Pork Chile Verde (Instant Pot Cooking)

The good thing about living in Southern California, besides the year round sunshine, is the food.  Here in Los Angeles, which is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, people from different countries allow us to taste different types of authentic cuisine.

There are many good Mexican restaurants and food trucks in East Los Angeles where you can find some of best tacos in the country.  If you go for the Taco Tuesday deals, each taco is as low as $1.  After your meal, you can walk along some streets in East LA, and there are some food trucks selling fresh churros, they are just delicious!

Just because my family loves Mexican food, I came across with this Pork Chile Verde recipe on seriouseats.com using a pressure cooker.  Simply add some homemade Mexican rice (recipe here), some beans and/or tortillas as your sides, and you will have a pretty satisfying meal.

Ingredients:

4 pounds	Pork shoulder (Cut into chunks)
350g	Tomatillos (quartered, papery husks removed)
300g	Poblano peppers (about 2 peppers, chopped, seeds and stems discarded)
170g	Anaheim peppers (about 2 peppers, chopped, seeds and stems discarded)
120g	Jalapeno chilies (about 2 medium peppers, chopped, stems discarded, seeds retained)
1 medium	White onion (chopped)
8	Garlic cloves (peeled)
6g	Whole cumin seed (toasted and ground)
12g	Kosher salt
1 Tbsp	Asian fish sauce
	Fresh cilantro for garnish

Directions:

1. Roughly chop all peppers, remember to keep the Jalapeno chili seeds.  Chop onion and peel garlic.  (Picture 1)
2. Toast 6g of whole cumin seeds and then grind them with a mortar and pestle.  (Picture 2)
3. Put all of the vegetables into a pressure cooker, then put meat on top.  (Pictures 3 and 4)
4. Add ground cumin and salt to the pressure cooker, then use tongs to stir everything together.  (Pictures 5-7)
5. Cover the lid and cook at high pressure for 30 minutes.  Turn the sealing vault to the “sealing” position.  (Picture 8)
6. After 30 minutes, do a quick release of the pressure.
7. Remove pork with tongs to a bowl and set aside.  (Picture 9)
8. Use an immersion blender to blend the vegetables to a smooth puree.  (Picture 10)
9. Add in a tablespoon of Asian fish sauce.  (Picture 11)
10. Return pork to the pot.  (Picture 12)
11. When serving, add a good amount of chopped cilantro.

I had read some reviews about the vegetables being burned at the bottom of the pot.  The pressure cooker I’m using is an electric pressure cooker, so this problem will never happen.  If you have a traditional stovetop pressure cooker, you may want to test it out by adding a little water to the pot.