SLOW BURN GREEN CHILI STEW

Steps:

• 1. In crock pot, toss in ham bone. I used one from my spiral cut ham that was cooked night before and frozen overnight.
• 2. Dump in frozen green chilies straight from tub, if you can get it to pop out.
• 3. Add dried onions. We love them, so 1 cup may seem like quite a bit. I promise that this will not be what you taste in the end. :)
• 4. Add one and half cup of water and liquid smoke.
• 5. Add the can of veg broth.
• 6. Chop up the carrots. I didn't even peel these suckers. Sliced them up and tossed 'em in the pot.
• 7. Clean up the 2 small- medium (depends on your taste, I didn't want them to take over with their consistency when blended). Chop potatoes into about 1/4" cubes. Not terribly important, will be blended. I didn't peel these either.
• 8. Toss in cube of beef bouillon.
• 9. Roll lime around a bit to make it juicy. Cut in half and squeeze into pot. Watch for seeds.
• 10. Toss in the teaspoon of dried jalapenos, if you can handle them. The kind that I buy are kinda hot when simmered.
• 11. Coarsely chop garlic cloves. We LOVE garlic, too, but use the amt makes you feel comfortable. I assure you that this also will not be what you taste in the end. :)
• 12. I buy a large bag of peeled garlic cloves from Sam's. It's a lovely short-cut, but the garlic must be inspected for white spots when buying. Learned that the hard way.
• 13. Set Crock pot for 3 hours at high. Mine has programming so I am able to also add 1 hour at low.
• 14. Remove ham bone or other bones used.
• 15. Scoop most of the hot stew into a blender or processor. Pulse until smooth. I left about a cup to two cups of stew in the crock so that there is a little chunky texture in the end. Add smooth mixture back to the crock pot. And set it for another couple hours.
• 16. Add Bulgur Wheat or other grain.
• 17. Dump in 3 cans of Hatch green chilies and stir pot up. I added an extra splash of water here.
• 18. Allow pot to cook until grain is hydrated. This took mine less than half hour.
• 19. I served the stew over Frito Corn Chips with cheese grated on top. To mine, I added the little bit of ham that cooked on the bone