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.

 

 

 

 

Soup Month: White Bean Soup with Sausage and Red Chard

This was the first time I made this soup. I based it on a recipe from Recipe Zaar, but added way more beans and garlic, used chard instead of kale, and 2 kinds of sausage.

There are so many kinds of white beans. I bought some dried navy beans last time at the store because they were the cheapest. So that's what I used here.

The original recipe was for more of a brothy soup containing the beans, sausage, etc. I was going for a more bean-y soup loosened with a little chicken stock.

A note on soup preparation: Rarely do I get a mise-en-place set up. I usually start by chopping an onion (all soups start with onion) and let the pot heat up at the same time. Then, I let the onion cook over medium-low heat while I prep and add the rest of the ingredients. This time I was waiting for the beans to soften, so I got my chopping out of the way.

Now that's some garlic! I wish I had bought more chard. The sausage almost overwhelms it. Speaking of sausage, I used some mild Italian sausage and some elk kielbasa that I had hanging around my freezer (Thanks, Dad!!). I liked the contrast of two different textures - the soft ground sausage melting in with the beans, and the drier, more toothsome, kielbasa.

White Bean Soup with Sausage and Red Chard based on this recipe from Recipe Zaar

1/2 lb mild Italian sausage, ground
2 T olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1 celery rib, diced
9 large garlic cloved, minced (or grated)
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth (if using full-sodium, skip the salt)
6 cups canned white beans (or 3 cups dry, soaked overnight)
1 lb kielbasa (elk or otherwise), sliced into bite-sized pieces
1 lb. chard, stems removed and leaves torn into bite-sized pieces (I only bought one bunch chard; should have gotten 2-3)
1 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, working to break into bite-sized pieces, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a plate, leaving any rendered fat in the pot.

2. Add the remaining olive oil to the pot, increase the heat to medium-high, and add the onion. Cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant and beginning to soften, about 2 minutes.

3. Add the celery and cook about 2 minutes more.

4. Stir in the garlic, pepper flakes, salt & pepper and cook about 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil.


5. Reduce the heat to medium, add both sausages and HALF the beans.

6. Mash the remaining beans with a fork or potato masher and add them to the pot, stirring to distribute.

7. Stir in the chard. Adjust the heat to maintain a simmer and continue to cook until the chard is tender, about 20 - 30 minutes. (You may cover the pot loosely to prevent too much reduction in the broth.)

8. Stir in the lemon juice and zest just before serving.

Soup Month: Taco Soup

I got this recipe from my soon-to-be cousin-in-law, Maggie. I made it with ground elk instead of beef (Thanks, Dad!!!). This is a very hearty soup great for the cold rainy weather we've been having. It's also very easy - most of it is made by opening cans! You can make it in the crockpot or stovetop. Yeah, baby!



Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef
2 cans stewed tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can Ro-tel
1 can hominy, drained
1 can of corn, drained (or frozen)
1 can each of kidney beans, pinto beans and ranch-style beans (any kind of beans will work)
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 packet of ranch dressing mix
2 onions, chopped
cheese, hot sauce and sour cream for garnish

Brown the ground beef in a heavy skillet. Drain fat if you want to. Add the taco seasoning and stir till combined. Add to Crockpot if using, or a heavy soup pot for stovetop cooking.

Open all the cans. Drain the hominy and corn, then add to soup pot. Add the beans and tomatoes with their juices. (Instead of Ro-tel, I used a third can of stewed tomatoes with chiles and tomatoes. I also added a can of diced green chiles for fun.)

Add the chopped onions and stir in packet of ranch dressing mix. Stir very well.



Simmer for about 1 hour on the stovetop or 8 hours on low for the Crockpot.

To serve, place in bowls and add garnishes as desired.

I liked this with lots of hot sauce. Next time I may add some jalapenos to make it spicier. Or stir in a jar of salsa.

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!