A Different Kind Easter Meal This Year

Pork and Tomatillo Stew, recipe below

For Easter this year I made something totally off my ethnic path making my interpretation of a Mexican pork and tomatillo stew. The inspiration for this meal came from soul food shopping at a local ShopRite Super Market. I most often shop applying what I learned about how folks put food on their tables during rougher times than our current recession. Times such as sixteenth century West Africans in a drought, white indentured servants and enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, sharecroppers in the Jim Crow South, or a poor family with children during the Depression. I learned about their food survival strategies as I did research for my book Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/excerpt. I found some great deals of tomatillos (Mexican green tomatoes), chilies, egg plant, and tomatoes on the “Manager’s Special” rack where the produce staff unloads slightly bruised and or starting to rot items at blow out prices. Never cooked with tomatillos prior today, but I am believer now. In soul food style, I found the Pork and Tomatillo stew recipe on line and modified it to fit what I had on hand in my kitchen. In place of boneless pork loin, I used Tofurky Italian gourmet meatless sausage, substituted shredded egg plant for diced celery, pasta for potatoes, and I used a crock- pot. After my wife had some of the stew she said honey “you’ve got to call my mother with this recipe.” Here’s my vegan Italian sausage and tomatillo stew recipe

Sausage and Tomatillo Stew

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 Tofurky Italian sausage links cut into 3-inch chunks
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup of shredded egg plant
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 chili, seeded and finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons mild chile powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Splash of dried oregano
2 cups vegetable bullion broth
1 cup 1/2-inch-diced carrots
1 cup of whole grain elbow macaroni pasta (or 2 large red potatoes in one inch pieces)
2 cups of very ripe fresh diced tomatoes
1 pound tomatillos—husked, rinsed and cut into 1-inch dice
Hot sauce
Chopped cilantro, for garnish
Corn tortilla chips, for serving

Method
In a medium pot heat the oil. Season the meat and eggplant with salt and pepper and cook over high heat until browned on 2 sides, about 2 minutes per side. Add the onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the diced chili, garlic, chili powder, cumin and oregano and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Add the carrots, pasta, tomatoes and tomatillos. Transfer to a crock-pot cover and simmer on high heat for about 35 minutes. Ladle the stew into bowls, garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with freshly baked buttermilk biscuits. Serves eight people.