Green Chile Stew Recipe

This has been posted in response to a request. It is in the comment to the comment, so I thought I'd make it a separate post as well.

Here we go. . . I do not cook exactly by recipe unless I am baking and need that precision. After 40 years of cooking, i do it by instinct. Maybe more "complex" but it makes the food your own.

So for Green chile chicken stew (or pork if you prefer - boneless shoulder or loin works fine):

1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large anaheim green chile, fire-roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped; AND
1 poblano green chile, roasted peeled seeded chopped;
OR - if you can not fire-roast your own, you can use 2 cans of whole green chiles. I prefer whole because it is easy to remove any remaining seeds. Save the can liquid if using these.1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped1 quart chicken broth (I use the organic stuff in the box/carton)
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into approximately 1" pieces. Odd shapes are somehow more pleasing to the eye and palate than diced, in my opinion).
6-8 medium to large white potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/8ths (that is, 8 pieces each tater). Russet, eastern, yukon gold, red skin - all ok. The softer starchier types will break down a bit more, adding natural thickening to your stew.

Preparation:In a large deep pot/kettle, heat some olive oil - maybe 1/4 cup or so. Medium heat. add garlic and onion, and sautee several minutes, stirring often, until these are softened and the onions become translucent.

Add chicken and stir over medium-high heat. Keep chicken moving to get all sides exposed to the heat of the pot, and cook several minutes until chicken is no longer pink, and becoming white. You can add some black pepper here if you like.

Add the green chiles, parsley and cut up potatoes (did you cut them into exactly even pieces, or more visually interesting irregular pieces?). Stir over medium to medium-high heat, adding a bit more olive oil if needed to keep it moving. You just want to lightly sear the pieces of potato, which seals them a bit through the rest of the cooking.

Pour in enough chicken stock/broth to cover the chicken and potatoes. Turn heat to low-medium (simmer) and cook for 30 minutes. Check the level of liquid, and add more as needed, to keep the stew covered.

Continue cooking for a total time of 45-60 minutes, continuing to stir occasionally and add liquid. Note: taste during the cooking. If the liquid of the stew seems too salty, add some water - no more than 1/2 cup at a time, until you have the salt balanced to your liking. If you like it less salty, you can use low or no-salt broth.

Your goal in this is to get the chicken and potatoes cooked and tender, and have a naturally thickened liquid - but not too much liquid. More like a stew gravy proportion than a soup. Serve when ready or - let it cool, and reheat the next day - the flavors will have blended even more.

This is the way I make it, and I based this on my dining in Santa Fe in 1986 and on several later trips to New Mexico. I first had this dish at the Water Street Cafe in Santa Fe.

Enjoy this delicious regional dish.

complexly yours, cmplxty

Green chile stew

Even if you don't care for it, you have probably seen people eating chili. Fast food chains like Wendy's and Burger King sell it. In most places, chili is made with dried and ground chile peppers - RED chiles (note that a pepper is a chile, a stew made with chiles is chili). Chili can be made with ground beef, or with chicken, or even meatless with tofu and vegetables. It can have beans - or not. The basic style that places like Wendy's make, includes tomatoes, bell pepper, onions, ground red chile, cumin, and other spices - along with ground beef and red kidney beans.

But in the Land of Enchantment - New Mexico - the cuisine evolved differently. In the immortal words of that great traveller Bugs Bunny, "must have mnade a wrong turn at Albuquerque." In New Mexico, when you order chili, or chile sauce atop your burrito or burger, you will be offered a colorful choice. "Do you want that red, green, or Christmas?" (the latter meaning you want both read AND green chile sauce on your food).

You can get whole roasted and peeled green chiles in a can at your local grocery store. But nothing compares to the flavor and aroma you get from fire-roasting your own at home. The best green chiles arguably come from Southern New Mexico. The local varieties are similar to the Anaheim chiles carried by your grocer. The pods are long and not too wide. Eaten raw, they vary in intensity from mild to medium heat.

I've been a fan of new Mexican cuisine since my first visit in 1985. One of the dishes I had, that is easy to make at home, is the wonderful green chile stew. This is typically made with chunks of chicken or pork. The meat is braised and simmered in a flavorful infusion of chicken broth with chopped roasted green chiles, together with onion, salt, and not much else. White potatoes are added at the end, roughly chopped and chunky-tender. Done right, the meat is fall-apart tender, thoroughly saturated with the flavors of the broth.

