Albert Quintana

No More Green Chili Albert Quintana

Not to brag, but I truly believe that my Mother is the best cook in the world. Bar none, she has a great heart when it comes to making her best cuisine. Her specialty is green chili. In Spanish it's pronounced chile verde. This homemade chili verde could be the main dish eaten at any given meal, but add a homemade tortilla and a side of frijoles (beans) or a side of fried potatoes or maybe mashed; it was a meal to die for. One of my favorite dishes was smothered bean burritos. So anything you added to the green chili was always a feast

The process of making the best dish in world comes quite simply by getting a pound of pork butt and cutting it into small one half inch squares. Then fry the squares until they are golden brown. Using the grease from the fried pork you then brown the flour to make the gravy, add your green chili, preferably jalapenos, diced tomatoes, Mexican oregano, cominos, garlic salt, and of course salt and pepper. I can't give it all away because then it would be giving away an old family recipe and that would be taboo.

Making great meals is a learned thing. By this I mean that Mom learned to make green chili from a Mexican woman from Guanajuato, Mexico back in 1960. This is the year that Mom and Dad started a Mexican restaurant business in Denver. The restaurant was called Quintana Roo.

Whoever ate her chili, always would craved for more. The neighboring kids would always hang around to see if Mom would roll them a quick burrito and then they would walk away with the biggest smiles.

In 1927 Great Grandfather Francisco Duran visited Henry, Manuelita and the kids prior to Mom's birth. He shared with them a story about a humongous garden that was full of green chili. Within this garden the chili was thriving, growing in abundance. Then one day the chili started dying off. The garden was over taken with weeds and eventually became nonexistent. The metaphor here is that Grandpa Francisco equated the garden to our nation and the people who work, as the chili. When you take the chili out of the garden then your garden is dead. When you take the worker, laborer, bracero, miner, gardener, lumber jack out of our nation, you have nation that is dying. Who built the Great pyramids, The Panama Canal, the Empire State Building, Hoover Dam, and that Golden Gate Bridge? Yes you've guessed it, the Chili Verde of our society.

Have fun reading this book. The stories are real and only reflect a part of your history. We all need a little chili verde in our lives, so enjoy its flavor. May it be hot, medium or mild