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| The fresh uncooked corn from our local farm stand adds the perfect pop of sweetness and texture |
If you’ve been following along, you know that Steve and I answered the parental siren call, sold the place in Durham and moved to Boynton Beach, Florida — just 15 minutes from both Will & Chantal and the beach. A pretty sweet deal.
I’m fortunate to work for a fantastic company that supported my move, so work pretty much continued without missing a beat. We’ve joined a new country club (very nice, but it has some pretty big shoes to fill with Croasdaile!), met a few of our full time and snowbird neighbors and are getting into a nice routine.
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| Loving sunrises and feathered friends at the beach! |
Yesterday was Presidents Day and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I actually took the day off. And a fine day it was…. blue skies, temps in the 80s and the plantation shutters for the master and guest bedrooms were delivered! A big day in deed. With many renovation chores done, we can now sit back, relax and enjoy our new Florida vibe. Sigh.
As we often do, a day around the house meant a slow cooked meal. We love love love chili verde and I’ve been noodling on this one for a while, so I decided to give it a shot. It was tasty yesterday, and I ran a quick jar of it over to the kiddos (so love being close by). But tonight it was down right amazing. Especially with the raw corn, fresh from our local farm stand. Yup, I’m gonna like this place.
I hope you give it a try.
Super Easy Pork Chili Verde Soup
Ingredients
- 3-4 lb picnic pork, pork butt or similar large cut of pig, trimmed of most visible fat and cut into 1-2 inch cubes. If there’s a bone, cut as much meat off as you can and save it to help flavor the broth as you braise the pork
- 1 cup onion, 3/4 inch dice
- 2 large cloves garlic, rough chopped
- 1 large bunch of cilantro, washed, dried and leaf portion separated from the steps. Finely chop the greens for a garnish and keep the stems whole. You’ll use them when braising the pork
- 1 16 oz jar of green salsa, medium or mild heat
- 1 10 oz small can of green enchilada sauce
- 3/4 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 box chicken stock
- 1 cup water
- Salt, Pepper
- Cooking oil (corn, canola, etc.)
Method
Heat your oven to 325 degrees
You’ll need a heavy pot, I like a dutch oven
- Season the chunks of pork with kosher salt and pepper Don’t be shy, it’s gonna cook for quite a while.
- Heat a medium-sized dutch oven with about a half inch of oil over a medium high heat and start browning the pork in batches. Add more oil as needed. Don’t worry about the brown build-up on the bottom of the pot— it’s amazing flavor.
- Remove each batch to a bowl. If you’re lucky enough to get a bone in piece of pork, brown it as well.
- When all the pork is browned, wipe out the remaining oil with a paper towel (leave the browned bits!) and lower the heat to medium. Add another table spoon of oil if you need it and sauté the onion and garlic until soft. Then add in the cumin seed and coriander, and stir to toast in the oil for about a minute.
- Now stir in the broth, a little bit at first to scrape up the brown bits, then pour in the water, pop on the lid and bring the liquid to a boil. Once bubbling away, add the pork cubes and bone (if using) as well as the cilantro stems. Bring this mixture back to a light boil, turn off the heat, put the lid back on and tuck the pot into the oven for 1-2 hours (check it at 1 1/2 hours, if the pork is super tender, your’e done. If not, put it back in and check back in 30 minutes. If it’s not tender at that point, give it a bit more time (and find another source for pork. Seriously.)
- When pork to your liking, remove the pot from the oven, pull out the cilantro stems and let the pork and broth cool for a 20 minutes or as long as it takes for the grease to come to the top. If you need to serve right away, lay paper towels atop the liquid to blot away the grease. If you can put it in the fridge for a while, do so and then lift or spoon off the solidified fat.
- Now comes the verde part! Stir in the salsa and enchilada sauce, move to a low heat on the stovetop and cook, uncovered for 45 minutes. When the cooking process is done, check for seasoning (add salt if needed, but I doubt if you will) and you’re good to go.
- Serve with a squeeze of lime and any combination of toppings such as diced avocado, chopped onion, uncooked cut-from-the-cob corn, white cheddar, jack or Mexican queso fresco cheese — anything that floats your boat!
Enjoy!
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| Shutters in - the guest room is ready for our next round of guests! |