This is a simple dish with many layers of flavor. But unlike the typical Tex-mex creations, you won't find green chile stew in many restaurants outside New Mexico. On a recent visit to Minneapolis, I stopped for lunch at a branch of a Tex-Mex restaurant chain. They advertised "Green chile stew with pork" on the menu. I eagerly ordered up a bowl. Folding back the soft tortilla on top, I was shocked to loko down at a bowl of - RED stuff. Yes it had green chiles in it, but it was most defintiely NOT authentic Green Chile Stew. Not even close. A letter to the home office followed - with no reply to date.

So go make yourself a big pot of true New Mexican delight. Hearty green chile stew is perfect on a cold wnter's night. Or anytime. Maybe you'll even get ambitious and make some blue corn posole to go with it!

From Blogology to Mobocracy

From Blogology to Mobocracy

Web-based collaboration and the implications for government


Recently I received an email with an attached PowerPoint file. A near-daily occurrence. My friend and colleague shared a presentation about the use of "web 2.0" technologies for online citizen engagement in Canada. The slides describe wikis, podcasts, blogs, and other on-line tools. I am an "early adopter" of these collaborative technologies. I have been using chat, groupware, ListServs, and other collaborative tools for around 20 years. The wiki and blog technologies are just the latest software tools to help groups of people make better decisions together. Microsoft Sharepoint technology is a simple form of a collaborative computing environment. You may know that Microsoft acquired the groupware system called Groove. Groove was created by Ray Ozzie - the guy who created Lotus Notes. Groove is now a centerpiece of Microsoft's expanded Sharepoint and collaborative platform. The XO laptop - the so called "hundred dollar laptop" - uses a unique mesh network technology. The computer automatically connects with others of its kind within range. Users can surf the web together, adding notes and comments in real-time, that can be seen by everyone in the group. Networked XO users can also collaborate in shared journals, containing text, images, media files, and so on. Start-up firms are developing this kind of mobile social network for cell phones.

Systems like the citizen web sites in Canada and elsewhere point to some of the key features - and challenges - of newer web systems. For example:

- do you want to control who can post to your blog, or wiki?
- if so, how will you assure the identity of new users?
- do you want to control what people say? We usually want to review submissions in advance of posting, to assure legality, and appropriateness.
- how will we decide what is appropriate? Who will define the standards, and who will apply them?

.. "information wants to be free" is a famous quote from the internet era. The rise of music and other file sharing has re-defined notions of intellectual capital

.. implicit in government sites is the issue of "governance." Collaborative technologies are by their nature and design, typically self-organizing. The objectives of the initiative in part drive the degree of oversight and control that should be implemented.

.. the complex self-organizing dynamics of wikis and blogs also reveal patterns of self-regulation. In many cases "control" emerges spontaneously, as participants express approval or disapproval of posted content. Ideas that may be controversial, often just fade out from the lack of ongoing interest and response. We see that we may be able to influence the direction of a group, even if we can not control it. The exact outcome may be probable, but uncertain.

.. one of the major concerns in the use of the internet for mass collaboration is what we may call "mobocracy." We know that the majority may always prevail, but they may not always be right. Likewise, they may not always know about the Next Big Idea which will trigger innovation. Those of us committed to quality and continuous improvement understand that there needs to be a perceived gap between where we are and where we want to be. Stability might be good in a manufacturing process, but it equates to complacency, stagnation, and eventual extinction in communities and organizations. The dynamics of the internet may be having the effect of moving mass thinking and opinion towards a central tendency of status quo, and thus denying the creative tension needed for growth.

The implications of this technology for those in government have to be significant. We have the opportunity to engage a much larger portion of our citizens in meaningful dialogue than ever before. Are we up to the challenges of adapting our systems of governance to meet the new expectations of our customers ?

cmplxty is an associate of the Plexus Institute. cmplxty can be reached at cmplxty@gmail.com

Government Quality Promo Video

My friends and colleagues have been asked to do some blogging in behalf of quality and organizational improvement in the public sector. This is a brief promotional video I created with the excellent Visual Communicator software, and my $99 Logitech quickcam. As the slogan says, Government Quality - all that you deserve, more than you may expect.

Imagine...

