This recipe has lots of room for improvisation. As written, it’s rich. Savory. Pork, cilantro and green chili are the dominant flavours. Classic Mexican. Add some pure chili powder and it moves towards red chili territory. Want it bright and assertive? Add lime juice and chipotle puree. Want it lighter? Leave out the pork. Want it vegetarian? Leave out the bacon too. No time to cook dry beans – use canned. Beans are a canvas – waiting for you to paint them with the flavours you love. I use salt pork in this recipe. Out of the box it’s way too salty. You need to blanch it a couple times to extract most of the salt. This recipe is based on a recipe from Diana Kennedy’s The Cuisine’s of Mexico. Her recipe uses pork rind but that’s harder to come by where I live. I’ve found the salt pork, once de-salted, to work very well. The techniques used here are similar to those in Indian cooking. While the beans cook, you make a tempering – the flavours that will ultimately season the dish. Mix the tempering with the beans and simmer briefly. Pretty much exactly the same half way across the world…
