Engine 9's chile verde

Like most of you, I have a stack of go-to recipes (figuratively if not literally) that I can whip out with little to no grocery shopping and even less effort. I love these recipes, and not only because I can make them with my eyes closed. They're good. They became favorites for a reason, after all. For me, the short list includes pasta alla amatriciana, soy sauce chicken, and minestrone. I've cooked and devoured these dishes more times than I can count.

The problem with these recipes is that I get a little tired of them. Sometimes I start to feel acutely like I need to make something brand new. When this happens, I enjoy nothing more than perusing cookbooks, food magazines, and blogs I like in search of something inspiring.

Something like a tomatillo.

While flipping through this groovy cookbook called Firehouse Food, a compilation of recipes from San Francisco's firefighters, I stumbled upon a recipe for chile verde. It had three desirable qualities going for it: 1) it required just 5 ingredients 2) it seemed to involve very little work and 3) it looked, as one of my fellow bloggers might say, wicked good.

First I had to get a couple of artsy shots of the tomatillos though. Incidentally, this was my first time using tomatillos. I have no idea what took me so long to discover these delightful little bundles, like hard green apples wrapped in crinkly cabbage leaves.

You start by toasting the tomatillos in a dry pan, then pureeing them. Brown the pork, add the tomatillo puree, along with some garlic, jalapenos, and salt, and you're all set. While the pork bubbled gently, I set about making Mexican rice, also from the cookbook. Another revelation! Simple, flavorful, and delicious.

All the dinner required was patience, which I mustered up with the distractions of the husband, dog, and a couple of frosty Sierra Nevadas. A few hours later we ate chile verde and Mexican rice, with warm corn tortillas to soak up the sauce.

So, thanks to Bob Lopez of Engine 9, I now have a fantastic new recipe to break up the routine--and definitely one good enough for company.