Older Bolder Life

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green chile

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast 27 November: Green Chile Turkey Hash

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Today is turkey leftover day for many of us across the fruited plains, and I’ll once again argue that the best thing about cooking a big bird for Thanksgiving is whipping up a great turkey hash sometime before the best leftovers run out.

There are a lot of great turkey hash recipes out there, including one I posted a couple of years ago – Ed’s Kitchen Sink Turkey Hash. Here’s part of the introduction to that recipe…

We have a good friend, Ed, who’s been something of a family icon now for over a decade. He’s been a continual font of inspiration and wisdom, a mentor, a business partner, and even an occasional pain-in-the-ass for most of those years.

Ed loves good food almost as much as we do, though you’d never know to look at him. His thin, fit build looks like that of a fifty-something runner, which is somewhat amazing as he’s in his mid-80’s (he constantly lies about his age, so we don’t know the genuine number). He’s sharp as a tack, more active than most men half his age, and was eating LC/MP/HF long before most of us had heard a whisper of the concept.

Back in 2016, Ed pestered us to help him come up with a “turkey hash recipe that he’d really like”; the final result was this Ed’s Kitchen Sink Turkey Hash, built on the foundation of spicy sausage with a big pile of fairly traditional hash vegetables thrown in. By the way, the poblano adds a nice bit of heat and flavor and the sweet potatoes tie in with the whole Thanksgiving theme, as does the fresh sage…

This year I’ve been chatting more and more often lately with our friend Chef Libby in Austin and we’ve both been playing with various recipes for spicing up the turkey hash game; we both think this Green Chile Turkey Hash is game changer, at least to our Southwestern-oriented palates.

The recipe makes a few key changes from our Kitchen Sink version: a bit of crispy bacon is rendered first, then the onions with a heavy hit of diced poblanos, sweet potatoes, garlic, and a spice package right out of San Antonio and Santa Fe, along with an impressive amount of roasted and diced green chiles. We think it needs a couple of hits of cilantro (cooked in and fresh at service), but sub parsley if you’re not a cilantro fan.

As before, just in cash you’re not a “hash expert”, one of the critical steps for this recipe is the repeated compress, crisp, and turn of the mixture to get crispy, browned, caramelized edges in every bite. Be patient; keep turning and crisping until it suits you; it does take a bit of time if your skillet’s full. The browner and crisper the better…

Libby prefers to prefers to crisp up her sweet potatoes in a bit of butter and avocado oil first thing; she argues that it helps them hold their shape better and provides a bit more tooth to the final hash – we’ve adopted her approach and agree, though you don’t have to do this extra quick step (as the recipe below reflects).

And finally, the soft poached or fried eggs aren’t really necessary, but the runny yolks are magical. And Ed still insists that this be drizzled with hollandaise sauce; Libby drizzles a chipotle hollandaise over hers.

1/3 lb good bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large sweet onion, chopped medium
1 medium red onion, chopped medium
2 poblano chile peppers, stemmed, seeded, chopped medium
1-2 jalapeño peppers, stemmed, seeded, chopped fine
1 large sweet potato, partially precooked (firm), cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 tbsp good butter

1 lb turkey, white and dark meat, chopped to 1/2 inch or so pieces
1 cup roasted green chiles, small dice

1/3 to 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped, divided
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground chile powder, I prefer a dark ancho powder
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1-2 tsp good salt
1-2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Optional
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, chopped medium
4-6 eggs, poached or fried, with soft yolk
Hollandaise sauce if Ed’s coming over, or this Green Chile sauce

Prep the vegetables and dice the bacon.

Sauté the bacon until browned; remove from the skillet to drain and remove all but (roughly) 2 tbsp of the remaining fat.

While the bacon is rendering and making your kitchen smell awesome, combine the ground cumin, chile powder, Mexican oregano, salt, fresh ground pepper, and 1/2 the cilantro; set aside.

Melt 4 tbsp. of the butter over medium-high heat in the same skillet; add both onions, all the peppers, the sweet potato, garlic, and roughly half the spice mixture. Cook, stirring now and again, until the onions and pepper begin to soften.

Now add another tbsp. of butter, the turkey, cooked bacon, roasted green chiles and the rest of the spice mixture; stir to mix well.

Up your hash game by crisping it up. Smooth the mixture in the skillet out and gently compress it; raise the heat a notch and don’t touch it for 3 minutes or so to let a crispy-crunchy layer of caramelization develop. Then, turn that brown, crunchy bottom over and mix into the upper hash layers. Compress the mixture again and repeat at least two more times – the desired goal here is lots of crunchy, brown goodness.

Serve it right now, topped with a runny-yolk poached or fried egg and drizzled with a spiced up hollandaise if Ed’s coming over, and don’t forget to sprinkle the rest of the cilantro on.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast 7 August: New Mexico Green Chile Sauce

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Historians inform us that Kit Carson, rancher, soldier, fur trapper, guide, chili master, uttered these words on his death bed: “Wish I had time for one more bowl of chili.”

Of course I wasn’t there to hear those words spoken, but I’d bet just about anything that Kit was thinking about a big, steaming pot of “New Mexico Green” when he uttered those (in)famous words. Ask any chili-head about what the worlds “New Mexico Green” mean, and she or he will tell you stories of magical chiles which almost all seem to revolve around the Hatch Chile.

You’ve no doubt heard wine aficionados huff and puff about the terroir of fine wines, that special, sometimes almost ethereal uniqueness that combinations of plant genetics, geography, geology and climate (maybe even microclimates) produce in certain grapes.

You can be damn sure that same terroir principal applies to the magnificent green chile lovingly grown in New Mexico, and we’re talking most specifically the climate and terroir around Hatch in the southern part of the state, north of Las Cruces and El Paso.

