Carnitas
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| Wed, 01-26-2005 - 2:08pm |
Here is our carnitas recipe - carnitas is a very famous Mexican dish (my understanding is that "carnitas" means "little meats" When I have been in Mexico its sold at many street markets as a snack and served in small torillas that you can easily carry around with you) Its usually made with pork, but I have seen beef carnitas as well. Its always been my favorite dish to order in Mexican restaurants. My dh is Mexican and this is my adaptation of his grandma's recipe. Traditionally you use pork shoulder or butt - but that cut is too fatty for SBD, so I used a tenderloin roast. It turned out okay - not nearly as good as the original since the fattier meat has MUCH more depth of flavor, but it was better than giving it up entirely!
Pork Carnitas
* 2-16oz cans of chicken broth
* 2-3 pounds pork tenderloin
* 2 TBS. chopped cilantro
* 2 tps cumin
* 2 tsp dried Mexican oregano (not the regular! I don't know how available this is in other areas, its common here in CA, if you can't find it I'd just leave it out or maybe throw in a bay leaf instead)
* 1 onion, quartered
* 3 or 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
* 3 or 4 slices of lime
Pre-cooking:
* Cut the pork meat in chunks (about 2 in cubes)
* Chop the cilantro and garlic
Cooking:
* Set tall frying pan in mid-high heat
* Add the pork, cilantro, cummin, onion and broth
* If nescessary, add water so that the meat is covered
* Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 3-4 hours or until
the meat is very soft and pulls appart easily (if it gets dry add more broth and /or water, you need liquid in there at all times!)
* Remove the meat and place it in a roasting pan, pull appart the meat in smaller chunks
* Bring the remaining broth mixture to a boil and reduce until thickened (If there is a
lot of liquid left I sometimes just remove a small amount - about 3 cups and reduce it in
another pan so it doesn't take forever!) You need to reduce by at least half.
* Pour the thickend broth mixture over the pork (you don't want it swimming in liquid,
it more like you are just giving it a little basting)
* Bake for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees, until the meat is browned and crispy
We always serve it with salsa verde - but you could use any salsa or sauce you like.
Traditionally it is served with corn tortillas, but you could substitute whole wheat, or it is
yummy with just salsa!
Salsa Verde
* 2 Anaheim chile peppers, roasted, peeled, chopped
* 1 lb tomatillos
* 2 fresh Serrano chiles, cut in half
* ½ cup coarsely chopped onion
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
* 1 tsp. Olive oil
* 1 tsp. Lime juice
* ¼ tsp. Salt
Pulse tomatillos in food processor until coarsely chopped.
Add peppers and next 3 ingredients; pulse until diced.
Pour into a serving bowl. Stir in oil, lime juice, and salt until
well blended. Cover and chill at least one hour.
You can adjust the amounts/types of chiles to your taste of course!
MichaelAnn

Oh Yum!
Yes we tried those - VERY good! Very similar - just different type of flavorings. I'm looking forward to making those again now that we can have whole wheat tortillas (we tried them in phase 1)
Hope you like the carnitas!
MichaelAnn
spring06sig2
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Here is some info for you on liquid smoke (link above).