Chilorio

I was watching tv yesterday, and I started watching Pati's Mexican Table on PBS.  She made a dish called Chilorio, which is shredded pork in ancho chile sauce, that you can roll into a burrito.  Somehow I got it in my head that I just had to try making chilorio, even though I hardly ever cook pork, it seemed pretty easy.  If it tasted as good as it looked, that would be a big payoff.

Ancho chiles are the big ones.  I believe they are the dried version of the Pasilla chile, which are almost as big around as green peppers, and longer.  Ancho chiles are about 4-5 inches long, and kind of triangular in shape.  They are mild in their spicyness.  I knew I could find these at Food City for not too much.  Since most of the ingredients I already had on hand, I only really needed to buy the chiles, pork, and tortillas.  That's a short and easy shopping list!

CHILORIO


3 lbs. boneless pork, cut into 1 to 2 inch cubes
1 and 1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (use the oranges in your yard!)
1 and 1/4 cup water
salt
Ancho Chile Sauce

Put the pork in a pan with the water, orange juice, and salt.  Bring it up to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes until it shreds apart easily.  When it cools enough to handle, shred the pork and put it in a bowl.

While the meat is cooking, make the Ancho Chile Sauce.

ANCHO CHILE SAUCE


5 ancho chiles - remove the stem and seeds and break them into large pieces
1 and 1/2 cups boiling water (or just enough to cover the chiles)
1/2 cup onion
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Cumin (tiny bit)

Put the chiles in a bowl and pour the boiling water over them.  Let the chiles sit in the boiling water for about 10 minutes to soften.  When they are soft, put them in a blender with the onions, garlic, parsley, vinegar, salt, pepper, oregano, and cumin.  Add some of the chile soaking water to help the ingredients blend together.

After the meat is shredded, heat a couple tablespoons of oil in a pan.  Add the ancho chile sauce to the pan and let it cook for a few minutes.  Then add the shredded meat to the sauce along with any remaining cooking juices.  Simmer the meat and sauce together for 20-30 minutes, to let the meat absorb the sauce, and the flavors to come together.

When you are ready to eat the chilorio, heat your tortillas on a comal or frying pan with no oil.  I had chilorio tacos on soft corn tortillas and they were pretty good!  Actually they were delicious.  I put pepper jack cheese in the tortilla, then a couple spoonfuls of chilorio, then shredded cabbage, cilantro, and salsa (salsa roja molcajete).  I have to admit they were good!

If you prefer burritos, heat your flour tortilla, and roll the chilorio up inside it.

Ms. Pati said you can make chilorio with beef or chicken if you want.  I decided to try making it with pork the first time, since that is the original recipe.  Maybe next time I will try chicken....  Enjoy!!!

Butternut squash soup

I decided to try making soup tonight.  I had bought a butternut sqaush last week .. just because .. I'm not sure why, it's not on the usual weekly shopping list, nor is it in rotation.  It's still such a yummy food that I just bought one on an impulse.

So, tonight was the night that squash was destined to be cooked.  This recipe came from the food network website, and it's super easy.  The hardest part is peeling and chopping the squash, but I have noticed you can buy butternut squash already peeled and cubed, ready to go.  There you go!

This soup was good.  I did not have nutmeg, so that ingredient didn't go into it.  Also, I only had 4 cups of chicken stock (a quart), so I used 4 cups instead of 6 cups, and it was perfect.  I used a stick blender instead of a regular blender, so pureeing the soup was super easy and fast.  Enjoy!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP:

Ingredients:

1 (2 to 3 pound) butternut squash, peeled and seeded
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped
6 cups chicken stock
Nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Cut squash into 1-inch chunks.  In large pot melt butter.  Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes.  Add squash and stock.  Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove squash chunks with slotted spoon and place in a blender and puree.  Return blended squash to pot.  Stir and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper.  Serve.


http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/butternut-squash-soup-recipe/index.html

China Star, AAABA and BWLAA banquets...

I've had a few really great eating experiences outside of the home in the last week and a half.  First of all, let me tell you about China Star.  It is a Chinese buffet in Tucson at the corner of Swan and Grant.  It was really good!  We were very hungry, having played 4 games that day without a true lunch break.  The restaurant staff gave us our own room which was maybe a good idea, since we came straight from the fields to the restaurant, and there was a whole bunch of us, like maybe 25-30 (dirty) ultimate players!  The highlight of the buffet, for me, was the ribs.  They were really tasty!! They had that red glaze to them, and just sweet enough.  And at around $9.50 for the dinner buffet, that was a pretty good deal too!

Later on, (after we washed up :D) we went to the party which was ok.  My girl Lexi and I decided to explore the neighborhood for other options, and we ended up at The Buffet (http://www.thebuffetbar.com/), a Tucson landmark down on 9th Street, near 2nd Avenue.  It was kind of a dive, but it was packed, and the vodka cranberry hit the spot.

A couple nights before our China Star experience was the annual installation and scholarship banquet for the Arizona Asian American Bar Association.  Mostly, Asian American lawyers and judges belong to this group, but EVERYONE looks forward to the annual banquet!  Each year it gets bigger and bigger!  This year we filled up the entire C-Fu Gourmet restaurant; there must have been at least 500 guests that night, including judges, state senators and representatives, law school deans and other dignitaries.  I've been going to this banquet every year for the last 14 years or so, since I was in law school -- the food has always been an amazing 10-course Chinese buffet -- and this event has really grown; I remember about 40 people attending the first one that I went to back then.  I've only missed the AAABA banquet one time, about 4 years ago.  I had trial that day, and Judge Cohen really wanted to finish the trial, so he kept us in court until we finally finished around 8:30 that night!  I was so sad!  I couldn't exactly tell the judge that I had to go because I had a banquet to attend...

Anyways, the food this year was as great as it always is!  for appetizers we had shrimp dumplings (har gow), pork and shrimp dumplings (shu mai), and BBQ pork buns (cha shu bao).  So yummy!  The seafood soup came next, and then the entrees started arriving at the table, plate after plate, including everyone's favorite Honey Walnut Shrimp!  Wow!!!  We also had 2 kinds of Chinese greens, black mushrooms (Mmmmmm!), whole steamed fish, beef and broccoli, fried rice, chow fun noodles... soooo much food!!!  Finally, it was time for dessert, and we were all excited to see the fried sesame balls - crispy, chewy, and sweet - and the miniature custard pies which were still warm in their flaky crusts!  So satisfying!  Such a great banquet!

Last Friday was the Black Women Lawyers Association of Arizona awards banquet.  This was a really beautiful event that was held at the University Club in downtown Phoenix.  Some really great women were honored that night, including Commissioner Phemonia Miller, County Attorney Frankie Jones, Attorney Ben Thomas (he's not a woman!), Dean of Students Dr. Willie Jordan Curtis, and Honorable Glenda Edmonds.  Dr. Shirley Mays, Dean of the Phoenix School of Law, delivered a very inspiring keynote speech.  The steak and salmon dinner was very good, but the dessert was OMG!!!  It was like a chocolate mousse oreo pie.  Oh my goodness that was tasty!  It had a layer of chocolate mousse, then a layer of miniature oreos, then another layer of chocolate mousse.  Soooo chocolatey!!!  Congratulations to the BWLAA, this was truly a memorable and beautiful evening!

So, get out there once in a while, put on a fabulous outfit, and enjoy some food and company outside the house now and then!  It's almost as good as home-cooked, and sometimes it's a tiny bit better  :-)