Mmmm, Carnitas

 Baby, it's cold outside...actually, today it is 31*F, much warmer than the 14*F of a few days ago.  Still, the crispy weather just begs for something hot and slow-cooked in a flavorful braise.

A few weeks ago we picked up a whole pork shoulder for about 11 bucks. I had a thought of making pulled pork, but decided on carnitas.  Both are slow-cooked pork, but I associate pulled pork with barbecue and carnitas is definitely mexican.  Anything that can be folded into a tortilla has my vote.

I scanned some recipes online and eliminated any that called for orange juice.  I have a dislike of fruit or citrus with flesh. I spotted one from David Lebovitz that looked good and easy to adapt to the crockpot.

It was my first pork butt.  Why is it called pork butt if it is from the shoulder?  I don't know, but it's fun to say "pork butt".  Let me tell you, pork butts are huge.  I decided to just work with half of it at a time, since I wanted to use my crockpot.

Carnitas, adapted from David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life in Paris

4-5-pounds boneless pork shoulder (pork butt!), cut into 5-inch chunks, trimmed of excess fat
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons canola or neutral vegetable oil
water
1 cinnamon stick (omitted)
1 teaspoon chile powder
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder (omitted)
2 bay leaves
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly-sliced


1. Rub the pieces of pork shoulder all over with salt. Refrigerate for 1- to 3-days. (You can skip this step if you want. Just be sure to salt the pork before searing the meat in the next step.)

2. Heat the oil in a roasting pan set on the stovetop. Cook the pieces of pork shoulder in a single layer until very well-browned, turning them as little as possible so they get nice and dark before flipping them around. If your cooking vessel is too small to cook them in a single-layer, cook them in two batches.


3. Once all the pork is browned, remove them from the pot and blot away any excess fat with a paper towel, then pour in about a cup of water, scraping the bottom of the pan with a flat-edged utensil to release all the tasty brown bits. I poured this liquid into the crockpot with the pork.


4. Heat the oven to 350F (180C) degrees.  If you are using oven instead of crockpot.

5. Add the pork back to the pan and add enough water so the pork pieces are 2/3rd's submerged in liquid. Add the cinnamon stick and stir in the chile powders, bay leaves, cumin and garlic. I added the juice of one lime, too.

7. Braise in the oven uncovered for 3½ hours, turning the pork a few times during cooking, until much of the liquid is evaporated and the pork is falling apart. Remove the pan from the oven and lift the pork pieces out of the liquid and set them on a platter.  OR - cook in your crockpot on low for 8 hours.  The liquid won't evaporate, but I just pulled out the pork with a slotted spoon and transferred it to a sheet pan. 

 

8. Once the pork pieces are cool enough to handle, shred them into bite-sized pieces, about 2-inches (7 cm), discarding any obvious big chunks of fat if you wish.

9. Return the pork pieces back to the roasting pan and cook in the oven, turning occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated and the pork is crispy and caramelized. It will depend on how much liquid the pork gave off, and how crackly you want them.  I browned my carnitas for 20 minutes in a 375* oven.

These were delish.  We had some in tortillas the first night, and then I had the idea to try to recreate a carnitas bowl from Chipotle.

I started with the cilantro-lime rice.  I browed one cup rice in a tablespoon of oil for 10 minutes, or until it smelled nutty, almost like popcorn.  Then I added chicken stock and cooked covered for about 20 minutes.

                            

I juiced some (way too many) limes and added the juice to the rice.  Next was chopped cilantro.

 

 In a bowl, I layered rice, carnitas, lettuce, tomato, salsa and sour cream.  The only thing missing was the black beans.

 

 

 

 

Hungarian Pot Roast

This is my second post about pot roast, and my second Hungarian recipe. Hmmm. I don't know anything about Hungarian food, but I have discovered it usually includes paprika and sour cream. That's not a bad thing.

I've been mostly sticking to my South Beach Diet plan, with lots of help from Kalyn's Kitchen, a blog out of Salt Lake City that includes lots of SBD recipes. So that is where I came across this recipe. It looked really good and, it was made in the Crockpot. As you may have guessed from my last post, I received a Crockpot from a good friend named Michelle, and I am having a blast with it.

Cooking with a Crockpot is easy, but deceiving. This recipe has lots of out-of-the-Crockpot steps. But, it all came together easily enough with the help of my other good friend, Mr. Dutch Oven. (My favorite Christmas gift from last year.)

First, I browned a rump roast in the dutch oven, making sure to get a nice brown crust. I plopped that in the Crockpot and dumped in the onions into the dutch oven with some paprika. I had to add a little more olive oil than was listed because the paprika was starting to burn.

Once the onions were just beginning to brown, I added them to the Crockpot, along with a can of diced tomatoes and a couple of cut-up red peppers.

I poured half a box (about 2 cups) of organic beef stock into the dutch oven and let it boil over medium heat until it reduced to about 1 cup.

Maybe it was a little more than 2 cups. Anyhoo, when it was reduced, I poured it over the rest of the stuff in the Crockpot and seasoned it with a lot of black pepper.

Kalyn says to cook it on high for 4 hours, but my schedule didn't work out that way, so I left it on high for about 3 hours, and then turned it to low for oh, another 8 or so hours (overnight). Slow cooking is slow cooking, right?

So when I got up the next morning, I scooped the roast out and strained the broth/juice into the dutch oven, catching the vegetables and setting them aside. Then I again simmered the broth over medium heat until it had reduced by half. I also skimmed some fat off the top.

Kalyn says to whisk in 1.5 cups light sour cream, but I just used my whole pint. I think I had more gravy than she did anyway. *Shrug*

I heated up the sour cream gravy for about 5 more minutes, whisking often and scraping all those yummy brown bits into it. We weren't eating it right away (it was morning, after all!), but I had a few tastes and it was rich and beefy. I plated one up for the camera, then packed the rest in containers for work lunches.

