Third week of January and it's time for Chili with Pork

It was a drizzly, miserable morning and so comfort food was certainly on the menu. Poor Shack is back on set and so I am trying to make things that he can heat up and eat when he gets home later in the evening because even though they do feed him on set, he doesn't always have the time to eat much. Some movies have better catering than others as well, so it becomes even more important to try to make sure he has yummy food at home to even out the endless parade of chicken dishes they serve at work.

We all love chili and we although we are dying for all of our old favourites again, in the spirit of adventure and trying new things, I thought I would make a different kind of chili. Thinking I had a container of leftover canned poblano chills in the fridge, I foolish planned it around those without actually looking at them first.  I went out and bought some ground pork, PC tomatillo salsa and a can of black beans, thinking I would do a chili version of our favourite pork stew, chili verde.

Once I got my ingredients ready, I realized that my poblanos had gone bad but I was already committed so I had to forge ahead anyway. I was also out of beer so clearly this was not going to be my regular chili verde with ground pork instead of chunks of pork. I really need to take inventory BEFORE I go shopping.
In the end, I just made it up as I went along and the end result was very tasty indeed. The brand of tomatillo salsa you use will determine how spicy the end product will be so keep that in mind. I am, once again, quite thankful for this blog because this is the kind of thing I would normally whip up on the spot but then I would have forgotten how I made it. Now that I actually have to measure and write everything down, I can make this again whenever I want.
Actually, now I can make it again and again and again and again!

Oh, and Dianne has not disappeared but after her christmas break with her family, she had to dive straight into a huge work project and is most likely living on deli sandwiches and diet coke.

Chili with Pork

500g ( 1 lb) ground lean pork
glug of olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, small dice
2 cups tomato puree
3/4 cup chicken stock (or beer but I didn't have any)
1 540 ml can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup tomatillo salsa
salt and pepper
1 tbls mexican oregano
1 tbls ground cumin
1 tbls chili powder
cilantro
l tbl lime juice

Heat a heavy pot over med heat. Add a small glug of oil and brown the ground pork. When it's cooked, remove it to a bowl using a slotted spoon and set it aside. If there is more than a tbls or so of fat in the bottom of the pot, get rid of enough to leave you with about a tbls. Throw the onions, garlic and celery into the pot and sauté until softened, about five minutes. At that point, add the pork back in and stir to mix well. Add the tomato puree, the salsa, the chicken stock, black beans, oregano, cumin and chili powder and bring to a light simmer. Lower the heat and let it simmer gently for about an hour or so. It's chili so it can certainly simmer a bit longer than an hour but not less that that. During the last ten minutes of cooking add a handful of chopped cilantro and the lime juice, stir and let it simmer for ten minutes before taking it off the heat.
Chili is always better after it sits so if you can make it in the morning and then reheat it for supper that's great but it will be even tastier the next day.

Of course, you could also throw the whole think in a slow cooker after the meat and the onion/garlic/celery have been done and let it cook on low all day too.


serve with more cilantro, a wedge of lime, whatever things you like on your chili - we do sour cream or crema and some tortilla chips