Pinto Beans and "Hot Sauce"

This meal right here is the reason I made homemade flour tortillas yesterday.

These beans and "hot sauce" is another recipe from my childhood. It is a recipe that came from my maternal Grandmother and my mom started making it for us when I was little. It's funny because the original recipe from my Grandma was titled "Chile Verde". I kind of wonder if somewhere along the line someone misread tomatoes for tomatillos because this recipe is basically chile verde with tomatoes instead of tomatillos.

Despite the discrepancy, we grew up just calling it hot sauce.

I changed the recipe a little from the one my mom makes. Mainly the chiles. My mom uses canned diced chiles and I opted to buy fresh Anaheim chiles and roast them under the broiler before adding them to the stew. Canned chiles are okay, but the depth of flavor and additional sweetness from using fresh is definitely worth going to the extra little bit of trouble.

Pinto Beans and "Hot Sauce"

~serves about 8~

Note* You can pretty much use any cut of pork you want for this recipe. Typical choices would be pork shoulder or butt. I have even used lean pork chops with good results. I used pork shoulder steaks here.

Note** To cut up the tomatoes, use a pair of kitchen shears and snip them up right in the can before adding them to the pan.

Ingredients:

For the Pinto Beans

1 lb. pinto beans, rinsed, picked over and soaked overnight

2 large onions, peeled and chopped coarse

2 med. or 3 small hamhocks

6 c. water

For the Hot Sauce

1 1/2 lb. Anaheim chilies

2-6 t. vegetable oil

2 1/2 - 3 lb. pork, cut into 3/4 - 1 inch cubes

8 garlic cloves, minced

2-3 serrano chilies, seeds and ribs removed, minced fine

3 T. flour

2 (28 oz.) cans whole tomatoes, roughly cut up

1c. water 

1/2 t. salt

Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish (optional)

pickled jalepenos, chopped, for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

1. For the beans: Add all the ingredients for the beans in a large pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally until the beans are very tender and breaking down, about 2 1/2 hours. (You'll need to stir the pot more often the thicker the beans become, to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pan.) Remove the hamhocks and let them cool enough to handle. Remove the meat, shred and add back to the beans (there might not be very much meat at all).

2. Make the roasted Anaheim chilies: Adjust oven rack to upper middle position and heat the broiler. Line a baking sheet with foil, lay the Anaheims in a single layer. Roast until the skins blister all over and blacken in spots, turning occasionally with tongs, about 20 minutes total. Remove to a heat safe bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let sit 10-15 minutes or until cool enough to handle. Peel and remove seeds from the chilies and coarsely chop. Set aside.

3. For the hot sauce: Heat 2 t. oil in a large stockpot or dutch oven over medium-high heat until just beginning to smoke. Add 1/3 of the pork and brown well on first side, 3-5 minutes. Stir pan and cook another minute or two. Remove pork to a plate. Repeat this process twice more, using an additional 2 t. oil per batch (if necessary). (If the bottom of the pan starts to become too brown, between batches you can add a little bit of water and scrape up the fond in the pan and add to the pork on the plate, Then proceed to the next batch.)

4. Reduce heat to medium. To the drippings left in the pan add garlic and serrano chile, cook stirring constantly until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add flour and cook for 1 minute. Add roasted Anaheims and tomatoes (undrained), pork, water and salt. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 1 hour. Uncover and simmer for another hour, until the pork is fork tender and the sauce thickens and darkens slightly. Serve in bowls, with beans, garnishing with chopped cilantro and pickled jalepenos. 

Guinness-Braised Short Ribs

This year for St. Paddy's day I was pretty certain I wanted to make Guinness Stew. But then I got to thinking, since this is my first official food holiday since starting my blog a couple weeks ago, I should do something a little more special. So I became inspired to rework a rustic Guinness Stew into a more refined Guiness-Braised Short Ribs.

I love short ribs. They have so much potential for deliciousness. Braised in a flavorful liquid, the meat becomes unctuous and fork-tender and the bones and fat impart a lovely richness to the sauce. The main pitfall to watch out for when cooking short ribs is avoiding a ultra greasy sauce. I combat this in a couple of ways. First I prebake the short-ribs for about an hour in a super hot oven. This renders a lot of initial fat (I ended up with a good half cup), and at the same time browns the short ribs up nicely, developing great flavor. The other step, which in my opinion is a crucial one, I let the braising liquid fully cool overnight in the refrigerator before serving. The excess fat solidifies and you can easily remove it the next day before reheating. And if you are at all familiar with what happens to soup and stew after they hang around for a day or two, often times they taste better as they sit & this is certainly the case here.

I also decided, in the spirit of my refined St. Paddy's day feast, instead of stewing all my veggies together in the braising liquid, I'd make a separate side dish of glazed parsnips, carrots and pearl onions. I hope you enjoy these recipes. We certainly did.

Guinness-Braised Short Ribs

~serves 6~

Serve this dish over mashed potatoes along with Glazed Parsnips, Carrots and Pearl Onions (recipe follows).

Ingredients:

5 lb. beef short ribs

3 med. onions, chopped

2 med. carrots, chopped

2 T. flour

1 1/2 c. Guinness beer

4 c. low-sodium chicken broth

1 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 T. minced fresh thyme

1 T. light brown sugar

2 bay leaves

2 T. apple cider vinegar

salt & pepper

freshly minced parsley

Instructions:

1. Adjust oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Place ribs, bone-side down in a large roasting pan. Season well with salt and pepper. Roast for 45 minutes, drain off fat, ( a bulb tukey baster works well) reserving 2 tablespoons. Continue to roast 15 more minutes, 1 hour total. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees.

2. Remove ribs to a large plate, set aside. Immediately add the Guinness to the roasting pan. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up all the drippings left in the pan from the roasted ribs. Set the roasting pan with the beer aside.

3.Heat the reserved 2 tablespoons beef drippings in a large, oven proof dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions and carrots, saute, stirring occasionally until vegetables soften, about 12 minutes. Stir flour into vegetables, cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add beer from the roasting pan, chicken broth, chocolate, thyme, brown sugar, bay leaves and cider vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Increase heat to high, bring to a boil. Add the ribs and return to a boil. Cover the pot and place it in the oven to simmer for 2 hours (ribs should be tender and starting to fall off the bone).

4. Transfer the ribs to a large plate. Strain the braising liquid through a fine mesh strainer, into a large bowl, pressing on the cooked vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible. Cover ribs and liquid with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. (Ribs can be made up to 3 days in advance.)

5. When ready to serve, spoon off the solidified fat from the braising liquid. Pour into the dutch oven. Bring to a simmer over medium heat adjusting the seasoning to taste. Add the ribs to the simmering sauce to reheat   (this should take 10-15 minutes). Serve the sauce over the ribs, garnishing with parsley.