This is the night mom takes the kids skating or to the movies and dad invites the guys over for a friendly game of Texas hold’em. Dad, you can use the crock pot and start cooking the pork before you head off to work in the morning. Once you’re home from work make the gravy in the blender, warm the tortillas and chill the beer.
This recipe is a take-off on country style ribs with green chili gravy that was popular in Houston around the mid 1990s. The ribs were stewed with onions and garlic and the resulting juice was used in the preparation of the gravy. Toasted corn tortillas were used for thickening the gravy and added that little maza flavoring. Roasted poblanos and cilantro were added to produce the green chili in the gravy.
* Deep dark green poblano chilies are as large as green bell peppers, mildly spicy with a lot of flavor. The best way to cook them is to roast them over a fire or in the oven. Just hit them with a little olive oil which will draw the heat of the oven to them, place them on a baking pan in a 350° F. oven for about 10 minutes, turn them over, and roast the other side for 10 minutes. They should be blistered or charred on the outside. Place the chilies in a plastic bag for 10 minutes to steam, then scrape off the outer skin. Slit open and remove the seeds and stems.
Buy a pork shoulder roast. It will cost about $6.00 for 4 pounds and will be full of flavor and tender enough to pull once it is slow cooked. Fatten them up before you take their money. They won’t mind a bit after you feed them this great dish.
Ingredients:
o 4 pound pork shoulder roast (Boston butt)
o 2 onions, chopped course
o 6 cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled
o 1 bay leaf
o 1 sprig of thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
o 5 cups stock (beef, chicken or vegetable)
o 2 corn tortillas, toasted lightly on a dry grill or skillet, torn into pieces
o 2 large poblano chilies, *roasted, scraped and seeded as directed above
o 1 bunch cilantro
o 1 tsp cumin
o Salt and pepper to taste
o Chopped lettuce, tomato, and queso fresco (or grated cheddar cheese) for toppings
Method:
1. Place one onion on the bottom of a 6 quart crock pot.
2. Set pork roast on top of onion, cut roast in pieces if necessary.
3. Add remaining onion, garlic, bay leaf, thyme and stock. Set temperature to low and let cook for 10 hours or longer.
4. Remove meat to a platter and pull pork with 2 forks while poblanos are roasting.
5. Prepare poblano chilies as *directed above.
6. Pour crock pot juices into a blender. Add poblanos, corn tortillas, cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper to blender. Cover the blender and puree contents until smooth.
7. Return gravy to crock pot, add back the meat and turn the temperature to warm.
8. To serve, toast a tortilla in a dry skillet, spoon pulled pork and gravy into tortilla, add lettuce, tomato, and queso fresco or grated cheddar cheese. Fold up the bottom and then the sides like a burrito.
