Disclosure: The most grateful thank you to the Idaho Potato Commission for sponsoring this video. We appreciate all the support you have given us, and LOVE partnering with you!

Chile Verde is an all time family favorite since as far back as I can remember. My grandfather used to make it when I was a little girl, then my Auntie Rosie took the reins and she is the one who taught me how to make it. My family puts big chunks of potatoes in our chile verde for a delightful dish you’ll never forget! Here is my latest webisode showing you how we make it….. except I had Vieja Chile Verde come supervise. Keep an eye out for my band at the end! 🙂

Ingredients for Chile Verde Con Papa:

• 6 – tomatillos
• 4- hueritos chiles
• 4 – serrano chiles
• 4- jalapeno chiles
• 2- garilc cloves
• a pinch of oregano
• 1 – tablespoon beef bouillon
• 1 – capful white vinegar
• 1 – cup of boiled chile water
• 2 – tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 – lbs cut pork tenderloin
• 5 –  bay leaves
• 1 –  white onion
• 4 – cups of chicken broth
• 4 – russet Idaho potatoes

Directions:

1. Boil chiles and tomatillos for 25 minutes.
2. Then add chiles, tomatillos, garlic cloves, oregano, beef bouillon, vinegar, and chile water into a blender. Blend until chunky. Set to the side.
3. In a large dutch oven over a medium high flame add oil and allow to heat till hot, then add in pork tenderloin cubes and braise on each side.
4. Add in bay leaves and onion.
5. Pour in chicken broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling lower flame, add a lid and allow to simmer for 2 hours.
6. Next add in potato chunks and green chile. Cover with lid and continue to simmer for an additional 30 to 40 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.
7. Enjoy!

Thank you with my entire heart and gratitude to my most awesome crew! I sincerely love you guys big time.

Director: Mando Lopez

Director of Photography:  Tony Molina

Camera Assistant: Suki Ewers

Producer:  Lacey Reilly

 Editor:  Max Azpiazu

Set Design:  Mando Lopez

On-set morale booster: Kristen Warren

Sound and Make-up:  Janine Presley

Lighting Equipment: Paul Hopkins

Band Music: Mando Lopez, Andrea Bulletti, and Anthony E. Martinez

Vocals: Nicole Presley

Sound Engineering: Manny Nieto

Opening Music: Anger Bros

Thank you Melissa’s Produce for donating all the GREEN CHILES!!!!

The most grateful thank you to the Idaho Potato Commission for sponsoring this video. We appreciate all the support you have given us, and LOVE partnering with you!

Merry Christmas Everyone!  We decided to put this webisode together to help anyone out who is anxious to start making tamales this holiday season or just wondered how it’s done.  Without further ado…. Here’s our Christmas Special (Everyone loves a Christmas Special, right!?)

Tamale Tips:

Buy your masa prepared from your local Mexican/Latin Market or use Maseca Masa for Tamale flour.  For those of you that live in Los Angeles, I buy my masa at a place called “La Favorita,” and have been buying from them for YEARS!  They are located at 600 N. Brannick Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90063.  The best in Los Angeles. 🙂

I wrap my tamales in corn husks but take it a step further and wrap them additionally in a grease resistant 12 x 12 sandwich wrap paper.

A friend asked where do you pour the water when you are steaming your tamales and want to replenish the water?  You pour it right on the side of the tamale pot.  The tamales are covered in corn husks on top and damp towels.  The water is NOT going to disturb them at all.

If you are looking to be less stressed right before the holidays, make your tamales in advanced and freeze them in a ziplock raw (make sure to mark them so you know which side is the opening). Then the day you are ready to enjoy them, take them directly from the freezer and straight into the steamer and steam them for 5 1/2 to 6 hours.

