Colorado Green Chile

NOTE: this is an old post as you might have noticed. Just a new photo and a better recipe layout xx

Colorado Green Chile

6-8 generous servings

2.5-3 pounds boneless pork shoulder, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 inch cubes

Sea salt

Black pepper

1 Tbsp all purpose flour, plus more for lightly dusting the pork

1 large yellow onion, diced

8 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil 

1 packed cup roasted green chiles, peeled, seeded and chopped (you can find them canned or better yet, in the frozen section if you don’t have a freezer stash like me)

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes, with juice

4 cups chicken stock

1 teaspoon cumin 

1/2 tablespoon dried oregano

For serving: tortillas, cooked rice, chopped tomatoes, shredded cheese

In a heavy-bottomed pot, warm the oil on medium to medium high heat

Lightly coat the pork with flour, sprinkle liberally with salt and add a few cranks of black pepper.

Working in 3-4 batches, add pork to pan and allow meat to sear for 3 minutes (do not stir).

Flip once and allow to sear for another 3 minutes.

Scoop the pork out of the pot onto a plate, set aside. Once the last batch of pork is finished, drain the excess oil except for 1 tablespoon.

Add the onion and a sprinkle of salt, cook for 3 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen up the brown bits.

Push the onion to one side of the pot and add the flour and butter on the other side until it makes a paste.

Stir into the onion mixture then add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Add the green chiles, oregano and cumin and sauté for 6 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and stock, again scraping the bottom of the pot to make sure all the browned bits have been loosened.

Bring to a simmer, add pork and any of the juices back into the pot, stirring well and bring to a low boil.

Turn down medium low or until simmering and cover with a lid.

Allow to simmer with the lid on, stirring occasionally for 1-1.5 hours.

Remove the lid and allow to simmer uncovered for an additional hour or until it reaches desired thickness.

Be sure to stir frequently, scraping the bottom of the pot each time. Taste for seasoning, add salt as needed and a few generous cranks of pepper. 

Leftovers?

It freezes beautifully.

Take care of yourself and others, k?

We need it. We are tired.

Collectively, as a whole, we are tired.

It seems like you vote and nothing changes.

The media is a constant loop of Big Sad and shit.

You vote again and it feels as though you’re doing something and at every turn, you feel, “for what”?

What does it matter?

Folks begin to lose hope and experience defeat.

It’s understandable if you’ve said “what I do doesn’t matter.”

Except it does.

I have fallen in love with a self-proclaimed policy wonk, one that is trans and latine, one that I hear speaking and teaching on important topics that no doubt shape our reality. I often ask for “breakdowns” when explaining policies and amendments, the person I so want to fight with and for. Even still, with my access to someone as brilliant as he, there is still so much I have to actually do and learn by way of educating myself. 

Yes, you can (and need to) continue to vote. But it doesn’t end there, and that is the problem. We exist in a capitalistic hellscape of a reality. While voting is your civic duty, we must also change the course of the collective.

We must engage in mutual aid, community, and finding ways to change the system as a whole. This begins with dismantling systems that are rooted in racism, focusing more on our communities rather than individualism, and finding ways every day that allow us to be active in our pursuit of change while also creating time for rest.

Rest is part of the revolution.

Don’t take my word for it, but pay a Black woman to educate you on the reality of why rest is necessary in order to truly effect change. 

Feel like you’re still not being heard from political leaders? May I encourage you to do some reflecting on what it may look like to activate these things in your home first while still voting.

Both/and.

If we took the time, energy, and heart space required to start all of this at home-

The hard but necessary conversations we need to have with our kids, our partners, our friends, and relatives.

Approaching our daily lives in a way that centers around community. This doesn’t include Poverty Porn, where you take your children to “see how much worse you could have it” but instead researching places in your area where you could drop off sealed toiletries, menstrual products, and warm clothing.

What if we taught our kids that we are  in this together?

All of it. 

I’m no perfect parent, and I was absolutely raised with a mostly individualistic-mindset around money and “things”, but my kids know that we take care of one another. Our loves and our friends at school. Our friend-family, and folks we may not personally know.

What if you challenge yourself and the people around you to change courses when you’re tired and want to check out? Or throw the towel in because “nothing you do matters”?

Or that “this is the way it is.”

Or “the way I was raised” or “I’m too old to know any different.”

The burnout is real.

But it’s a privilege to be able to check out when we experience the feelings of defeat.

We’re in this for the long haul.

Nothing, not even your vote is going to change things overnight.

The Big Vote is important, but so are all the other opportunities to vote. 

All of the big, well known active pieces, and all of the slow burn parts we can do quietly yet productively.

Go vote tomorrow if you haven’t yet done so, okay?

Can I ask you to read something on a topic that might make you uncomfortable or something you don’t fully understand?

And will you tell me what you’re doing to activate change in your world, whether it feels big or small?

And lastly, may I suggest getting this recipe going tonight or tomorrow morning? That way, when you return from work (and the polls) you’ll have a little something to smooth your edges. 

I don’t have a pretty photo of this green chile. It is a proper Coloradan style green chile stew, thicker or thinner depending on how long you let it go uncovered. It’s studded with bits of tomato, and just a little slick from the fat of the pork.

Use (dark meat, please) chicken if you like, or make it vegetarian

*if you go vegetarian, may I suggest stirring in a bit of miso? Just go with me on this.

I serve mine over rice or with warmed tortillas. Some folks like a bunch of cheese and sour cream, and if you’re like me you add a bit of chopped tomatoes to your bowl, otherwise undressed.

This is one of my all time comfort food go-to’s. It reminds me of being a little girl and watching my mom make this on Saturday morning, the pot perching on the stovetop set to low the remainder of the weekend, being the only thing we really “ate off.”

Make this and think of me, a privileged white woman in Colorado, with all of her own unlearning and required activism. 

Make this when you want to feel warm. 

Make it for fuel and then make it again when you need to rest.