Saturday, July 30, 2016

Green salsa citrus stew

Hi, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a delicious recipe for you. It's like stew, but not. If you're like us, you're suffering with this heat wave. We've been eating cold everything. Sandwiches, pasta, cereal. No kidding, I've been letting my kids eat cereal for three meals because it's not ice cream (that's for brunch and midnight snack).  
But every now and then we have to have some real food, so my daughter asked if we could make this recipe she saw in a magazine.
Originally, it had potatoes, pork, green chiles, and chicken broth. But we also like to use what we have and mix it up, so here's the new and updated version!

Ingredients:
 3 cups tomatillos
one onion
3 cops chopped pork
3-4 cups chopped potatoes
5 cups broth
two oranges
four large mint leaves

 Instead of green chiles, we used a jar of home canned tomatillos. You can buy these little green tomato-type things at the store. Easy to boil until they get soft. So, a jar of tomatillos and five cups of broth (what I had stored in the freezer). Bring to a boil. It's tempting to start adding spices and seasoning but just wait because when you add the potatoes, you'll have to start all over.
 Chopped potatoes. We used about ten, but we were cooking for a crowd. I'd say as a rule for this stew to make sure your tomatillos, potatoes, and pork are in equal amounts.
 Fry up some pork chops. Ugh. not attractive before they're cooked but so good after!
 Now, chop the pork into small cubes, add to the potato and tomatillo stew. Adjust the broth if necessary. It should be pretty soupy because it has a while to boil down. After letting it boil until the potatoes are soft, squeeze two large oranges (watch for seeds). The sweet citrus is a great addition to the tangy green salsa. It gives it a balance and keeps it from being overwhelming.
 Last step, add four or five large mint leaves. Mint and pork always go together, but my husband adds mint to his stews because he says it's good for digestion. Not sure if that's true, but I LOVE the smell of mint/citrus stew. He even adds it to chicken soup, and it gives it such an exotic flavor. After the mint has cooked for a few minutes, add salt and pepper and maybe some hot sauce to taste. Depending on what heat level you like, you can leave off the hot sauce altogether, or serve it individually.
 A dollop of sour cream, some tortilla chips and some cilantro completes the dish!

That's all for now! I hope everyone is surviving the heat! I've just passed a deadline and am diving back into another series, so I'm feeling like life is AWESOME. Lol. You can tell I always love starting more than beginning a book. Or maybe both? Anyway, stop by my Mary Jane Hathaway author page, or my Virginia Carmichael page (soon to be resurrected pen name!), or my blog at The Things That Last. Until next time!

4 comments:

  1. It's crazy hot here too. I trekked down to the farmer's market and bought lots of fresh veggies and fruit and plan to live on salads all week long. Love the exploding flavour of fresh picked produce. Woot! Congrats on passing the deadline and happy writing on the new series!!!!!

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    1. Thank you!! And we found .99 cantaloupes so we're feasting on melons right now. I made a lime-mint cantaloupe salad that was SO refreshing. Keep cool!

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  2. Sounds delicious! But I never in the world would have thought to add mint to pork!

    Congrats on typing The End!

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    1. Thank you! And my friend from Barbados always put mint jelly on her pork chops, which I thought was CRAZY until I tried it. It's delicious!

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