Salsa Verde Mexican Stew

Salsa Verde Mexican Stew

Updated photos and post. Originally posted June 11, 2009.

Of all the meals in my Slow Roasted Pork Challenge this pork stew was the one that fell a little flat for me. That's not to say it wasn't good I was just disappointed the flavor of the green chile's didn't stand up more. The flavor reminded me too much of a regular ol' pot of chili. I loved the idea of using the tomato/beer gravy leftover from the pork roast as a base for the stew; the flavor is so rich and robust I would lick anything that it came into contact with. But originally I used 4 cups of the broth and it was just too overpowering.

I roasted another pork shoulder for company a couple weeks ago and there was so much tomato/beer broth leftover. My heart cried a little at the thought of throwing it away so I froze it in 1 1/2 cup portions to save for a rainy day.

It was the perfect opportunity to experiment with this Mexican stew a bit more, and I'm so happy I did. The result is a lovely green chile broth with undertones of acidity from the beer and tomatoes, smooth richness from the pork and pops of sweetness from the corn. Delicioso.

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Serves 4-6

2 cups shredded pork or 4 boneless pork chops, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 cups of leftover tomato/onion/beer gravy puree (or if unavailable use 1 can tomato sauce and 1 tbsp lime juice)
2 potatoes, cubed
2 carrots, cubed
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 jar of salsa verde (about 2 cups)
1 cup water
2 4 oz cans of green chiles
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano (Mexican oregano would be great here)
1 cup frozen corn

Sour cream (optional)
Tortilla chips, crushed (optional)


In a large pot over medium heat, add about a tbsp of oil. If using pork chops instead of shredded pork, add to the pot and saute until brown then remove from the pan. In the same pot add the onions, garlic, carrots and potatoes. Saute for about 5-10 minutes to let the vegetables soften. Pour in the salsa verde and scrape up any bits that are on the bottom of the pot. Add the shredded pork or browned pork, broth/gravy, green chiles, water, cumin, and oregano. Turn the heat down to medium-low and let simmer for about 30 minutes or until the veggies are soft and the flavors have melded nicely. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the frozen corn.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and/or with crushed tortilla chips on top.

Click here for printable version of Salsa Verde Mexican Stew
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THE RESULTS?
In the words of my husband "it's a hearty bowl of smokey goodness". This is a lovely way to not waste any of the delicious tomato/beer gravy leftover from the pork roast.


This meal is quite frugal considering all the leftovers and inexpensive vegetables. For more inexpensive meal ideas, visit the $5 Dinner Challenge.

Meal Plan Week 31

Meal Plan Week 31

It's funny to me that most bloggers are so busy this time of year that they go on a short hiatus during the holiday season. Me? This is when I can finally SLOOOOOW down.

This fall has been a huge learning curve balancing becoming a preschool teacher, taking care of my two young daughters and still being a good house-manager and wife. Just when I thought I MIGHT be juggling life's happenings a little better we bought our very first house! It's been incredibly exciting but busy and hectic and at times overwhelming. My last day of teaching was Thursday and after getting over a major head cold this weekend I'm back for a few weeks of wonderful downtime, family and food. I have lots of exciting things to share with you. Thank you to everyone who has emailed and left me nice comments and messages telling me to come back

Here's what we be eatin' this week.

Day 1: Salsa Verde Mexican Stew
This pork stew was part of my Slow Roasted Pork Challenge this past summer. The slow roasted pork is absolutely incredible and makes a rich thick tomato/beer gravy which is used as a base for this stew. I wanted to tweak and rework this recipe so I just made another batch yesterday. Wooo! New recipe being posted!

Day 2: Creamy Lemon Basil Chicken & Pasta with Ceasar Salad
This one was inspired by my Chicken al Diavlo Penne.

Day 3: Italian Sausage Soup with Crusty Buns
I CAN NOT get enough of this soup. I've made it quite a few times this Fall and my family goes crazy for it.


Day 4: Vindaloo-Korma over Basmati Rice, Tandoori Chicken and Aloo Pakoras served with Mango Chutney
It's become our tradition in the last few years to have a big Indian Feast on Christmas Eve. My friends Tara and Shanna created this incredible Vindaloo-Korma hybrid and I can't wait to share it with my family (and with you :)






For more great meal plans, check out my complete list of meal plans or the Menu Plan Monday links at Orgjunkie.

Fermented Glutinuous Rice (Tapai Pulut)

Fermented Glutinuous Rice (Tapai Pulut)

Tapai wrapped in rubber tree leaves

The fermented glutinous rice





The yeast for making tapai

The fermented glutinous rice is the favourite of the oldies. I found out that many youngsters nowadays do not like the taste and smell of this delicacy. Actually it is a delicious cake. It tastes sweet and have a slightly alcohol smell. It is also very juicy once it is done. Maybe it is the alcohol smell that makes these youngsters shun away.

There are many superstitious belief when making this cake. I was told by my late mother that our body and thoughts must be clean before making this fermented glutinous rice. Some of things that you must follow is that you must say good things so that this cake will turn out good.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo glutinous rice

1/2 biscuit yeast

20 pieces banana leaves (20 cm x 10 cm)
or rubber tree leaves

Method:

1. Cook the glutinous rice in a rice cooker just like cooking plain rice.

2. When the rice is cooked, cool it completely in a container.

3. Pound the yeast till very fine. Sift it on top of the cooked rice. Spread it evenly on top of the rice.

4. Turn the rice on the other side and sift the remainder yeast on top of the cooked rice.

5. Put the rice in an air tight container and then wrap it with a towel. Put in a dark place and let it ferment for 2 days. After 2 days the rice is ready to be wrapped in banana leaves. Keep in the refrigerator.

