Eating like a kid
I picked a hell of a week to start writing about food again
For years, every Friday night that wasn’t filled with other plans, my family ate at the same Mexican restaurant in Berkeley. Juan’s Place has been there since before I can remember, and was still there the last time I went home, last April, my daughter’s first visit to California. Cracked plastic sign, sporadic lights burned out or missing, it’s dark and homey inside, like any good lodge or dive bar. No matter what stage of life I’m in, when I walk through the heavy, wooden front door, it always looks and smells the same inside, the same waiters from a generation ago still slinging frozen margaritas and refilling your bowl of chips without asking.
It feels like the kind of place that will still be standing no matter what apocalyptic hellscape bears down on the world around it.
My favorite Juan’s order was always the green enchiladas. Their green sauce was excellent — not particularly spicy, but bright and punchy with tomatillos and limes, and smooth in a way that I always seemed to fail to replicate. As a child I’d eat my enchiladas, but save as much of the sauce, sour cream and guacamole from the top, Spanish rice, and cheesy refried beans as possible. Then, I’d take my fork and swirl it all together into a savory, chewy mess of flavor.
As a somewhat orderly child, this was perhaps a bit out of character. But I swear to you, it was so good. There was something about getting all those flavors in one bite, like some sort of deconstructed bean and cheese burrito, but fused with green sauce. It’s a unique and seminal culinary memory for me.
How funny it was, then, to see what is very nearly a recipe for this…pile, really, in a cookbook my wife purchased in the last year, “What to Cook when You Don’t Feel Like Cooking” by Caroline Chambers. It had never occurred to me that one would set out to intentionally make such a thing. But why not? In a world in which the Doritos Locos Taco, and the KFC Double-Down, and The Boomstick exist, it’s really not all that absurd. Besides, it’s delicious.
There’s one catch, of course, in the way I make my version — you have to make chile verde first. OK, you don’t HAVE to, but why wouldn’t you? You CAN simply make this the way Chambers does, with a jar of green salsa. I will not judge you (out loud). That said, the extra depth of the green sauce imbued with pork fat really ties the dish together. Besides, I’m making it up to you by giving you two recipes for the price — which is still free — of one.
Chile Verde
2-3 pounds pork shoulder, cubed into 1-inch pieces
3-4 poblano peppers
1 large yellow or white onion, quartered
1 head garlic, halved crosswise
1.5 pounds tomatillos
1 bunch cilantro, picked
3 tbsp neutral oil or lard
2 tbsp olive oil
Over an open burner flame, toast your poblanos until the skin turns black and bubbles, then place in a closed paper bag to steam for 20 minutes.
Heat oil over medium-high in a dutch oven. Season your meat with salt and pepper and brown in batches, without crowding your pot. Set meat aside, and scrape fond from the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Set burner to lowest setting.
In a large bowl, toss onion, garlic, and tomatillos in olive oil, salt, and pepper, then spread on a lined baking sheet and place under a broiler on high. Turn occasionally, until tomatillos have burst and garlic and onions take on some color. Transfer to a blender.
Set oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove poblanos from bag and peel skin under running, cold tap water. Remove stems and seed and add to blender along with most of cilantro leaves, leaving a few for garnish. Blend until smooth, then pour into the pot (away from you) to mix with pork fat and fond. Stir until smooth, return meat to pot, stir, and raise heat until simmering. Put lid on dutch oven and place in the oven for 3 hours.
Serve with warmed tortillas and Spanish rice, and top with shredded mozzarella or Oaxacan cheese, sour cream, avocado, and remaining cilantro.
Now, the Spanish rice is key to the next part. I make mine with a handful of chopped garlic cloves, two cups of long-grain rice, a chopped onion, a 14-ounce can of tomato sauce (or some paste and a chopped Roma tomato), chicken broth, and some spices like cumin and coriander, if I’m feeling like it. I use two cups of dry rice because I want enough to eat that night, plus the extra several cups for the cheesy, beany, green saucy dish to come.
A Taste of Home
12-16 ounces leftover green sauce (pork chunks optional)
1-2 cans black beans, drained
3-4 cups leftover, cooked Spanish rice
1-2 cups chicken stock, or water + bouillon
Several handfuls shredded mozzarella or Oaxacan cheese
Sour cream, avocado, or fresh cilantro for topping (optional)
Pour one cup stock into a Dutch oven over medium heat and add beans (one can is fine, but two gives your dish more protein and fiber). Bring to a boil, then simmer 5-10 minutes until beans soften. Add green sauce and stir to combine. Slowly fold in rice, and add additional cup of stock if the resulting mixture is too tight. Stir regularly as you bring mix up to a simmer, then kill the heat. Serve in bowls with cheese sprinkled generously over the top, and top with preferred accoutrements.
If you’ve done the work ahead of time, this goes from fridge containers to table in 20 minutes or less. I obviously have my own nostalgic ties to it, but it’s also a family favorite, including with our toddler, who delivers her trademark “Mmmmm”” between bites, as sure a sign of approval as my cooking will ever get. And in a time when you may well be too exhausted to think about cooking, it can be a really easy, homey, tasty weeknight meal.