Southwestern Pork and Poblano Stew Ala Mary

Last year, I was eating green sauce nearly every time we ate Mexican food in a restaurant, but had not made any at home.  When Mary, over at One Perfect Bite, posted her recipe for SouthwesternPork and Poblano Stew and I remembered we had country style pork ribs in the freezer, I knew it had to be made – although it took us 6 weeks to get to it.

I made a few minor changes to match up with the ingredients we had on hand.  Please check Mary’s excellent blog for the recipe she used and a great photo.

Southwestern Pork and Poblano Stew – adapted from One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 pounds boneless pork country ribs - cut into 3/4-inch cubes - Note 1

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large sweet onion, such as Vidalia, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise

3 fresh poblano chilies - halved lengthwise, cored and thinly sliced

5 Sante Fe chilies from our freezer (since they have jalapeno-like heat, I omitted the serrano chilies and used enough to get the right total weight of chiles)

 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 cups homemade chicken broth

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions:

1) Properly heat a large heavy pan and add oil. Season pork cubes with salt and black pepper and add them to pan. Cook pork over med-high heat, stirring once or twice, until lightly browned in spots, about 5 minutes.

2) Add onion, chiles, and garlic. Cover and cook over med-high heat, stirring once or twice, until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.

3) Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cover partially and simmer stew over moderately low heat until pork is just tender and broth is reduced by about half, about 20 minutes.

4) Stir in the 1/4 cup of cilantro, season with salt and black pepper and serve over rice or beside it as Mary did.

Note 1: In case you're not familiar with them, country ribs are often just sliced up pork butt.  The real ones are cut from the front end of the loin backs near the shoulder and often have bones from the shoulder blade, but no rib bones.  Mine were very fatty and it took nearly 4# to get the trimmed 2# for this recipe.
 

Note 2: Mary’s recipe calls for cooking over high heat, but that is screaming hot on our gas cooktop, so I rarely go above med-high except to boil water.

I thought it was very good and while it wasn't exactly a green sauce, it satisfied the urge for now - I forgot the cilantro garnish and lime wedges.  Thanks Mary.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

3/26/13 event date