Hatch Green Chile Stew

I first heard of Hatch chiles from my husband's cousin and my husband's coworker a few years back. Hatch chiles come from Hatch, New Mexico (duh). There's a huge cult following around these Hatch chiles, so much so that every year around August, Central Market has Hatch Chile Festival for half a month where they sell fresh and already roasted Hatch chiles. They incorporate these Hatch chiles into every possible item in the premade foods section- rotisserie chicken, mac and cheese, quesadillas, rolls, pies, the list goes on and on. It's pretty much the same as a normal green chile, but for some reason Hatch chiles have a crazy addictive quality. They come in mild and hot; though I thought mild had no flavor, hot was just perfect. This year we bought about 20 lb. of already roasted chiles and froze them so that we would have them during the winter months for stews and soups. I've heard that the chiles get hotter as you freeze them. Yeeah, they were right. I know next time to use less.

For this stew, I used this recipe and made modifications to it. I never really follow recipes to a tee. I'm such a rebel. I use them more as a guideline of what ingredients and which order, so it's really hard for me to write my recipes down. I cook by feel and taste, which doesn't really have exact measurements. Each time I cook the same dish, volume of ingredients may vary. Inconvenient for writing recipes, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. So here's my take on this.

Hatch Green Chile Stew

Ingredients

1 tbsp. oil
1.25 lb. of pork rib meat, cubed (it's what I had in the freezer)
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 large onion (chopped)
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
5 large Hatch chiles, deskined, deseeded and chopped (we stocked up on the Hot ones and kept them in the freezer for stews. They actually get hotter as you freeze them, so they were very spicy already, didn't need the serrano chile peppers. Note, use less if frozen.)
4 red potatoes, cubed
4 plum tomatoes, chopped in quarters (I used canned because that's what I had)
1 box of vegetable broth (32 oz.), and 1 cup of water (I added this only because the broth was way too spicy, I would skip this normally)
salt

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the cubed pork, garlic, onion, cumin and oregano. Cook and stir until pork is browned.

Add vegetable broth, potatoes, hatch chiles, and tomatoes to the stew. Cover with a lid and simmer on medium heat for at least 1.5 hours (longer the better).

Wa-lah! Bon appetit!