August 18th, 2004, 9:54 pm

Recipe: Carnitas!

Well gang, I am going all out and providing a decent recipe. I did some online research before crafting this one, and I came up with this little ditty. It’s a basic one-pot recipe — just turn on the heat, and toss in ingredients as you go. You really can’t mess it up, since it’ll be on the stove for several hours. And you can’t mess up on the proportions in this recipe unless you really really try — it’s very forgiving. Dishes like this are perfect for parties — there is minimal prepwork, and the kitchen can be clean before everyone comes over. By the time the meat is ready, everyone will have two hours or so of “socializing” under their belts, dying to eat what they’ve been smelling all night.

Laura’s Carnitas

PICKING THE MEAT

Because this is a stew-esque recipe, the cut of pork isn’t that important. Personally, I bought a roast because it wasn’t too expensive, and it didn’t have a lot of fat in it. Here in San Antonio, they sell a bag of meat designed for carnitas, but I skipped it since it was really fatty looking. I bought two of these puppies since I knew I’d want to eat this all week.

GET THE BASE GOING

Start off like most recipes — toss in the aromatics first: half a diced onion, six cloves of garlic. I put this in my big wok without oil, since I’m avoiding the fat these days, on medium low. Let the onions sweat until they are translucent before you add in the OJ. (Below is my favorite thing in the world, a Cuisinart chopper thingy. It is great for chopping up the nitty gritty, making salsa, AND it has an attachable stick blender!)

SPICES

The base spices in this recipe are cumin, oregano, dried chili peppers, peppercorns, and bay leaves (not pictured here). I’m the type of cook who constantly adds spices as she cooks, so this is an estimate of what went in: 3 TB cumin, 3 TB oregano, 5 dried chili peppers, 20 peppercorns, and four bay leaves. Salt and pepper, to taste, as well. Add your spices to the pot, and let them sweat with the onions and garlic.

MMMM, JUICY! (In Pee Wee Herman voice)

In the lovely summertime, there is no excuse not to juice some of the succulent oranges available cheaply in your grocery store. I found a bag of juicing oranges for $2.05. I juiced three of these puppies straight into the pot. If substituting prepared orange juice, just add enough to cover your meat.

CHOP CHOP LITTLE PIGGIE

Dice up your pork, and add it to the pot as you go. Now, you’ll want to turn the pot up — you are going to want the mixture to boil soon. It doesn’t matter what size these bits are in either; you’re just going to shred the meat anyways.

THE MIXTURE LOOKS FUNNY

OK, so this kinda looks like the bile. And as it warms, the pulp will rise to the surface in disturbing ways. This is all perfectly natural. Don’t be alarmed.

SUBMERGE YOUR MEAT

Toss all your pork in the pot, and make it boil! You’ll want the liquid in the pot to almost cover the meat — and most likely, you’ll need to add some chicken stock to help it do that. Don’t drown the meat though.

STOCK PREFERENCES

Don’t cheap out here. Swanson Chicken Broth in a can does not cut it. Spend the two dollars, and by yourself a nice container of stock, preferably free-range or organic. This is my favorite brand, but I also buy Kitchen Basics if that is not available.

THE WAITING GAME

Now is the uncertain part — where you just have to keep checking on the pot for the next two hours. After having brought your meat to a boil, you’ll reduce the temperature to med/low, and cover it for an hour or so, stirring whenever you remember. Go off and have some fun, and just check back on it occasionally. Take off the lid after an hour or so to let the mixture start to reduce. Believe it or not, the meat will absorb all that liquid, and be scrumdillyiumptious. Don’t be alarmed if your meat gets tough after about an hour of simmering, it will become super tender later on. When I made this, I kept tasting the broth (salmonella be damned!) and I found it wasn’t quite spicy enough for my tastes. So, I scooped the chili peppers out of the mixture, chopped them in my Cuisinart, and returned them to the pot with some dried red pepper flakes. After about two hours or so, start to pluck little bits of meat out of the pan, and taste-test for doneness. You’ll know when it is ready to be shredded — it’ll fall apart in your mouth, and make you want to run away from home with a big pot of it.

RIP IT UP

Here is the easy part. Remove the meat from the pan, and shred with a fork. Do this in batches, and …

PUT IT BACK

… return the shredded meat to the pan to soak up the rest of the spicy juice.

MMM YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED CARNITAS

Now, you’ll have a glorious plate of subtly spiced pork to do with as you please. You could make enchiladas, chile rellenos, anything. But I, of course, want a taco.

RAJAS

So, for a textural accompaniment, I sauteed some imperfectly-julienned poblano peppers and Texas sweet onions. (They are so good in the summer, I eat them raw with salt.)

ACCOMPANIMENTS

Should include my holy trinity of taco topppings, limes, cilantro, and diced onions.

WALLA

On a toasted corn tortilla. Life is good.

UPDATE 8-20-04

Anyone who cooks these recipes should send me pic, and I’ll post them online. Larry Clow has volunteered to be the first. He might win a T-shirt.

UPDATE 9-7-04

Apparently, the quality of oranges completely affects your cooking liquid. Due to the rash of hurricanes in Florida, and the resulting decimated crops, I used about five Australian oranges to achieve as much liquid as the three Florida beauties. Today, I didn’t feel like purchasing stock, so I poured in a Tecate. Lesson here kids — beer and stock can be used interchangeably in some recipes — just make sure your beer matches the flavor palate of your meal. I tossed in half a boullion cube to compensate for the lost chicken flavor. Tasting the concoction, it seemed a little tart, due to the inferior orange juice. So I sprinkled the whole with honey (brown sugar also melds well with pork). I was surprised at the result (tho I shouldn’t have been): when the meat had been cooking about two hours, most of the liquid had been absorbed by the meat, and the honey, now coating the mixture, began to boil and stick on the bottom. Stirring quickly eliminated any potential disasters, but if I had left it unattended …

To counteract the sweetness (not a big fan), I ground the red chilis and some additional garlic, mixed with about a cup of water, and let the meat cook about half an hour more to absorb the flavors. Lesson learned: you can alter the flavor if something messes up; just as long as you add additional cooking fluid, and allow the pork to absorb it.

Another mistake I made was getting impatient, and shredding the meat before it had reached the desired melt-in-your-mouth consistency. The honey had coated the pork, making it too sweet, and I thought by shredding it early, the garlic-chili-water would infuse the meat, and take away some of the sweetness. That it did — but the pork always remained a little dry.

Of course, my dining companions found no problems with the tacos, insisting they were fabulous. And they were … just not as fabulous as the last time. I guess I’ll have to make them again!

Check out the glaze on this pork as compared to the previous — the honey’s doing.

This reheats super well for incredibly casual, post-outing dining: zap in microwave, toast some tortillas, saute some poblanos. Served here with a chimichurri — garlic, cilantro, olive oil, S&P. For extra body, I added baby spinach — didn’t impact the flavor profile at all, added some vitamins, and helped with the texture.