Pork & Tomatillo Stew

I'd had this recipe saved for a while.  Seriously, it's been number 2 in my Gmail draft (I need a better system) for years (long enough for the host of number 1 to go out of business?).  Why did it take so long?  There's nothing too out there about it, but it takes the right combination of ingredients (tomatillos may not be easy to find), equipment (dutch oven), time (2+ hours), and appetite (doesn't scale down too well).

What are tomatillos, you may ask?  I kind of assumed the full name was "tomatillo pepper," but apparently it's a Mexican tomato wrapped in a cool husk.  Easy to find at your local Colorado Whole Foods.  Onward!

Recipe

2 lbs pork shoulder (or loin if it's way cheaper...), chopped into big-ish chunks
1 lb tomatillos, de-husked and quartered
1 bottle dark beer
12 oz orange juice
28 oz diced tomatoes
10 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 jalapenos, chopped
1 can black beans
oil, salt & pepper
sour cream, lime (optional)

Boil your tomatillos and tomatoes in the beer and OJ, then simmer while other stuff goes on.  Season your pork chunks with salt & pepper.  Heat about a quarter cup of oil in a sturdy dutch oven, toss in your garlic, and brown the pork in batches.  Once that's out, in go the onions, cilantro, and jalapeno, then the pork and tomatillo mixture.  Simmer for 2 hours (or pop in the oven at 300).  Last, add in your black beans until heated (and mash up your garlic cloves if you can find them).  Serve with your fixings of choice.

Notes

Really interesting combination of flavors!  To be honest, I was not hopeful smelling the initial tomatillo mixture - all OJ, didn't seem to get much other than foam from the beer.  Meanwhile, I didn't handle the pork quite right - probably should have been bigger chunks, and gotten the oil much, much hotter and crowded the pan less to really let it brown.  (Also added a can of corn with the beans, why not?)  In the end it came together nicely!  Thanks to King Sooper's almost suspiciously-good pork deal, I got like 4 meals-worth of meat- and veggie-rich food for like $10!

Short Rib Tacos

Another rather extravagant recipe from America's Test Kitchen - totally worth the weekly email, followed by a password reset to get into their website...  This one came from a Mexican-themed set of recipes:

Recipe

Beef

1 1/2 c beer
1/2 c cider vinegar
2 oz dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded & torn into 1" pieces
6 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 bay leaves
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
salt & pepper
1 large onion, sliced into 1/2" rounds
3 lb boneless beef short ribs, cut into 2" cubes

Slaw

1/2 c cider vinegar
1/2 c water
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 head cabbage, cored and sliced thin
1 onion, sliced thin
1 carrot, grated
1 jalapeno, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 c cilantro, chopped

tortillas
queso fresco
avocado
lime

Start with the slaw a day ahead of time.  Whisk together the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt.  Add the cabbage, onion, carrot, jalapeno, and oregano, and toss together.  Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.  Drain and add the cilantro before serving.

So now it's a day later and you're hungry for meat (but not too hungry, still a couple hours to go).  Heat oven to 325.  Combine the beer, vinegar, chiles, garlic, tomato paste, and spices in a dutch oven.  Lay out a later of onion rounds, then place the meat on top.  Cover and cook 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Now it's 2 1/2 to 3 hours later and you're really hungry!  Once the meat is browned and tender, remove the dutch oven from the, um, regular oven.  Move the meat to a bowl.  Here, ATK recommends you strain out the liquid, discard the onion and bay leaves, add water so you have 1 cup of liquid, blend the solids back in, simmer, and stir in the shredded beef.  I didn't have the patience or a blender, so I shredded the beef, mashed the broth, and scooped a few cups in until the beef had a nice flavory sauce.

Serve the tacos with beef, slaw, crumbled queso fresco, avocado (my addition), and lime wedges.

Notes

It's a pretty long list of ingredients, but somehow the effort required doesn't seem to be proportional.  It helps that you can take care of the slaw in advance, but even the next day, most of the ingredients just get mixed into the pot before adding onion and beef.

The final product is amazing.  As promised, the onions keep the beef mostly out of the liquid so it browns nicely.  The cubes were soft and almost bouncy when I pulled them out at the end!  The slaw is super tasty, and the queso adds a nice salty flavor (I didn't know exactly what to expect from either element, but the first nibble of each made me grin).  It's definitely different from what you think of for beef tacos - ground meat, lettuce, salsa, etc.  But in a good way!

Beer Bread

I haven't been much inclined toward baking, but I also kind of hate buying a whole loaf of bread that I'll use sporadically and then throw out half.  So why not try my hand at something more interesting that I'll actually want to use?  This just looked so simple it was worth a shot.

Recipe

2 1/2 c flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 12 oz beer

Preheat the oven to 375.  Combine dry ingredients, and slowly mix in the beer.  Get the dough nice and even, put into a *greased* loaf pan, and bake about 45 minutes.

Notes

I understand none of the chemistry of how this works, but whatever. Having tried it twice with very positive results, I think if beer wasn't a major component, this would be the recipe you have your kids bake you.

The recipe also promises to be easily customizable, whatever you want or have on hand in terms of flour, sweetener (except I will save you the Googling - baking powder and baking soda are not substitutes).  I fully encourage experimentation, with corresponding labels such as "honey-lager bread" or such.

Beer-Glazed Chicken

...a.k.a Commander Roostro's revenge - unsuccessful, of course, but a close call...  Originally from Rachael Ray online.

Recipe

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup light beer (e.g., lager)
3-4 tbsp honey
2 tbsp chopped thyme leaves
"evoo" salt & pepper

Heat some evoo in a large skillet medium-high.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper and sear until golden-brown, a few minutes per side.  Then add the beer, honey, and thyme.  Bring to a bubble and let the chicken cook/sauce thicken for about 5 minutes/until cooked through.

Notes

I loved boneless, skinless thighs that my old Morton-Williams carried.  Unfortunately Key Foods' best dark meat option was the full thigh, which was not nearly cooked through by the end.  The sauce was delicious, at least.  Worth trying again and getting right.

Ale-Braised Duck Sausage

Sticking with the colonial cookbook, although this one had a distinctive French theme to it...

Recipe

1 lb duck sausage
1 large onion, sliced thin
1 medium shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp butter
2 cups dark ale
1 tsp mustard
1/2 cup demi-glace

Cut shallow diagonal slices into the sausage and bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes (if pre-cooked).  Meanwhile, cook the onion, shallot and garlic in a skillet with the butter, high heat for a few minutes.  Then add the sausage, then the ale to deglaze, scraping up bits from the pan bottom.  Cook at medium about 10 minutes, until the ale reduces to just coat the pan.  Remove the sausage and keep warm.  Add the demi-glace and mustard and cook about 5 minutes until reduced by half.  Serve over the sausage and whatever other elements you like.

Outcome

To be honest, this did not look promising at first.  I had trouble finding duck sausage, and when I did it was raw, not pre-cooked.  And I have no real idea what demi-glace is - I didn't copy that page of the recipe.  Then the big onion I had on hand was... really gross.  But I winged it - baked the sausage a while longer, used a small (backup) onion, and said forget that French demi-glace nonsense.  I also had some extra broccoli so I tossed that in there.

After all that, I was definitely pleased with how it turned out.  The end result was really rich and flavorful.  The sausage I used had, like, duck, duck liver, other animals, lots of good stuff.  Without the totally-avoidable complications, it's actually a pretty simple meal - all I had to buy was the sausage and shallot (although the beer I had on hand was more of the pale ale variety).  Served over cous cous.  Delicious and looking forward to leftovers!