Text 34906, 98 rader
Skriven 2013-03-16 23:36:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: a long recipe 2/4
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     Title: About Carne Adovada pt 1
Categories: Southwest, Pork, Chili, Info
  Servings: 1

           New Mexico Pork with
           Red Chilies
           
Browning Issues: Traditional wisdom will tell you that you ought to
brown your meat as deeply as possible. Browning, also known as the
Maillard reaction is a complex series of chemical reactions that
occur when meat is subjected to high heat. As meat browns, molecules
rapidly break down and recombine in a cascade of reactions that
produce hundreds of end products, adding complexity and depth of
flavor.

But here's the thing: browning doesn't occur at any appreciable rate
until well above the 300 F mark. Meanwhile, it's not possible to
raise your meat past 212 F (the boiling point of water) until most
of its surface moisture has been evaporated. Water is like a
built-in temperature regulator that prevents browning. How do you
solve this problem? The first step is to get rid of the surface
moisture-the liquid clinging to the outside of the meat i.e. pat
dry.

But this doesn't solve the problem of the moisture that resides just
under the surface, which is only released once the meat hits the pan
and its muscle fibers start contracting, expelling liquid. 

There's an inverse relationship between quality of sear (that is,
how brown a given surface on a piece of meat gets), and quality of
texture (that is, how moist and tender the meat is after cooking).
The browner it gets, the tougher and dryer it becomes.

So my two conflicting goals: develop flavor via browning and retain
moisture by not browning. I tried a number of solutions-browning
meat less, browning it not at all, adding browned vegetables instead
of meat, browning via roasting rather than searing-but the best
turned out to be the simplest: just don't bother browning every
surface. Instead, I get some oil ripping hot in a Dutch oven (until
it's lightly smoking), dump in all my meat, and just let it sit
there until just the bottom side is deeply seared. The temptation to
move it around is great. Don't. Stirring will lead to excessive
cooling, which leads to steamed meat instead of browned meat. Once
one side is well browned, that's all it takes-those water-soluble
products of the Maillard reaction will dissolve in the cooking
liquid, spreading their flavor throughout the stew. Meanwhile, the
pork will stay nice and moist as it cooks. Win-win-win.

Size Matters: Next question: How big should I cut my meat? After
braising meat cut in all sizes, texture and flavorwise, I found that
pieces in the middle range-cut to about 2-inches per side had the
best contrast between juicy tender center and sauce-coated exterior.

DO NOT OVERCOOK YOUR PORK. You want to cook it just until it's done
so that it retains maximum juiciness. Longer is NOT always better.

Chilies: The best way to incorporate dried chilies into a dish is to
toast them in a saucepot, then simmer them in liquid before pureeing
them in a blender or with an immersion blender. This ensures that
they are fully developed in flavor, completely fresh (it's hard to
tell how fresh chili powder is), and can be transformed into a
smooth sauce.

The most traditional New Mexican recipes for the dish are simple:
Get yourself some freshly dried New Mexican chilies (or chiles, if
that's your preferred spelling), toast and grind (or in this case
simmer) them but the sauce lacks real brightness and depth.

The dried chilies you find around here are not all that spectacular.
A great dried chili should actually not be too dry. It should have
the texture of fruit leather, with a supple, bendable skin. Most of
the chilies I find around here are dried to the point of being
crisp, breaking when you bend them. A great dried chili should have
a depth of flavor that doesn't just encompass heat, but also has
brighter, fruity notes. A touch of acidity, a raisin-like richness.
The chilies I find around here are a little dry and dusty tasting. 

I usually go for a mix of two or more, mixing rich deep chilies like
ancho with brighter chilies like pasilla-and this flavor may be good
enough for a really hearty beef-based chili like my Texas Chile Con
Carne, but fatty pork meat demands a brighter, sweeter flavor to
bring out the best in it, something that can't be accomplished with
my crummy New York supermarket chilies alone.

Posted by: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt From: Serious Eats
 
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YK Jim


... Tex-Mexistentialism will raise your consciousness.

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