Tasty Tuesday: Carnitas
Posted in The Stoke house on March 31st, 2009 by karilyn – Be the first to commentYou might sense a theme with Tasty Tuesdays - we like to eat cheap, plentiful, balanced meals here at the The Stoke house, but which require a minimum of time and effort. Lots of physical activity keeps us all tired, hungry and happy. I make some mean Mexican food - here’s a new favourite recipe for Carnitas (plus accoutrements). Good authentic Mexican food is hard to find north of the 49th parallel, and it’s one of the things Simon and John Brodie claim to miss most about living in southern California; however, it’s easy and cheap to do at home.
Carnitas
3 lb pork butt roast, sliced into half-inch wide strips (don’t discard the fat)
1 cup orange juice
3 cups water
2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp cumin
.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp oregano
4 dried hot peppers, or your desired amount of crushed chilis or other hot stuff
Place all of the ingredients into a large pot. Bring to a boil, and then simmer uncovered on low heat for about two hours. Fat renders out of the roast as it is slowly simmering, so the pork ends up cooking in its own tasty fat (making your kitchen smell delicious in the process). If you want to throw this into a slow cooker in the morning, definitely do so. Leave it on high while you’re getting ready, and then turn it to low and leave it. After two hours on the stove, turn the heat up to medium-high, and cook until all of the liquid is evaporated and the fat has fully rendered out of the pork. If you were using the slow cooker, pour everything you’ve got into a large pot and follow the directions in the last line. Stir it occasionally so that it doesn’t stick too badly to the bottom of the pot while you’re browining it. Allow the pork to brown on all sides (this is where the sugars from the orange juice help out). It should fall apart more and more with each stir. Keep breaking up large pieces with your spoon, until all the pork is completed shredded and crisping up on all sides. Serve in warm corn tortillas (or flour, if you must) with beans, guacamole, cilantro, and hot sauce or green salsa
if you want (or if you have tomatillos readily available… not so in Revelstoke in the winter).
Mashed Beans (Sorry there is not a more creative name for this)
1 cup dried pinto beans
1 cup dried black beans
2 tsp salt
bay leaves
cumin
Throw the beans into a large pot with more than enough water to cover them, about 5 bay leaves, salt, and at least 1 tsp of cumin. Boil the heck out of them for a few hours, adding more water as needed. Once tender, mash with a potato masher or use an immersion blender, adding a bit more water if the consistency is too thick and sticky. Add more salt and cumin to taste. If you use canned beans, you can skip the boiling stage, but it drives the cost up from a few pennies to a few bucks (what are you, made of money?).
Janelle’s Awesome Guacamole
3 ripe avocados
half an onion, diced finely
1 roma tomato, diced
salt to taste
oregano to taste (about 2 tsp, usually)
1 tsp garlic powder or super finely chopped fresh garlic to taste
a few good grinds of fresh black pepper
a squeeze of fresh lime juice
Add all the ingredients to a medium sized bowl and mash it up with a potato masher. Play with the spices to get it exactly to your liking. Tip: the easiest way to cut an avocado is to use a large, sharp knife to cut it lengthwise around the seed (in a continuous cut). Pull the two halves apart to expose the pit, and then carefully tap the pit with your knife so that it wedges in but doesn’t slice all the way through it. Then just easily twist out the pit with a little pressure.
