mexican pork and black bean stew
mexican pork and black bean stew 📷 Joe Sevita
Sunday Stews
Cold Sundays are made for slow cooked stews and what could be more slow cooked than a stew made from dry beans.
With 2 pounds of pork shoulder stew meat from Fresh Direct and a recipe from Rick Bayless, I was ready for my Mexican style Sunday stew.
I did make this dish once with canned black beans. But this dish is best with dry beans because both the beans and meat takes that long to cook while with canned beans, you really need to add them later. So until the canned beans are added, pork will be cooking by itself or if added in the beginning, the beans will be too mushy.
ingredients
2 lbs pork shoulder it into 1-2 inch pieces
1 lb dry black beans
2 medium onions, diced
1-2 green Chile, Serrano or jalapeños, thinly sliced
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, preferably fire roasted
1 avocado
1/3 cup thinly sliced radishes
1/3 cup cilantro leaves
cooking steps
Soak the dry black beans over night.
Pat pork shoulder pieces fry with paper towel. Sprinkle salt generously.
Heat a Dutch oven over medium high heat, add 2 tbsp olive oil. Add pork shoulder pieces in a single layer without crowding. Turn the pieces over as they brown. Transfer pork pieces to plate when browned on both sides. Repeat until all pieces are browned.
To the Dutch oven with leftover oil from browning, add 1 diced onion and sauté until softened.
Return pork pieces to the Dutch oven. Add black beans. Add black bean soaking water and regular water to totaling 6-8 cups of water (6-7 cups for a thicker stew). Bring to boil.
Simmer the stew for 2 1/2 -3 hours covered, leaving the lid slightly open for steam to escape.
While the stew is cooking, in a blender, roughly purée the canned tomato with its juice.
Heat a large skillet, add 2 tbsp olive oil, sauté the 1 remaining diced onion until softened. Add sliced chili and the tomato purée. Cook and stir until thickened. Season with 1/2 tsp salt.
When the stew has finished cooking after 2 1/2 to 3 hours, add half of the tomato Chile sauce into the stew and mix. Season with salt to taste and simmer for a few more minutes.
Serve stew in a bowl with or without rice and top with some tomato Chile sauce, radishes, avocado and cilantro.
