Traditional New Mexico-style Pork Chile

The day before if possible, cook your pork:

Pork shoulder or butt, generally 4 or 5 pounds, with the bone is best but not necessary. You need meat with a fairly high fat content for this to work.
Water to cover by one inch, maybe 2 or 3 quarts.

Seperate the pork along its natural seams into large chunks. Place in a stock pot with the bone, cover with water, bring to a boil, lower and simmer for 1 1/2 or 2 hours until it's tender. Seperate the meat from what is now a basic pork broth, cool and refrigerate overnight.

Make your Red Chile puree while you're simmering the pork:

New Mexico chile pods, also called Colorado Chiles by some, you probably only need 12 to 18, but why not buy a larger bag and make a bunch? Freeze in 1C portions or so and you're set for the summer!
Fresh Garlic, maybe a large clove for every dozen chiles or so
Mexican oregano, dried or fresh, TT (To Taste), maybe a bit less than a teaspoon of dried
Kosher Salt, TT
Hot water, A/N (as needed), you want a loose puree.

Toast the chiles on a sheet pan for a few minutes. Cool, tear off the stems and pour out seeds. Tear into pieces. Put these in a food processor or blender with the garlic and some of the water and spin it up. Once all the chiles are in, keep adding water until it's completely smooth. It will take a while, so be patient, especially with a blender. Season with salt and oregano until you have a nice subtle background of oregano. Don't overdo the oregano! Dried herbs can be a powerful force of evil if abused. Err on the side of caution...

Day of Service:

Cooked pork
Pork broth
Reserved fat from broth
1/4 lb or so slab or thick cut bacon, medium dice (1/2") (not traditional really, but I like it, otherwise just use all the fat from the stock)
Corn meal slurry with equal parts cold water, make 1 1/2 or 2C but you probably won't need all of it.
1C or so of the red chile puree
Dried or fresh Mexican oregano, TT
Honey, if needed
S & P

Remove the fat layer from the top of the stock, and reserve. Bring the stock up to a simmer. Small dice (1/4" or so) the cooled pork. In a large cast iron skillet hot, render the bacon until crispy and add to broth. Add some of the reserved fat and get the skillet hot. Add the diced pork, in batches if necessary, and pan fry until crispy, adding to the broth as you finish it.

Once you're done crisping the pork and it's all in the broth, remove any really nasty burned bits you may have left in the skillet, then take a bit of the broth and deglaze. Add back to the broth.

Bring the chile to a boil and start adding the corn meal slurry, maybe a 1/4 C at a time until it's thickened up nicely. It's important to boil this a bit to be able to accurately gauge if it's right.

Lower the heat to a gentle simmer and add about 3/4C of the puree, wait a bit and then you'll probably want to add a bit more. Let this simmer an hour or so. Remember, simmer it gently, you don't want to break up your nicely diced pork.

During the last hour of cooking, check your seasoning. Add a bit of honey if you've gotten too much puree in there. S & P TT, carefully add some more oregano if desired. Add a bit more water if it's gotten too tight. If you're hell-bent on embellishing this dish, now's the time. A bit of bittersweet chocolate, cumin and Mexican cinnamon will give it more depth of flavor, but basic is great too. Don't feel you have to empty the pantry for every dish, learn to celebrate subtle flavors too! I do like to add a bit of fresh oregano during the last 15 minutes, it gives it a good fresh aroma.

I love to serve this with the corn risotto in the picture, but that's another day...