Eat your weeds
Perking up your chile verde with powerhouse purslane

Pity the misfit tomatillo. Most cooks don’t know what to do with that swaddled orb that looks like a paper lantern and tastes like some underripe fruit. Green salsa is the most common application, but I usually prefer tomato salsa, in part because tomatillos can be a bit slimy.

So where does that leave the poor tomatillo? Our misunderstood, underappreciated hero is like the last kid picked to play kickball. Luckily, tomatillos can stay fresh for a long time, because they might languish in the fridge.

My go-to use for tomatillos is chile verde, where pork is simmered in a tomatillo sauce, with peppers and spices. I like to make it with a variety of peppers of various colors and heats, which creates a seamless complexity that’s hard to quit. Once, we dropped a finished batch on the floor. The five-second rule was suspended as we scooped it back into the pot. It had simmered too long, and developed too much flavor, for us to have any other option.

I recently found myself contemplating another misfit of an ingredient: purslane, a succulent that is often considered a weed. I often find myself wanting to crave purslane more than I actually do. This nutrient powerhouse contains antioxidants and minerals, and happens to be the plant with the highest recorded levels of omega-3 fatty acids on earth. Purslane is easy to forage, as the tender stalks give up without a fight, making it a most eligible ingredient on paper. But in practice, not so much. The flavor isn’t bad – it’s salty, crunchy and plump with tart juice, none of which are terrible characteristics. The problem is that purslane, like the tomatillo, is slimy.

Interpolating, I speculated that chile verde might be a great context to enjoy purslane, as the texture would be absorbed by the flavors of this fragrant stew, and its earthy, bitter flavor might offset the sweetness. Indeed, the purslane improved the verde, which can otherwise border on too sweet if you aren’t careful.

To be clear, you don’t need to go hunting through some vacant lot for purslane to cook this dish. With or without the world’s healthiest weed, chile verde is definitely the thing to make with tomatillos. Their tartness penetrates the meat, tenderizing and imbuing it with flavor. If you aren’t a pork eater, you can substitute pinto beans to balance the sour/spicy sweetness.

My recipe includes apples, because everyone knows they go with pork, and they create a redundant complexity.

Chile Verde

Serves 8

2 lbs pork, something tough and marbled like stew meat, shoulder (a.k.a. butt), country-style ribs (which are cut near the shoulder-end of the rib cage) or even uncured belly if it’s not too fatty.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, minced

1 tablespoon whole coriander seed

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons cumin

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon garlic powder

½ lb sliced apple

4 large cloves of garlic, chopped

1 lb tomatillos, cut into quarters

2 cups chopped chili peppers (the greater the variety the better; I like a mix of red, green, hot, mild, fresh, dried, thin and thick. Anything but bell or sweet peppers.)

Salt and pepper

1 cup lager beer, such as Pacifico

1 cup purslane, cleaned and chopped

Cut the pork into inch-cubes. Heat the oil in an pot with a tight-fitting lid, and then add the pork. Cook on the stovetop, over medium heat, until brown and tender. Add olive oil if the pork isn’t fatty enough.

When the pork is cooked, add the spices and onions, and stir it together. When the onions become transparent, add the tomatillos, apples, garlic, peppers and two cups of water. Add the beer and cook on low with the lid on for one hour.

(Alternatively, for a smoother sauce, blend the tomatillos, apple, garlic and peppers, and add that. You can also blend half and leave the other half chunky.)

Season with salt and pepper, and possibly more cumin. When the flavor is right, spoon into bowls with rice, beans and chips, and garnish with purslane.