Homemade Green Chorizo from ‘Eat Mexico’
Reprinted with permission from Eat Mexico: Recipes from Mexico City’s Streets, Markets & Fondas by Lesley Téllez (Kyle Books).
Photo: Penny de los Santos
From Yahoo Food’s Cookbook of the Week: Eat Mexico by Lesley Téllez
Chorizo Verde
Homemade Green Chorizo
Serves 10
Green chorizo—colored green because it contains green chiles and vegetables—is typical to the city of Toluca in neighboring Mexico State. You can find it at Mexico City markets or at certain street stands specializing in chorizo. Typically it’s crumbled and cooked, and served in a taco with a squirt of lime and a heavy spoonful of salsa.
I interviewed a half-dozen Toluca sausage makers to learn the secret behind the recipe, and all said they first create a mole-like sauce with herbs, spices and tomatillo, which they then add to the sausage. Tomatillo made my sausage too moist, so I’ve substituted spinach, which still gives the chorizo a nice light green color. Some cooks also add food coloring, which makes the meat look neon green—that could be fun for holidays or for kids. This makes quite a bit of sausage; leftovers can be frozen, or used in other non-Mexican dishes such as pasta, as breakfast patties or in sauces.
1 small poblano chile
1 large serrano chile, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
⅛ medium onion, roughly chopped
1 cup packed spinach leaves
2 large stems fresh cilantro
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
⅛ teaspoon peppercorns
¼ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
Salt
2 pounds pork shoulder, cut into large cubes
8 ounces pork fat, cut into cubes (see Tip)
½ cup raw unsalted peanuts, toasted and roughly chopped
½ cup roughly chopped pecans
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
30 corn tortillas, warmed
7 limes, cut into wedges
Salsa of choice
Roast the poblano over an open gas flame until blackened in spots, then wrap in a dish towel to sweat. Peel off the skin and make a slit to remove the seeds and veins. Chop coarsely and add to a blender jar with the serrano, garlic, onion, spinach, cilantro, cumin, peppercorns and oregano. Blend and taste, then add ¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste, and blend again until smooth. If the sauce doesn’t break down right away, scrape down the insides of the blender jar and blend again. (Water can make the sausage soggy, so try not to use any unless you absolutely have to.)
Place the sauce in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. At the same time, place the meat, fat, meat grinder (if using) and mixing bowl in the freezer for 1 hour. If using already ground meat, proceed to step 4.
Remove the items from the freezer, add the meat and fat to the grinder, and grind as per manufacturer’s instructions.
Stir in 11/4 teaspoons salt, the peanuts, and the pecans. Using a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand if desired, mix the cold sauce and apple cider vinegar into the ground meat until fully absorbed and slightly sticky. At this point the sausage can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or longer if frozen.
Heat a large skillet to medium heat. Add the sausage in a more or less even layer— you may have to cook it in batches—and cook, stirring often, until the sausage is no longer pink and slightly crisp in spots, 7 to 10 minutes. Serve in tortillas, passing lime wedges and salsa at the table.
Cooking Tip: If you don’t have a meat grinder, ask the butcher to grind a very fatty cut of pork shoulder, or, even better, to blend 2 pounds shoulder with 8 ounces pork fat. Casings aren’t needed, since you’re going to crumble the sausage. If you’re a more skilled sausage maker, you could try casing the sausage, let it age for two to three days, then cook it. It’s important that the sausage and sauce be very cold when you’re mixing it, otherwise it may not bind together correctly.
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