It's not the prettiest dish, but it sure tasted good. The vegetables melted into a kind of mush due to my overcooking, so I wouldn't recommend that necessarily. On the other hand, it was nice to bend it to my schedule and have it still turn out rather good. I added the rosemary sprig in the title picture for color, but it turned out that a couple rosemary leaves added some brightness. Brian also thought it needed some acid, so I suppose you could squeeze a lemon wedge over it.

Please see Kalyn's blog for the recipe.

Peace!

WCC#32: Garlic

This month's Challenge is hosted by Carla of Chocolate Moosey and the theme is Garlic. It was a toss up between Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic and 44-Clove Garlic Soup. Can't go wrong either way, in my opinion. I've been trying to work my way through my Del.icio.us recipe bookmarks - I now have 198 - so I checked out what I had tagged under garlic. The soup sounded good, too, but Brian (no longer bf and hi, I'm Lisa, by the way) loves chicken, so I went with the classic Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic. I had been wanting to try this recipe since seeing Ina Garten make it on her Barefoot Contessa show. This one I found from smitttenkitchen, who in turn got it from the NY Times.

The recipe is pretty simple, especially if you can find those already-peeled garlic cloves. This was the first time I tried them, and I am officially a fan. These we picked up at Fred Meyer near the bagged salads and mushrooms.

I used my Lodge Dutch Oven for this with good results. I made some changes, though - I didn't use the chicken stock called for in the last step because I didn't have any made. It seemed to have enough liquid - and what's the point of browning chicken, creating perfectly crispy skin, and then sogging it up with too much liquid? I used chicken thighs instead of a whole cut-up chicken as well. Next time I make this I won't start with the heat on high like the recipe suggests as my garlic got a little browner than I wanted. It was still good, though. The recipe's a winner, especially served with Brian's mashed potatoes.

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

from "Bistro Cooking" by Patricial Wells via the NY Times and Smitten Kitchen

1 3- to 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
About 40 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock or canned broth (optional)

1. Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Place a deep, nonreactive skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat, and add oil and butter. When fats are hot but not smoking, add chicken pieces skin side down and cook until skin turns an even, golden brown, about 5 minutes. Work in batches, if necessary, and carefully regulate heat to avoid scorching skin. Turn pieces and brown them on other side for an additional 5 minutes.

2. Reduce heat to medium. Bury garlic cloves under chicken to make sure they settle in one layer at bottom of skillet. Saute, shaking or stirring pan frequently, until garlic is lightly browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Add wine and stock (if using), scraping bottom of pan.

3. Cover and continue cooking until juices run clear when a thigh is pricked, 10 to 15 minutes more. Check this after 10 minutes, because mine was definitely done then. Serve chicken with garlic and pan juices and, if desired, rice or potatoes.

WCC#26: Not Too Romantic

...but it's pot roast.

It's supposed to be something using a Dutch Oven, Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker, according to the rules of Weekend Cookbook Challenge Number 26. So, I pulled out this random piece of meat from the freezer and gave it a go.

The recipe is loosely based on this one from Tyler Florence's Ultimate series. I guess I'm not really following the spirit of WCC by not using a cookbook, but I'm doing it in the spirit of making something I've never made before! Plus, I got to use my wonderful Lodge Dutch Oven that bf gave me for Christmas.

The roast I used was a shoulder roast, I think. Actually, I'm not sure at all what cut it was. It was on sale and I grabbed it up for the freezer. Use any big bone-in roast. I took it out of the freezer 2 days early and it still wasn't completely thawed, so I stuck it in the sink under running cold water for 20 minutes. (I also overflowed the sink and flooded my kitchen doing this, but that's another story.) Then I patted it dry with a multitude of paper towels and let it sit for about an hour to warm up.

Now, I was ready to rock! I generously salt-and-peppered the meat on all sides and rubbed it in a little. Then I set the oven to 200 degrees and set my Dutch Oven on the stovetop over medium-high heat. I dumped some olive oil (NOT EVOO) in it, enough to coat the bottom, plus a little more. I let that heat up a few minutes, then got ready to brown the roast.

Problem. It was a little too big for my Dutch Oven. Oh well, I just smooshed it down with my tongs and hoped for the best. Anyway, it browned up just fine and smelled good, too. Go me.

After the browning, I turned the heat down and added one big can of crushed tomatoes, a cup of water, two onions, a couple celery ribs, a bunch of baby carrots, an equal amount of button mushrooms and plenty of baby Yukon Gold potatoes to the pot. The onions and celery I cut into big chunks, but the rest I left whole. I grated a couple-three garlic cloves and tossed them into the pot as well. I seasoned it with rosemary and thyme and more salt and pepper. Use fresh herbs if you've got 'em, but I didn't and it was fine. Also add 2 bay leaves and another glug of olive oil and kinda stir the best you can to try to coat the veg.

I covered it with my tight-fitting Dutch Oven lid and slid that heavy thing into the oven. You probably should cook it 4-6 hours or so and baste it a lot. Mine wasn't quite done after 3 hours and I had to go to bed, so I just left it overnight.

What? Pot roast is good for breakfast, too.

And it was good. The meat broke apart and combined with the tomatoes and liquid from the veg and created a kinda stew-like mess. I loved it. I was going to give some away, but bf refused to let me. It'll be gone by tomorrow.

Thank you to this month's host of Weekend Cookbook Challenge, Lis from La Mia Cucina!

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I know I said it was Mom's Mac-n-Cheese next, but I had to get this up before the deadline of March 26th! So forgive me, please.

Also waiting in the wings are Shrimp and Andouille Gumbo and a Blueberry Tart.