Well, hello Folks!
This week, I'm sharing one of my cooler weather recipes. Fall's coming on, and if you have wild pork in your freezer, this is the perfect use. If not, this is still the best fall stew you'll ever have.
As in most of my cooking, I seldom add exact quantities of any of the ingredients.
For this dish, you will need a pound or so of cubed pork and it doesn’t matter which cut you choose. If I don’t have fresh pork handy, I often use a couple of pints of my canned pork. If using fresh pork, I dust the cubed meat with flour and brown in my big cast iron skillet in a little cooking oil. About the time the pork pieces begin to brown, I throw in a large diced onion, two stalks of chopped celery, two large jalapenos, cored, seeded and finely chopped, one teaspoon of chili powder, a couple of cubed potatoes and three or four scraped, chopped carrots. Allow all the vegetables to begin cooking and incorporate six or eight peeled, cored and chopped fresh tomatoes if they are in season. If not, add a can of diced tomatoes. Bring everything up to a slow boil and reduce heat to low. At this point, I toss in a couple of teaspoons of salt, two teaspoons of ground cumin and several sprigs of cilantro. It will probably be necessary to add some more hot water so that the ingredients do not stick to the bottom of the skillet. Cover the skillet or Dutch Kettle with a lid and allow to slow simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking. It might be necessary to add a bit more water. Check the meat for tenderness. When it separates when pressure is applied with a fork, it’s tender and ready. At this point I squeeze the juice from two limes or one large lemon into the soup and it’s ready to eat. Serve with hot buttered corn tortillas.
