Monday, June 22

Carnitas

Who has ever eaten Mexican food, I mean REALLY good authentic Mexican food & doesn't LOVE Carnitas? I don't really know anyone who could say "me!". So our new friend, Leslie who we met at a Slow Food LA event last month, came up from Santa Monica this weekend to hang out! As she was leaving, she said, I'm going home to eat Carnitas with my husband. And I thought, YUM! I should make those! So I said to her, I have a pastured pork Butt Roast from AHO in my freezer. And she said, that is exactly what you use! And so I did! Well, first I actually researched recipes, and found this one by the oh-so-talented David Lebovitz formerly of Chez Panisse! (I actually got to TA a chocolate class he did at WCI ages ago. Lovely man.) So this is my take on his method.
Sorry I didn't take before snaps! It was frozen solid. I rubbed it all over with Safflower Oil, poured a tons of Kosher Salt on top & rubbed that in, placed in a Stainless saute pan (don't ask me about my roasting pan, ok!) And stuck the whole thing under a hot broiler to brown...about 15 minutes each of the 4 sides. Then I cut it all up into large chucks, placed in a glass pyrex, added some beer, half a cinnamon stick, about 2 cloves of garlic, just smashed to release flavor, chili powder, paprika, cumin all over (best guess: 4-5 Tsp) pepper & bay leaves (you need enough liquid to cover about 2/3rd of the meat). Tossed it all around together & placed back under the broiler about 10 min, flipped, another 10-15 min. Reduce oven heat to 300 & let bake uncovered for about 3 hours. Flipping every now & then to keep moist. I think I had to add more beer after awhile so it didn't dry out completely.
Take it out, & chop into smaller bite sized shreds & chunks.
Put back in the oven & flip every now & then until most of the liquid is gone (about another 30 minutes...). Serve however you want: with rice, beans tortillas, salsa, make it into burritos, tacos, OM! The possibilities are endless & it by far THE yummiest meat you will ever taste!
You know how when it's thanksgiving & you want to eat that one little piece of crispy skin? And some meat is stuck to it & sort of caramelized...that's how this is, except the whole outside is pumped with flavor & crisp! And the soft insides are soft & white, but not dry & flavorless, they taste amazing too!
I got 2 words for you: bon appetite!

3 comments:

twoandtwinsmom said...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I want some o dat!

Erin said...

It was heaven. Seriously - you need to order a pork shoulder butt roast from HFF & try it fresh! I got this one thru AHO & it was very pleased. It fed us 3 meals in a row (just me & JoeBacon) but still....
And you KNOW how Joe is about leftovers in general, but he was not upset in the least!
LOL

Julie Wiens Norris said...

Made the carnitas the other night. We are in the middle of a heat wave here in Washington, so I did NOT want to have the oven on. I browned the meat on the stove top first, then put it in the crock pot. Turned out great and my whole family loved it! I have another roast in the freezer, so will be making carnitas again this week! Thanks Erin!

Bloggy Friends

Erin

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Santa Susana, Ventura County, CA, United States
Me? Well....I have a day job selling travel to beautiful far away lands, and I love to travel - my job sort of supports & feeds the 'travel monster' inside me. But my other inner monster is: food in all it's facets. I have a 13 yr old DS from a previous life, and married the lovely JoeBacon a three years ago! I finally became a home-owner at that point, we did a huge addition/re-model right away to make the house a bit bigger & I got a wonderful new kitchen out of the deal! I've gone thru Culinary School twice (mostly for fun) 'cuz I love to cook! And thru reading/doing the Maker's Diet 2 years ago, became aware of Sally Fallon, Weston Price, etc...and now after about 9 months of exploring their world, I'm trying to really make it all part of mine. I've had some things turn out great & others have been miserable failures, but I'm learning a LOT (mostly from my fellow NT Bloggers)!! Now I'm enjoying my yard, garden, sprouting, baking bread, brewing Kombucha, using raw milk, making Kefir & Yogurt & just trying to find small ways to make yummy food better for us.