RL Reeves Jr Mexican Green Spaghetti Method

In the late 19th century, Texas hot guts sausage took the Lone Star state by storm. Ground up bull meat seasoned with hot red pepper, garlic and salt – then submitted to mesquite or post oak smoke suddenly became de rigueur on meat shop menus.

A hundred years later, brisket, a long-running warhorse in the Texas barbecue game, took on added verve when Bobby Mueller and his son John strapped a rocket to a steer’s ass and redefined what we thought of the old menu staple.

Yeah, we’d all been eating brisket since the FDR era but we’d never had it like this. Bobby and John are both deceased but before their passing Bobby told me that the barbecue he was serving would’ve been declared ‘over-cooked’ when he was on the come up.

Back then the whole point was yield. Tenderness was not the object. You wanted to make as much money as possible and to do that all the smoke houses sold what we would now consider to be ‘tough’ brisket. Cook it long enough and it gets tender but you lose yield.

Bobby is the godfather of modern Texas brisket.

Then along came birria; a humble, stewed-goat dish that was mainly served in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and along the Mexican border of California. All of a sudden we saw folks standing in hours-long lines just to take a crack at what Mexicans down in Jalisco, Mexico, had been eating for centuries.

Now it’s Mexican green spaghetti that is having a moment in the sun. We’ve been eating it for years as have thousands of folks who are part and parcel of Mexican culture. We didn’t think much of it, we just ate it and got back to watching Vivir un Poco.

Mystifyingly it has taken Texas by storm so let’s take a look at RL’s methodology on making a top flight kettle of espagueti verde.

The basics are simple:

• Roast a few poblano chile peppers then puree in a blender or food processor with chicken stock.
• Fry a few garlic cloves in a chunk of butter in a kettle til soft and aromatic
• Pour in the pureed poblano chiles
• Now add in the crema Mexicana or plain jane sour cream
• Pour this melange over your favorite cooked pasta noodles
• Hit the pasta with a heavy handed sprinkle of cotija or parmesan cheese and your set
• Garnish with fresh cilantro and/or minced red jalapeno
  

  Cooking notes: Sometimes we substitute evaporated milk for crema Mexicana

  If you do that please tighten your sauce with a little corn starch

  We may add a little Maggi to the chicken stock if we’re feeling froggy

  A teaspoon of worcestershire will be a boon companion to this sauce

¡Buen provecho y’all!