We are hopelessly mired in the Iraq war. Whether you believe we were justified in starting it or not (and I believe we were not), there is no way we can justify continuing. Those who would characterize supporters of immediate cessartion of hostilities as "surrendering to the enemy" or "assuring that we lose," do not really understand the possible outcomes of this conflict. What would "winning" mean in Iraq? Is winning even possible? In my view, we can not "win" in the way that most Americans, and certainly the Administration's remaining supporters, would define victory.

America has squandered an immense fortune on the war. We have lost thousands of courageous volunteer soldiers, and seen many many more come home crippled both physically and emotionally. Our great nation has spent an incredible amount of its political capital and energy in the pursuit of stability and democratization in Iraq.

What if there was another way to proceed. What would an army waging PEACE look like? Who would be in it, and what would it do? By what rules of engagement would such a force interact with enemy groups or nations?

If tens of thousands of ordinary people, all dressed in simple white clothing, landed in Baghdad, and began to go about the tasks of just helping common Iraqis with the activities of daily living - food, clothing, shelter - what would happen? Would the peaceful warriors be murdered? Would they be captured and beheaded? If the army of peace took no political stance, advocated no faith, and simply stood for loving one's neighbor as we do ourselves, how would the Iraqis respond?

Is this Gandhi's dream, or Dr. King's dream? Do we need a new dreamer to imagine the possibility, and bring it to life?

One bean

At the age of 54, I suddenly developed a liking for coffee. No one can explain this. I always disliked the taste. Too bitter, to acidic, too thin, too strong. The only coffee I had previously enjoyed was a small pot I got at a cafe just off Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

So now that I like coffee, I make it myself. I have a small electric grinder. I use a French Press to brew it perfectly.

When my perfectly brewed coffee is steaming in my large mug, I clean up and throw away the grounds. Staring at the large layer of spent beans in the bottom of the Press, I think about the energy that it takes to bring this drink to me. Coffee is not grown anywhere near my home in the mid-Atlantic region. Each bean requires energy to grow and mature. The beans are picked, packed, shipped from their remote origin to some place near me. Mine come from Dunkin Donuts, and started life probably in Central America. A long journey. More energy goes to roasting the beans, a necessary step to make them usable for coffee.

What is the energy cost of my cup of coffee? What did it really take to produce each bean, and get them to me.

It occurs to me that in an era of diminishing oil, and significantly rising prices, we will someday see labels on food and other products that give the emergy cost. It will be like the calories and nutritional value on food labels now. We forget that calories are units of energy too. The growing local food movement, and the movement towards once again living close to the source of what we consume, are leading indicators of this trend. All things being equal, we should choose a product with a lower energy cost. In time, we will.

Assuming I am neither the first nor the only person to think about the "energy cost of food," I Google search the phrase. I find one article. It is by professors at the University of Florida, in 1993. Look it up. Use a bit of energy to finnd it and read it. The percentage of our total energy use that just goes into transporting our food is astonishing. Of course this is just as true for the cheap goods from China and elsewhere, that we Americans love.

What will the balance of trade become, when rising energy costs level the fact of cheap foreign labor? Will America see a re-emergence of manufacturing when it becomes cost-effective to compete with local production once again?

Maybe one day we will have hothouse hydroponic farms in abandoned buildings in every town, and some clever entrepreneur will be able to grow coffee in the Garden State.

cmplxty

Complicated vs. Complex - Part Two

Back again for another short journey into the minds of automobile engineers. My son recently returned for his Junior year of undergraduate study. This is the first time he has brought his car along. We thought he should keep the spare key and fob for the remote entry in his apartment. But just in case something should happen, I wanted a key to have back home. So we stopped by the local Ford dealer. A friendly person in the parts depaqrtment asked if we had the car with us. It is a 2002 Ford Escape. No, it was back in the college parking lot. We were told that these cars used a "smart" key that had to be programmed to the exact vehicle. It wasn't clear if this was part of a theft-protection scheme, or served some other purpose. But it was clear that the car knew if its properly programmed key was in the lock or not. Moreover, getting a new key cut and programmed would cost $106! We looked at the key closely and sure enough, there was a small removeable part that presumably gave access to the programmable memory chip inside the key.

We decided that it was not worth the time or money to have a third key made.

Cost of a key to get into my home - a few bucks at the hardware store.

Cost of an allegedly "smart" key for the Ford - $106.

The value of simplicity in design and manufacturing - priceless.