Pork Tacos

So that roast pork shoulder I made earlier is ideal for tacos. Just chop it into small cubes and fry it up. The pork is naturally fatty, so no extra oil is needed. I served it on fresh corn tortillas with avocado, cilantro, red onion, a little radish, and some limes to garnish.

Roast Pork with Black Beans and Corn, Tomato, and Roasted Red Pepper Salad

I'm on this serious Mexican kick. This was my attempt at roast pork, and it was mighty successful. I made a dry rub of salt, pepper, white pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, a little cinnamon, and a bit of curry powder. I'm probably missing something, but that covers the main players. Then the pork shoulder was marinated overnight in a smoothie of chipotle chilies, pineapple and lime juices, garlic, onion, and jalapeño. Roast for 4 hours at 315ºF and...

To round out the meal, I made black beans from scratch and a spicy corn, tomato, and roasted red pepper salad. To make the beans, soak them overnight in enough water to cover by 2 inches. Rinse and drain the beans. Sauté garlic and onion in a large pot until lightly browned. Add the beans and cover with water or stock. Add a bay leaf, salt, and pepper and simmer for a couple hours until tender. In the last 15 minutes or so, add some chopped garlic and cilantro.

The corn salad is pretty basic. Cook corn on the cob and remove the kernels. Toss with chopped cilantro, red onion, jalapeño, tomatoes, roasted red pepper, and lime juice. To roast the red pepper, place it directly on the gas burner and rotated it when the skin blackened. Place the pepper in a tall bowl and cover with plastic wrap. After 20 minutes or so, the skin should peel off easily.

I served this all with some tortillas from Nixtamal and some left over guacamole from my pre-dinner snack. Part 2 of the Mexican dinner series will be coming up shortly.


http://www.tortillerianixtamal.com/

Chicken "Enchiladas"

Enchiladas is in quotes because I actually have no idea what goes into making real enchiladas. I wanted to make chicken tacos one day, and ended up with this concoction. I mean, it's hard to go wrong with chicken wrapped in corn tortillas, covered in spicy sauce, topped with cheese and baked until melty.

HOW TO:

Season and sear the chicken. I use salt, pepper, onion power, garlic powder, chili powder, cinnamon, curry powder, white pepper, cayenne, and possibly some other spices that I can't remember at the moment. Yes, the half of a chicken pictured is abnormally large. I get it from my CSA and although they say it's pasture raised and yada yada, I'm pretty sure it's a mutant.

Anyway, next remove the chicken and throw in the onions, garlic, carrots, cubanelle and jalapeño peppers. Scrape up the meaty bits and sauté until soft.

I also added a puree of chipotle peppers that I got from the farmers market, but I forgot to take a picture of them. Here they are in the blender.

Add spices, some tomato paste, chicken stock, a bay leaf, and the chicken back to the pot.

Simmer for...ehhhh about 2 hours. Remove the chicken. When it's cool enough to handle, shred the meat. I throw the white meat back into the sauce and keep the dark meat for the enchilada filling.

Roll, cover with sauce, top with cheese, bake, and enjoy. I should work on the chili ratios because this version was particularly spicy.