today's experiment: Carnitas
Nancy had to work a four hour shift today because final grades are due and since that's all handled on line, the idea is that if the profs have any trouble they can call. They never do so it's kind of a massive waste of time, but she gets time and a half comp time and her shift was 4-8 so it's not too horrible. No High Tea with nadab and her BFF but that's the way the scone crumbles.
So this gave me a block of time in the afternoon/evening to do some cooking. In Collision, the HP/Lotrips crossover, I have Viggo making carnitas, which meant I had to look up just how you make it. So yes, this is a meal inspired by fandom.
So what, those of you who aren't used to Mexican cooking ask, in the hell is carnitas?
Carnitas is shredded pork that's used anywhere you'd use cooked meat, usually in tacos or burritos. The first sign that you're dealing with a good Mexican restaurant is whether or not they have it on the menu, because it's not as popular as say carne asada or shredded chicken. Carnitas is not the same as the pork that's been simmered in the spicy green chili sauce; that stuff is very good but way too hot for my wimpy gringa palate. Carnitas is good for people like me because you can spice it to your individual taste when you sit down to eat.
According to the somewhat limited research I did online, there are two ways to cook carnitas. There's the simmer it in lard method and the simmer it in water method. I have no idea if it's a regional thing or if the water method is only done here in the US. Now as much as I love me things cooked with lard--no really I do; refried beans and tortilla chips that involve lard are soooo much better and nothing beats lard when you're making a pastry crust for a savory pie or pasty--I don't love cooking with huge amounts of fat. It's messy, dangerous and just more trouble than I want to bother with. So this is the recipe as I made it.
Before I get to the recipe, let me point out that I used the wrong kind of meat. A pork loin roast is way too nice a cut for this and I'm not sure it's going to work--yes I'm writing this bit before I'm done. After all, the method is designed to take a tough piece of meat and render it edible and tender. But the thing is, for some reason, our downtown Safeway was sadly lacking in shoulder roasts or butt roasts. This is weird given the ethnic mix of Sacramento, but whatever. I bought the loin roast because it was on sale and I figured the only think that would happen is that it would take less time to cook.
All conversions were done by me online. If you're trying this in a metric kitchen, don't sweat it to much; as you'll see, this is not a precise kind of recipe.
2.15lbs(.975kg) boneless pork loin [or shoulder or butt] roast
2 14oz (414 ml) chicken broth
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon (near as I can tell there's a vague difference between a metric tablespoon, a UK tablespoon and a US tablespoon; use an average sized soup spoon and don’t' sweat it) chopped fresh cilantro [cilantro is also known as coriander or Chinese parsley and it's used in several different cuisines. If you are one of those people for whom it tastes soapy or metallic, leave it out. And you can use dried if that's all you have]
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
Prep: Cut the meat into chunks. The recipe I was adapting didn't say what size, but the meat's going to be shredded later one so I went with chunks slightly larger than I'd cut for stew. Trim large pieces of fat off, but leave the smaller pieces there to add some flavor. Peel your onion and garlic and cut the onion in quarters and the garlic in halves. Chop your cilantro, and then wonder what in hell you're going to do with the huge of fresh cilantro you have left.
Cooking: My starter recipe tells me to use a "tall frying pan" whatever that is. I'm using my big Caphalon frying pan, but I think you could probably use a dutch oven or something similar. Put everything into the pan and if the meat isn't covered with liquid, you can add a little water. Bring it to a boil and then lower it to a simmer. The recipe doesn't say whether you should cover it or not; I chose to cover it because it has to simmer forever and I didn't want the liquid to evaporate.
Simmer for 3-4 hours, or until the meat is very soft and pulls apart easily. Unless you use a loin roast like I did. In which case it's more like 2 1/2 hours--this bit is being written after dinner.
Remove the meat from the broth, leaving the by now almost liquefied onions and herbs behind. Break the meat into smaller chunks, bite-sized this time. Put them into a roasting pan and put them into a 450F (roughly 230C) oven for 15-20 minutes. The point it to get the meat crispy. It's going to get dry fast, so keep an eye on it. It's actually OK if it's a little dry; most of the carnitas I've had in restaurants is a little on the dry side. D
So now you have a whole lot of slightly crispy, very yummeh pork pieces. What do you do with them? Well pretty much what you'd do with chicken or beef that you'd cook for Mexican food. Wrap it up in a tortilla with some stuff and eat it. *grins*
I cooked some Mexican rice, heated a can of black beans, opened some salsa and sour cream, threw a couple of flour tortillas into the microwave with a damp towel, and Nancy made guacamole. As I sit here right now I realize that I have a bag of shredded cheese in the fridge for quesadillas that I totally forgot about in the mad dash before dinner. Nancy actually made a real burrito and I tore pieces off my tortilla and ate with my fingers, mixing the various bites up. However if you wanted to fry up some corn tortillas, carnitas make excellent tacos and it'd be good with some kind of chili sauce over rice and beans.