Note: The fermented glutinous rice is best eaten when it is cold. Some people like to eat it together with ice- cream. If you do not have banana leaves you can also put it in a plastic container. I have also seen people use rubber tree leaves.

After 2 days you can see that the rice is whiter and juicy. A lot of the juice can be seen in the container. Sift out the juice before wrapping in banana leaves. The juice can be poured in a bottle and consume when needed.

Aloe Vera Enzyme

Aloe Vera Enzyme

Aloe vera is a plant which is used to treat various skin conditions. It can also stimulates bowel movement and constipation. To make aloe vera enzyme, add apples and kiwi fruits for added flavour and nutrition.

Ingredients:

The aloe vera flesh

300 g aloe vera

3 kiwi fruits

3 green apples

2 lemon

1 cup honey

1/2 cup oligo sugar or 150 g brown sugar

Method:

1. Wash all the fruits and lets it dry completely. This is to ensure that no fungus will breed on the fruits.

2. Remove skins from all the fruits and cut into pieces.

3. Divide the ingredients into three portions.
4. Arrange the ingredients in a glass bottle in sequence: aloe vera, green apples, kiwi fruits, lemon and oligo sugar or brown sugar followed by honey. Repeat the process with the other portions.
5. Cover the bottle with a piece of plastic cling wrap. Put the bottle lid on top of it.
6. Keep turning the bottle everyday so that all the ingredients are all mixed.
7. Let it stand in a cool dry place for at least 2 week.
8. To serve, mix 2 tbsp of enzyme with a cup of water.

Note: We cover the bottle with cling wrap to prevent fruit fly from contaminating the fruit. Once the enzymes are ready, take away the cling wrap. Cover the bottle with the lid.
You can use ordinary brown sugar or the block brown sugar where you can buy from Chinese medicine shop. Oligo sugar is preferred because it is a friendly booster bacteria. This sugar can be bought in any organic shop. It is not too sweet and so it is recommended for diabetics.

Half plus seven and all that jazz

Half plus seven and all that jazz

Last night while surfing channels I heard a lady drop a pearl of wisdom in some program on a Hindi Channel. She was telling her daughter that since women tend to age faster, they should always marry someone older than them. When the girl tried to protest she authoritatively dismissed her saying “Now you won’t realize it. Twenty years down the line you will regret this.”
Memory flashed back to a time 40 years ago when we would receive letters from families of prospective brides for my uncle. Post-lunch we would open the envelopes, pass the photos around while one of us would read the letters aloud. Then the analysis would begin.
‘Girl’s features are lovely even though she is only wheat-ish” mother would begin
“Girl seems tall enough for the boy. 5.6 is a good height for a girl even though the boy is 6.1” an aunt would add.
‘Educated but not more than the boy which is good’ another relative would add
“All that is fine but she is just one year younger than the boy. That is a problem” grandma’s voice dripped disappointment.
“Why is it a problem Paati. She is still younger no even if it is just one year?” I asked.
“Girls tend to mature faster than boys. In a few years she will look older than him even though they are about the same age.” grandma explained.

It was a time when people did not attempt to defy age. They let nature take its course. They gained weight and wrinkles without worrying about them. By their mid thirties men were bald and paunchy and women gained a matronly frame and wore a silver crown. So they did not want a woman looking even older than her husband and ensured this through adequate age differences between the spouses.

There were also other reasons. Traditionally among Indian marriages, the wife was expected to look upon her husband as her ‘lord and master’ and our ancestors must have felt that this would be easier if the girl was younger than her husband. Men possessed more authority and wielded more power – all this was more easily achieved if the woman was younger and more quiescent. They tried to make sure that the woman was less qualified, younger, more docile. My father had a friend who had 3 sons and he and his wife were keen on finding brides who were not more than eighteen years of age. Their reasoning was that it would be easier to mould the girl to fit into their family structure if the girl was young. Those were times of joint families and the brides had to live under the same roof with their in-laws of various generations.
An aunt who is a gynecologist finds medical sense in this arrangement based on the psychological and physiological structure of the male and female of the species. According to her, emotionally women are capable of motherhood even by their late teens while men are not ready to accept fatherhood until their mid twenties. They also need this time to become financially self sufficient. A healthy age difference also ensures that their sexual drives reduce around the same time thereby avoiding the possibility of infidelity and associated mess. Apparently women lose their sex drive by the fifties and men around their sixties.

One of my aunts is 10 years her husband’s junior. At 80, he still considers her young. The 70 year old aunt complains “when do I get to be old?’ while she rubs oil on his feet for his arthritis. :) I wonder if she would have been happier to have been the older one and have a younger husband attending to her needs in her old age.

In today’s time the structure of family, the power balance between the man and his wife have changed considerably. They live together more in mutual respect than as a protector and protégé. Women take good care of themselves and there are enough aids to mask their age and look younger than they really are. In any case many women do not opt for early motherhood and usually have children only in their early thirties. They need to look at their career demands first and then fit in motherhood at a convenient time. Many opt not to have kids too. Marital relationships are more open and less inhibited in every way.

In this changed scenario, does age difference between a man and his wife still have any validity? Except for the wisdom from experience, a man or woman of 25 is as mature as a person of 40. I know a couple where the man is balding and out of shape at 30 but the woman is svelte and fit at 40 but people still have problems accepting their union and keep waiting for the day when the man would cheat on her and the marriage would fall apart. Terms such a Cougar and toy-boy are used cattily with reference to the relationship. But in my opinion they are a very happy couple who seem quite made for eachother. if at all anyone has a chance of finding another mate in this case, it is the woman and not the man. So all their predictions are simply born out of an inability to accept a reversal of an age-old tradition (pun intended)

So what are your thoughts? Is the difference required? Is it already changing? Are younger men marrying older women? Is age difference a consideration at all in today’s spousal equations?