Mi Familia's Chili Verde

My best friend requested my family's Navajo Chili and Fry Bread for a birthday dinner. Since I did not have all of the ingredients on hand I made the family's Chili Verde instead. The recipe makes a huge pot full and I put some in containers along with some fresh made tortillas and shared the love with some friends who were working and could not make it to dinner.

Below is the recipe if you would like to share with your family and friends.

 Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 5 cups diced onion
• 1/2 cup chopped garlic
• 1/3 cup chopped serrano peppers
• 1/3 cup chopped jalapeno peppers (seeded)
• 5 pounds cubed pork shoulder
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 15 to 20 Anaheim peppers (seeded)
• 12 to 15 tomatillos
• 3 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup corn flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add 1/2 cup of olive oil. Stir in the onion, garlic, serrano and jalapeno peppers and cook until soft. Remove from heat and set aside.

Place the pork shoulder in a large heavy bottomed pot, coated with oil, over medium heat and sear until well browned on all sides. Deglaze with the chicken broth, and then add sauteed onions and peppers. Turn heat to low, cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place the Anaheim peppers on a sheet pan.

Peel the outer paper skins off the tomatillos, then coat with olive oil and place on another sheet pan. Place both pans in the preheated oven and roast until the peppers are nicely charred and the tomatillos are soft, about 20 minutes.

Remove pans from the oven and place the peppers in a plastic bag to let them steam for 5 minutes.

Peel and seed peppers, and then puree them with the tomatillos in a food processor. Add the puree to the pork mixture, stir, and then let simmer on low heat.

Combine the garlic powder, black pepper, ground cumin, Mexican oregano, ground coriander and salt in a small bowl, then add to pork mixture and stir well.

In a small saute pan, mix 1/2 cup olive oil with the corn flour, stirring over low heat for 2 minutes to make a masa roux.

Let the chili mixture simmer for approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours on medium-low heat, or until pork is nice and tender. Then stir in masa roux and simmer for 10 more minutes.

An American Dream on a Sexy Beach

Tonight I had the pleasure of having dinner with a friend who I wanted to get to know better. There are people in your life that you count as friends but if you are like me, my "Circle of Friends" looks more like a archery target. I have concentric circles of friends. There are very few people allowed in my inner circle and only one in my bull's eye. The person I was having dinner with pretty close to being in the bull's eye of one of my dearest friends. So now that I had time I wanted to get to know him better. Lucky for me he is an adventurous eater, as I wanted to try a sushi place neither of us had been to, Asian Sea Grill & Sushi Bar.

The decor is pretty standard with black, whites, and greys. The canvas prints of older family photographs  are a nice trendy touch, however the big screen TV showing the travel adventures of the owner was not. No one needs to see photos of your family Vegas trip or your big 4x4 truck while they are trying to enjoy a meal. I was happy that the restaurant was not busy as I wanted to be able to chat without talking over people.

My friend and I both have had a pretty long week and there was a long way to go till Friday. So we were both pleased to see a number of sake choices on the menu. However, this is where my main complaint for the restaurant happened during the evening. The wait staff is not versed in the sake menu and could not properly suggest anything when requested. My friend and I are both sake drinkers with differing tastes in sake. When a customer explains their taste preferences a proper answer should not be, "The house sake is very popular." We listened to the "suggestion" anyhow and ordered the house sake just to see what the popularity was about. Needless to say it was not good at all.

The menu is full of choices and it is obvious that the sushi chef enjoys the ART of sushi making. My friend and I had a hard time choosing between sashimi or sushi but we finally decided on two specialty rolls.

The American Dream Roll (Lobster meat, eel, caviar, avocado, seaweed salad wrapped in soybean seaweed)

The Sexy Beach (Yellowtail, salmon inside topped with seared tuna, crunch masago and chef’s special sauce)

Both rolls were both beautifully presented and delicious. The fish and sushi rice used were very fresh. The chef's special sauce on the Sexy Beach is an unsweetened strawberry puree. It steps the plate presentation up a notch but for our sushi taste we could have done without it. I will admit that the tastiest of the two was the American Dream.

My favorite thing is getting to know someone by breaking bread and sharing wine. Tonight was eating sushi and sharing sake. I got to learn about his life and now have a better understanding as to why he is such an  important person to someone who is important to me.