The amount of meat I cooked was enough for Nancy to have two servings and me to have roughly one and a half, and there's enough left over for another meal. You also end up with a really nice pork flavored chicken broth; I got rid of the mushy onions, added some other herbs to it and threw in a couple of frozen chicken thighs, let it simmer for a half hour and then cut them up and put the resulting soup in the freezer to add pasta and veggies to at a later date.
So this one was pretty much an unqualified success and I'm very pleased with it.
Oh yeah. I'd recommend a hearty red, a fairly robust--heh heh--white, or, if you like beer, Dos Equis. We had water.
So this gave me a block of time in the afternoon/evening to do some cooking. In Collision, the HP/Lotrips crossover, I have Viggo making carnitas, which meant I had to look up just how you make it. So yes, this is a meal inspired by fandom.
So what, those of you who aren't used to Mexican cooking ask, in the hell is carnitas?
Carnitas is shredded pork that's used anywhere you'd use cooked meat, usually in tacos or burritos. The first sign that you're dealing with a good Mexican restaurant is whether or not they have it on the menu, because it's not as popular as say carne asada or shredded chicken. Carnitas is not the same as the pork that's been simmered in the spicy green chili sauce; that stuff is very good but way too hot for my wimpy gringa palate. Carnitas is good for people like me because you can spice it to your individual taste when you sit down to eat.
According to the somewhat limited research I did online, there are two ways to cook carnitas. There's the simmer it in lard method and the simmer it in water method. I have no idea if it's a regional thing or if the water method is only done here in the US. Now as much as I love me things cooked with lard--no really I do; refried beans and tortilla chips that involve lard are soooo much better and nothing beats lard when you're making a pastry crust for a savory pie or pasty--I don't love cooking with huge amounts of fat. It's messy, dangerous and just more trouble than I want to bother with. So this is the recipe as I made it.
Before I get to the recipe, let me point out that I used the wrong kind of meat. A pork loin roast is way too nice a cut for this and I'm not sure it's going to work--yes I'm writing this bit before I'm done. After all, the method is designed to take a tough piece of meat and render it edible and tender. But the thing is, for some reason, our downtown Safeway was sadly lacking in shoulder roasts or butt roasts. This is weird given the ethnic mix of Sacramento, but whatever. I bought the loin roast because it was on sale and I figured the only think that would happen is that it would take less time to cook.
All conversions were done by me online. If you're trying this in a metric kitchen, don't sweat it to much; as you'll see, this is not a precise kind of recipe.
Prep: Cut the meat into chunks. The recipe I was adapting didn't say what size, but the meat's going to be shredded later one so I went with chunks slightly larger than I'd cut for stew. Trim large pieces of fat off, but leave the smaller pieces there to add some flavor. Peel your onion and garlic and cut the onion in quarters and the garlic in halves. Chop your cilantro, and then wonder what in hell you're going to do with the huge of fresh cilantro you have left.
Cooking: My starter recipe tells me to use a "tall frying pan" whatever that is. I'm using my big Caphalon frying pan, but I think you could probably use a dutch oven or something similar. Put everything into the pan and if the meat isn't covered with liquid, you can add a little water. Bring it to a boil and then lower it to a simmer. The recipe doesn't say whether you should cover it or not; I chose to cover it because it has to simmer forever and I didn't want the liquid to evaporate.
Simmer for 3-4 hours, or until the meat is very soft and pulls apart easily. Unless you use a loin roast like I did. In which case it's more like 2 1/2 hours--this bit is being written after dinner.
Remove the meat from the broth, leaving the by now almost liquefied onions and herbs behind. Break the meat into smaller chunks, bite-sized this time. Put them into a roasting pan and put them into a 450F (roughly 230C) oven for 15-20 minutes. The point it to get the meat crispy. It's going to get dry fast, so keep an eye on it. It's actually OK if it's a little dry; most of the carnitas I've had in restaurants is a little on the dry side. D
So now you have a whole lot of slightly crispy, very yummeh pork pieces. What do you do with them? Well pretty much what you'd do with chicken or beef that you'd cook for Mexican food. Wrap it up in a tortilla with some stuff and eat it. *grins*
I cooked some Mexican rice, heated a can of black beans, opened some salsa and sour cream, threw a couple of flour tortillas into the microwave with a damp towel, and Nancy made guacamole. As I sit here right now I realize that I have a bag of shredded cheese in the fridge for quesadillas that I totally forgot about in the mad dash before dinner. Nancy actually made a real burrito and I tore pieces off my tortilla and ate with my fingers, mixing the various bites up. However if you wanted to fry up some corn tortillas, carnitas make excellent tacos and it'd be good with some kind of chili sauce over rice and beans.
The amount of meat I cooked was enough for Nancy to have two servings and me to have roughly one and a half, and there's enough left over for another meal. You also end up with a really nice pork flavored chicken broth; I got rid of the mushy onions, added some other herbs to it and threw in a couple of frozen chicken thighs, let it simmer for a half hour and then cut them up and put the resulting soup in the freezer to add pasta and veggies to at a later date.
So this one was pretty much an unqualified success and I'm very pleased with it.
Oh yeah. I'd recommend a hearty red, a fairly robust--heh heh--white, or, if you like beer, Dos Equis. We had water.