If you are unable to find a tamale steamer pot, you can always make your own.  Use a smaller pot with a vegetable steamer basket placed at the bottom or flipped upside down.  Place enough water and a penny at the bottom of the pot, when you hear the penny bouncing that means the water level is low and time to replenish.  Make note, the water level will go low.  Also, you don’t want the water level to ever surpass the vegetable steamer.  Then follow the directions in the video. Make sure to cover in corn husks on top and a damp towel.

Place the Idaho potato in the tamale raw, it will cook as the tamale steams.  The potato is the perfect addition to a meat tamale or a vegetarian one.

In the vegetarian tamales on the video, I used green anaheim chile strips, but I personally use jalapenos in place of the green chile strips for more heat. Feel free to swap them out if you love the heat or don’t at all.

I usually season my masa with green chile for the vegetarian tamales and for my green chile pork tamales.  For my red chile beef tamales (which were not featured in this video) I season the masa with the red chile.  I also use the red chile inside the vegetarian tamales.  I am adding the recipes for both chiles below.

I make my chiles the day before I’m going to make my tamales.  I also chop everything I’ll need and cook my meat in the crock pot. For the pork, I use the pork shoulder.

Feel free to leave me any questions and I will follow up with you right away.  This is a very traditional recipe but also a very ambitious one….. but heck, give it a whirl.  This is such a fun recipe to attempt.

Here is my green chile recipe:

• 9 – tomatillos
• 6 – guero chiles (yellow chiles)
• 8 – serrano chiles
• 7 – jalapeno chiles
• 5 – garlic cloves (browned/fried)
• 3 – cups of water (from water chiles boiled in)
• 1 – teaspoon of vinegar
• 2 – teaspoons chicken bouillon (I use Knorr)
• 1 – teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 – teaspoon black pepper

Fill two pots halfway with water and place over a medium high flame.  Bring water to a boil.  Then put tomatillos in one pot and in the other put all chiles.  Boil tomatillos for 15 minutes, you will know they are ready when they go from light green to a greenish yellow color.  Remove from flame and set to the side.

Boil chiles for 30 minutes or until soft and a bit limp.  While chiles are boiling place garlic cloves in a frying pan with a little oil and fry till browned.  Set to the side.  Once chiles are boiled remove from flame but DO NOT discard water… you will need it to blend chile.

You will have to work in batches.  In a blender add chiles (discard stem), browned garlic cloves, water from the pot the chiles boiled in, vinegar, chicken bouillon, oregano, black pepper and tomatillos.  Blend until smooth about 1 minute.  Pour into a bowl.  Set to the side.

Here is my red chile recipe:

• 1 – large onion peeled
• 5 – garlic cloves peeled
• 3 – ounces new mexico dried chile (I use Don Enrique)
• 3 – ounces california dried chile (I use Don Enrique)
• 1 – large dried pasilla chile (I use Don Enrique)
• 3 – tablespoons salt
• 7 – cups water

In a big pot add water, 2 tablespoons of salt, all chiles, onion, and garlic cloves. Bring to a boil.  Boil for 30 minutes. Water will turn dark brown.

Remove chiles and garlic cloves from water.  Discard onion.  Do not discard water, you will be using it in the next step.  Remove stems from chiles, then add to a blender along with 1 cup of water from the pot, garlic cloves, and a tablespoon of salt.  Blend for 2 minutes.

Once blended get a big bowl and add 1/2 cup of water from pot into the bowl, then take the blended chile and put through a strainer. It will be thick.  Add a little bit of water from pot to chile strainer and scrape with a spoon.  Use up to 1 3/4 cups of water for the entire process. It’s time consuming but your red chile will be clean and super tasty.  Set to the side.

A hundred hugs to my crew for all the hard work we put in together!  A special thank you to the Idaho Potato Commission for believing in us! Thank you to the Zardeneta Family for being the best! xoxoxox! Love you guys and Merry Christmas!

