil for 20 minutes until the chiles are soft.
4. Remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon and place into a holding bowl to cool.
5. Remove the chiles from the pot, remove and discard the stems. Place the chiles into the same bowl as the tomatoes to cool. Be sure you let the tomatoes and chiles cool because if you puree them while hot pressure in the blender builds quickly and explosions have been known to occur.
6. Reserve the water.
7. After cooling, place the tomatoes and chiles into a blender along with 1 tablespoon of minced garlic and two teaspoons of salt.
8. Blend until the mixture is pureed with no chunks remaining.
9. Taste the salsa, if it is spicier than desired use some of the reserved cooking water bring to a more desired level.
10. Pour the salsa over the browned pork in the skillet, add the sliced green chiles, heat for serving. Salt to taste

Southwest Seafood Chowder

It's been a couple of weeks since soup. I was afraid I had lost the mojo for weekly soup, but maybe I just needed a couple week break. We'll see.

This week's soup came from a recipe in Food and Wine magazine's most recent issue. This issue was chock full o' recipes, especially soup recipes. Rather than print them out from their

website I spent about an hour cutting them all out and putting them in my ever expanding 3 ring binder of recipes. I realized that I'm going to have to create a binder just for the soup recipes since they are taking up a majority of the space in the current one.

I chose to make this soup for a couple of reasons. One was my love of anything close to Mexican food. The second reason was the occasion at work. My department was having an extended lunch meeting with the full extended staff attending. We do this once a quarter. The department was providing lunch which was Make-Your-Own Taco Salads. I took this as a sign that the Southwest Seafood Chowder was the soup to make.

I have found that seafood can be a polarizing item when it comes to food. It is not quite to the point of people either loving it or hating it but it is certainly less universally liked than chicken or beef. There are also quite a few people that have allergies to seafood items, especially shell fish. Knowing this and knowing that one of my favorite people at work has a shellfish allergy I don't often bring seafood based soups but like I said before, there was a sign and I had to go with it.

I made a few deviations from the Food and Wine (F&W) recipe for convenience and necessity. The magazine's recipe stated that 8 servings could be had from this recipe so I doubled it to accommodate the group at work. It turned out that I didn't need to do that. I usually make soups in 7-8 quart batches but doubling this recipe yielded about 12-13 quarts so I ended up cooking in two pots and had a good portion to leave at home. So the recipe below will yield about 7 quarts which is the size of the larger crock pots. The second change was from Ancho Chiles to Green Chiles. I couldn't find any Anchos so I looked up a good substitute

while at the store and choose Green Chiles (love smart phones). I bought a 24oz can and froze the left overs for chile rellenos this weekend. Anchos are usually sold dry, are heart shaped and look like the picture on the right. Two other deviations I took were the halibut and clams. The F&W recipe calls for halibut but the three stores I went to were all short on halibut so I used Cod instead. Well, Sprouts had some halibut but the guy behind the counter was being a dick and told me to wait a few minutes while he finished wrapping a couple trays of meat. Really? That stuff is more important than me? A guy looking to spend $20 on a couple of pounds of halibut? See ya. I talked to the store manager on the way out so I felt a little better. I do love shopping at Sprouts so I'll be back. One of the many things I like about Sprouts is being able to buy spices by the measure. This keeps you from buying ounces of a little used spice when all you need is a teaspoon or two. I also used a can of clams I had in the pantry instead of the cherrystone clams the recipe called for. If you've read me before you also know that I always use Spice World garlic. It comes jarred and can be found in the produce sections of grocery stores. The last change I made was using Trader Joe's Canned Yellow Corn instead of frozen as the recipe called for. I've mentioned before how much I love TJ's Canned Corn. It is the freshest, best tasting corn not on the cob. As I've also mentioned before I find my immersible blender to be one of the best tools available, especially for soups. This was another recipe where it gets used. It is so much better than having to schlep the soup into a blender in batches. So, that's it for the deviations, here's the rest of the story.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup of canola oil, divided

1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

5 garlic cloves, smashed (Spice World)

2 large Ancho Chiles, seeded and torn into large pieces

1 teaspoon fennel seeds (Sprouts)

1 cup of dry white wine

One 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes

1 cup of 2-percent milk (oops, another deviation I took was to use half and half)

Half of a big ass can of clams from Costco including the clam juice

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 pound of Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 celery rib, finely chopped

