nathan and audrey

I doubt many midwestern restaurants feature Green Chile Stew on their menus, but where we’re from, it’s a staple. We snub our noses at poor quality green chile stew and angrily throw sub-par bowls of the mislabeled sludge against the wall. Perhaps that’s a bit extreme. But we certainly think about it.

Until yesterday, I had never made green chile stew, mostly because finding good green chile here is difficult, and I didn’t want to waste any of my dwindling stock for experimental purposes. Still, the mood struck, and I had to roll with it.

Green Chile Stew, a la Audrey
Serves 2

• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 medium russet potato, cubed
• 1/2 cup cooked and shredded chicken breast
• 1/2 tbsp. chicken better than bouillon
• splash of olive oil
• 1/4 onion, chopped into large pieces
• 2-3 heaping tablespoons of green chile (more of less depending on your chile’s natural heat and whether you want to burn your tastebuds off)
• 1/2 cup corn
• salt and pepper to taste

1) In a small crockpot, add the chicken broth, potato, shredded chicken, and chicken bouillon.

2) Heat up a bit of olive oil in a small sauce pan, then saute the onion and green chile until the onion is soft and transparent. Then add to the crockpot.

3) Thirty minutes before stew is to be served, add the corn. It’s important to let this simmer for some time–the stew-like qualities come from the dissolution of the potatoes. I let mine cook for six hours total.

4) Serve with warm flour tortillas, and if the chile is really hot, a glass of milk.

PS-The wonderful thing about green chile stew is that you can substitute. The chicken can be substituted with ground beef or shredded pork. Diced tomatoes lend a yummy flavor. Some people add lard to liven it up. Oh, the possibilities!

I’ve been pushed and reminded–gently, of course–that having a website with my name in the title means that I should contribute. I could write about work (bleh), getting ready for the move to Illinois (tiring), or my thoughts on spending winter in a very very cold part of the country after having lived in the desert nearly my entire life (fearful), and while those things are very present in my thoughts as of late, there’s something I think about with much more joy. Cooking is so exotic! I can be wherever I’d like with the right ingredients, and I love to measure things out, combine them, and see what I’m left with. So, I figure that my contribution to this website will be about food. And to kick everything off, I’m going to start with the corn chowder I made last night.

Corn and Shrimp Chowder, adapted from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food

A few notes on chowder: various definitions disagree, but it’s typically considered to be a thick soup with potatoes and other ingredients. The word chowder is thought to be a descendent of the Latin word caldaria, which refers to the cooking pot used to make it.

This recipe makes a very thin chowder, but it is much better suited for summer in New Mexico than its thick siblings.

Ingredients:

• 8 slices bacon
• 2 large cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 medium-sized potatoes, cut into 1/4-1/2 inch cubes
• 4 oz pancetta
• 1 teaspoon seafood seasoning
• 3 tbsp flour
• 2 cups water
• 3 cups milk
• 1 lb. large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 cans sweet corn OR six ears of sweet corn with the kernels cut off the cob
• salt and pepper to season
• bread or crackers on the side, if you so desire

1) Cook the bacon until crispy in a large saucepan. Set bacon off to the side, and the grease inside becomes the base of the chowder.
2) On medium heat, add the garlic, pancetta, and potatoes, and let it all simmer for a couple of minutes. Lower your heat if the garlic begins to brown too quickly.
3) Add seafood seasoning and stir pot to ensure everything gets fully coated. Then add flour and repeat.
4) Next, add the water and milk. If you reduced your heat in step 2, kick it back up to a medium heat or even medium-high heat. Wait for the liquid to come to a boil, then reduce the heat, allowing the chowder to simmer. Cook 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
5) Tear the bacon strips into small pieces. Set aside.
6) Add corn and shrimp to the mix. Cook another two minutes, removing from heat when the shrimp change from being translucent and gray to white and pink.
7) Garnish with bacon pieces and serve very hot.

Including the prepwork, the entire recipe took me about forty-five minutes to complete. We served it with thick slices of french bread, which we soaked up with broth and devoured. The meal was light, the flavors were subtle, and after eight hours of work, it was easy to make. The shrimp I had purchased for it wasn’t terribly flavorful, so I imagine that a better quality shrimp would’ve produced more of the sweet, seafood-y flavor that I love and adore. I’ve been asked to make it again.

-Audrey