My son asks for potato chips every meal, that’s what our meal time has come to recently.  I try and bribe him, give him ultimatums, replace his chips with other food but it always comes down to “chips.”  Even his teacher is on to it, she says to me the other day “Max ate his sandwich during lunch” then she smiled real big and said with a wink “I gave him a chip every other bite.”  What?  Seriously?  The only way to get him to eat or try other foods is if the food is followed with a chip.  Thank the stars I have the cool Zyliss 2-in-1 Handheld Slicer, it’s like a mini mandoline.  It makes slicing my potatoes paper thin a fast task.  Instead of making chips this morning, I fooled my son and told him all the chips stuck together to make a potato chip hash brown.  He believed it and ate the hash brown. One point for me. 🙂

Ingredients for Potato Chip Hash Browns:

2 – medium sized Idaho Potatoes (peeled and cut paper thin)

3 – tablespoons vegetable oil

2 – teaspoons Lawry’s seasoning salt

1 – teaspoon black pepper

1/2 – teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

Peel and slice potatoes then add them to a big bowl and mix in the spices and seasoning salt.  Set to the side.

In a large frying pan over a medium high flame add vegetable oil. Allow oil to heat for about 3 minutes before adding in potatoes on a single layer.  Then with the extra potatoes add a top layer.

Let fry on the first side for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Then carefully flip the potato chip hash brown, and cook the other side for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Sometimes you just need comfort. I found joy and comfort in Idaho. I had never been and went with the Idaho Potato Commission on a breathtaking trip to the carbs capital for a 75th anniversary celebration. I made fantastic new friends while discovering the world of potato farming. We met the growers and the humble people that supply us with mountains of potatoes. I witnessed first hand all the work that goes into bringing spuds to our table.  I will forever remember these lovely people and wonder from this point forward if my potatoes came from one of the farms I visited. I made this lovely recipe with Idaho potatoes as an ode to my incredible trip. I couldn’t resist showing you a few pics from the trip and a short sneak peek video of our spuds from ground to the factory. I left there loving Idaho with hopes of returning one day.

Ingredients for potato green chile cheese casserole:

4 – cups corn flakes

1 – stick butter (melted)

1 – can 14 0z whole anaheim green chiles (only use (8)drained, patted dry)

12 – oz pepper jack cheese

6 – green onions (sliced thin)

1/3 – cup chopped onion

15 to 20 – Melissa’s Produce Dutch Yellow Idaho Potatoes

1 –  Russet Idaho Potato

1/2 – cup sour cream

12 – oz cheddar cheese (grated)

1/2 – cup 1/2 & 1/2

Preheat oven to 350 fahrenheit

Crush cornflakes in a bag then add to a bowl with melted butter. Mix well to combine.  Place half of the cornflake mixture into a 8×5 baking dish. Press down on cornflake mixture to line bottom half of baking dish.

Take chiles and stuff with big pieces of pepper jack cheese. Place stuffed chiles on top of corn flakes. Then sprinkle with green onions and onion. Shred remaining pepper jack cheese and set to the side.

Peel all potatoes and cut into 2 inch pieces. Then in a pot bring water to a boil and boil potatoes for 2o minutes. Remove from flame and drain. Then pour potatoes over chiles and onion.

In a pot add sour cream, remaining pepper jack and cheddar cheese, and 1/2 & 1/2 and mix over a low flame until sauce is smooth and cheese is melted. Then pour over potatoes.

Then with the other half of cornflake mixture add to the top of the casserole.

Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 25 minutes or until top is golden crisp brown. Enjoy with a leafy green salad for the perfect meal.

Here are some photos from my trip.

Eleven bloggers in Idaho- L to R: Marla Meridith, Julie Deily, Dorothy Reinhold, Patti Londre, Meagan Micozzi, Rachael Hutchings, Me, Greg Henry, Sara O’Donnell, Jessica Reddick, and Jessica Segarra.

A BIG BIG FUZZY WARM THANK YOU TO THE IDAHO POTATO COMMISSION FOR THIS WONDERFUL TRIP!