Being profound chili heads around our camp, we’ve grown over a dozen chile varieties from seed even way up north in Montana, nursing them in basement heated and lighted grow racks, starting them in the middle of winter in early February and transplanting them with care in May. They were passably good, most of them, but still couldn’t/ can’t hold a candle to the bushel or two we ship over from New Mexico to roast and freeze every year, or the fresh Hatch chiles we can buy at our favorite markets starting about now in the late summer and early fall.

As a point of full disclosure, I’m not from New Mexico, though I was taught about and trained in New Mexico cuisine by a lovely woman over thirty-five years ago during my residency in Salt Lake City. She was the wife of a residency mate, born and raised in Santa Fe, and one of the most intuitive cooks in the kitchen I’ve ever personally watched work.

This is her recipe handed down from her mother and grandmother, and about as authentic as they come. Primal and paleo folks may bark about the 2 tablespoons of flour; we’ve tried and tried to make this work with gluten free flours, and it’s just not quite the same to our taste. (Sometimes you just have to use it, and we’ve long since stopped beating ourselves up for a tablespoon or two of flour to make a recipe work…)

Make a big batch and freeze some, it keeps for months, and it’s great to have some handy with the hankering for green chile strikes.

1 medium onion, chopped fine
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp avocado or olive oil
2 tbsp AP flour or your favorite gluten free sub
2 cups roasted NM green chile, stemmed, seeded, peeled, and chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

In a large, stainless sauce pan, heat the oil over medium-low heat; add the onion and garlic and sauté for 5-6 minutes until soft. Note that you’re not trying to brown or caramelize the onion, just soften, turn down the heat if it begins to brown.

Stir in the flour and black pepper, coating the onion-garlic mixture well and cooking for a minute or two. Now slowly whisk in 1 cup of the chicken stock, keeping it moving until the flour has dissolved and the mixture is smooth.

Add the prepped chiles, the rest of the stock, cumin, oregano, and salt, then bring to a low boil. Reduce to a simmer and reduce slowly, stirring now and again, until your sauce reaches the desired consistency.

Will keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days if you don’t use it all up on the first run, and this sauce freezes like a charm, and is a treasure to have throughout the year.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Roasted Green Chile (Enchilada) Sauce

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Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of being on a multi-person Skype call talking food with several friends and foodie professionals; most of us happen to be in Texas currently, most of us aren’t professionally trained chefs (though two, including friend Libby from Austin, were culinary school trained), and to the person all of us are immersed in some aspect of the food world more or less on a daily basis.

Somehow the topic of verde or green enchiladas came up, prompting a debate as to whether or not verde sauces (and you might even argue salsas) should include our tart friend – the tomatillo.

Opinions ranged widely as you might imagine, some invoking the hallowed “New Mexico Green” enchilada, which collective opinion insisted was built around the revered Hatch Chile (probably New Mexico’s finest export) and not the tomatillo, though many of our Texas-allied compadres insisted that “it’s just not a (insert colorful adjective of choice here) green enchilada if tomatillos aren’t in the (insert second colorful adjective of choice here) sauce”.

While those on the call parted amicably, a few days later I chatted with Libby about tweaking a verde enchilada sauce recipe to include hefty piles of roasted green chiles along with tomatillos – preferably roasted.

She didn’t have time to play around with recipe trials given her catering schedule that week, so I ventured off and started playing with several combinations of these great flavors we’d been arguing about days before. While it’s probably best to do over live fire on the grill, I started off by roasting onions, poblanos, and tomatillos in the oven after drizzling with a good olive oil, and then combining them with a more or less typical assortment of ingredients you see time and time again in most roasted green chile based sauces.

Hot damn, this ended up being a very tasty approach, and one that can be spiced up (more serranos or jalapeños) as desired, and left fairly thick or thinned out as needed. My wife insists it makes a damned fine salsa verde, and she’s pretty good at the salsa game.

Try this next time the verde enchilada siren calls your name; we’ve been using it as a salad dressing, topping for roasted proteins and vegetables, even as a dip for fresh, crunchy veg as well. It’s amazing over eggs or migas, and I find it delightful over a simple salad too.

I’ll also feature this roasted green chile (enchilada) sauce in an upcoming post covering a green chile chicken casserole I helped a buddy cobble together for a family gathering around the 4th, it was a huge hit…

1 small onion, trimmed and halved
1 poblano chile, trimmed and halved
5-6 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 tbsp (or more) olive or avocado oil
Kosher salt

4 4-ounce cans roasted green chiles (Hatch if possible)
4 garlic cloves, rough chop
2 serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded, rough chop
1/2 cup cilantro, leaves and tender stems
1/2 to one cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 and 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp kosher (or to taste)

Preheat your trusty oven to 400, and place the onion, poblano, and tomatillos on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with the oil, dust with a sprinkle of salt, and throw in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and browned. Let cool for several minutes, rough chop, and throw in the blender, along with any juices that leaked from those beautifully roasted tomatillos.

Now add the next 8 ingredients, taking note that you should start with 1/2 cup of chicken stock, adding more as needed to reach the desired consistency. Puree until smooth, taste, and adjust for cumin and salt.

Note: Pending how thick or thin it is, you can either add more chicken stock or throw the sauce into a pan on the stove and reduce to the desired consistency.

As noted in the narrative above, this recipe was most recently used for a friend’s 4th of July party feed down here in Texas, though this makes an astoundingly tasty verde enchilada sauce as well.

Enjoy.

And by the way, it’s kinda hard to get really sexy images of salsa and sauces; the image below is looking right down the barrel of a blender loaded with this sauce in progress…