1 fennel bulb, finely chopped

1 can of TJ's yellow corn

1.5 teaspoons of smoked sweet paprika

1 pound of skinless halibut fillet cut into 1.5 inch cubes

1 pound of shelled and deveined medium shrimp

Oyster crackers or crusty bread for serving

METHOD

1. In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the yellow onion, garlic, ancho chiles, and fennel seeds, cook over moderate heat. Stirring frequently, cook until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes.
2. Add the wine and cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes
3. Add the crushed tomatoes and 4 cups of water, bring to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes.
4. Stir in the milk or half and half
5. Puree the soup with your immersible blender or your counter top blender powered by a little under-counter dinosaur if you are Wilma Flinstone.
6. In a separate large pot or pan add the remaining oil and heat until shimmering. Add the potatoes and cook over moderately high heat stirring occasionally until lightly browned in spots, about 5 minutes.
7. Stir in the red onions, celery, chopped fennel, and corn. Add the paprika, and cook over moderate heat, stirring until the celery is crisp tender, about 7 minutes.
8. Add the cooked potato and vegetable mix to the pureed soup and bring to a boil.
9. Add the fish, shrimp, clams and clam juice to the soup. Simmer until the halibut is white and the shrimp is pink, about 5 minutes.
10. Serve!

Eat Your Brussels Sprouts!

Growing up our Mom fed us (6 kids and Dad) a wide variety of vegetables and I don't recall turning my nose up at many of them. One that I recall eating frequently was Brussels Sprouts. I remember being fascinated by the heads of cabbage in miniature. I don't have any specific recollections of how Mom prepared them so I'm always looking for different methods especially since Bertie and Tommy are not big fans of them.

On our last trip to Costco I came across a 2 pound bag of Brussels Sprouts for a very reasonable price while making a very quick trip through that huge refrigerated produce walk-in room. So before they went bad sitting in our fridge I looked for another recipe on a new app I loaded on the iPad, AllRecipes. I use their website frequently and it is one of my favorites for recipes. I found about 5 recipes that I'll try in the future for Brussels Sprouts. The one I chose for tonight is called Sweet & Sour Brussels Sprouts. It is a really to prepare dish using stuff most people have in their pantry. They turned out great! Even Bertie was a fan, Tommy not so much.

Note: I couldn't find any unsalted cashews at the store so I used macadamia nuts instead and forgot to roast them. This was Bertie's favorite ingredient it turns out.

INGREDIENTS
1 pound of Brussels Sprouts, trimmed and cut in half length-wise
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
1/2 cup of cashew pieces, toasted in a 350 degree oven until golden brown
Salt & Pepper to taste

METHOD

1. In a medium saucepan, cook the Brussels Sprouts in 2/3 cup of boiling water until crisp-tender, about 8 minutes. Drain and put the Brussels Sprouts in a medium bowl, discard the water.
2. In another medium bowl combine the olive oil, syrup, vinegar and mustard, whisk until blended. Pour the blended sauce over the still steaming Brussels Sprouts along with the nuts and salt & pepper to taste. Toss gently to get all Brussels Sprouts covered and serve.

Posole with Chicken and Tomatillos

This was an odd week. I was sick with a cold this Tuesday and Wednesday so Soup At Work Wednesday didn't come off at all. I do not get colds or the flu very often so I was caught off guard this week. With my wife Bertie laid up with her left foot in a cast up to her mid-calf we were a sorry pair this week at home trying to help each other. Bertie had her left ankle fused together three weeks ago to alleviate pain due to arthritis. The surgeon removed the ends of a couple of ankle bones to remove the arthritic areas and then put in four pretty long screws to hold the joint together. She'll be in a cast for another 3 weeks and then probably a walking boot. We really hope this helps with her pain while walking.

I was going to pass on making soup this week because of these circumstances but on the drive home from work today it occurred to me that with it being so cold here in Tucson hot soup would be the perfect thing to bring to work on Friday. All I had to do was decide which one to make. I usually try to bring in a new recipe because I like trying new dishes and I'm afraid folks will get tired of repeats. Since it was pretty late by the time I was going to get home I had to choose a pretty easy one. Also with it being so cold I wanted to bring in a hearty and comforting soup. Chicken noodle was a possibility but I wanted something more tangy so the Posole with Tomatillos came to mind. I pulled up the recipe on my laptop real quick in the Fry's parking lot and jotted down the ingredients I didn't have at home and ran into the store for a quick run-through.

The full recipe can be found in the September 8 entry last year. I made one change this time by roasting the tomatillos instead of boiling them. This was 2 pounds of tomatillos this time so removing the husks took a few minutes while the chicken was boiling (homemade stock and shredded chicken in the making). After washing the remaining shreds of husks off the tomatillos I sliced them in half lengthwise and spread them cut side up on a large cookie sheet. After sprinkling them with olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper I roasted them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until they softened. From this point the recipe is pretty much the same. I pureed the tomatillos with my oft-mentioned immersion blender along with about a 1/2 cup of the chicken broth.

I'm thinking seriously about putting some egg noodles into the soup in the morning, Bertie says I should go for it so we'll see how I'm feeling about it in the morning.