shredded cheese
Mmm…Pozole
Yeah, yeah. Been there and done that.
Deal with it. This is seriously good stuff. I did make this batch a bit differently than the last few. I used the counter top roaster to cook the pork and added a bunch of onions and dried peppers to the pan with the meat. Cleaned a head of garlic and slipped most of the head into slits cut here and there on the roast. Took the powdered dried peppers I made a while back and gave everything inside the pan a good dusting with that, along with some onion powder and plenty of ground black pepper. Poured in a good quart of chicken stock and turned it on to 350. I shoved a temperature probe into the sweet spot and set it to beep when it got to 165. Worked like a charm.
I took the cooked roast out and set it to cool on a board and then strained the peppers and onions and other solids from the juices left in the pan. Ladle off the fat from the good stuff or do as I did–put the bowl into the freezer until the fat hardens and you can lift it out.
Drag out the blender and dump in the solids you strained from the drippings and the defatted juices and pulse to puree, add chicken stock or water to make it thin enough to pour back into the pot. Those chilies and cooked onions with a few cloves of cooked garlic make a super duper flavoring. I enhanced mine with a few chipotles in adobo sauce. The juice of a lime will work well in there.
Shred or chop the pork when it is cool enough to handle. Peel off the fat and gristly parts. Dump the meat into a big stock pot, add some hominy, a few more onions cut up into largish pieces, add enough chicken stock to cover well. Add the puree of peppers and onions and bring the pot to a simmer, keep it there for at least an hour, longer is better. Give the broth a taste and adjust for salt and heat. Add more pureed chipotles, perhaps with some red pepper flakes or whole dried chilies. Knock yourself out. I like a good bit of oregano in mine, I put in a good tablespoon-that’s in 5 quarts or so, maybe 6, of soup.
Enjoy!
Carnitas
Lazy Sunday. I went to the store this morning and was thinking it was Saturday until I got there. Made no difference for the grocery trip because they are open Sunday mornings. I was going to buy some beer to cook the refried beans I had planned but the blue laws restrict beer sales until after noon. I had some stout beer at home so I wasn’t too bummed. I think it worked fine.
I wanted to do a South Western themed dinner but didn’t want to do the usual nachos. I have some roast pork put up in Mason jars that I figured would make great carnitas.
Carnitas, literally “little meats”, is a type of braised or roasted (often after first being simmered) pork in Mexican cuisine…
…Prior to serving, the pork, along with some of the rendered liquid, is placed in fairly shallow pans to maximize surface area, then roasted at high (375 to 425 °F or 190 to 220 °C) heat for a few minutes to produce the desired alternating texture of succulent softness and caramelized crispness.
I was right, the canned pork came out great, some crispy brown edges and butter tender. Yummy! Traditionally served on corn tortillas but the fried flour tortillas worked fine.
The refried beans were simple enough, start some onions in oil, sprinkle in some cumin seeds and add some minced garlic and a minced jalapeno. Then dump in a couple of cans of pinto beans and use a potato masher to mash half of them into mush. Simmer the mixture for an hour or more, adding beer (or chicken stock) as needed to keep them from drying out. They need stirring pretty often to keep the beans from sticking.
Enchiladas were tortillas stuffed with chorizo sausage, onions, cheese, and a bit of ancho sauce. Cover the stuffed rolls with a cheese sauce, enchilada sauce, drizzle some ancho sauce on, bake at 350 for 30 minutes then sprinkle some shredded cheese on top and return to the heat.
The guacamole was about as uncomplicated as it could be: Mash two avocados with some finely chopped onion and the juice of a lime, add a teaspoon of salt–Ta Da!
Enjoy!
Chicken Fajitas
Not going to say that Mrs J has been nagging me to make these, but she has mentioned it a lot. Iasa asked me the other day what I used for fajita seasoning and I really didn’t have a good answer. I’ve been using various powders more on a whim than than by any plan. Seemed like a good time to do some Googling. I looked at a few recipes and they were similar enough I ended up choosing this one more for it’s placement on the results page than the star rating.
I used 2 tablespoons of the mix, plus 2 tablespoons of water, along with a dash of lime juice for a marinade. Sliced 2 chicken breasts and soaked them in it for a couple of hours in the fridge. When it came time to cook the meal I sliced some green peppers and an onion. Start some oil in a pan, and toss in the marinaded chicken pieces. Give them a few minutes and then add the veggies. When done, array some on a tortilla and add whatever toppings sound good to you. I had some jalapenos, tomatoes, black olives, sour cream, ancho sauce, salsa, green onions, some cheese sauce and some shredded cheese all set out on the table along with a bag of nacho chips. A few lime wedges to squeeze on the assembled fajita are nice. The lime juice perks the flavors quite a bit. Nearly forgot I had some guacamole made. Remembered too late to get some into the main round of pictures, but I still had room so I made up a plate of nachos. Yummy every time.
Enjoy!
Migas
Didn’t know there was such a thing until I read a comment on an early morning open thread on a blog I frequent. Commenter “mikefromtexas” said he might make some for his breakfast. A quick Google and there they were. Here’s the top of the page recipe I looked at this morning. Confident that all recipes are suggestions I ended up here:
Recipe called for corn tortillas but having only flour ones I used them. Fired up the pan and added a good slug of oil, soon the tortilla pieces were toasting. I tossed in some diced green onions and a jalapeno, also diced. Gave them a few minutes then in went the eggs/salsa mixture to scramble. Meanwhile I sliced an avocado and diced some red onion, a yellow bell pepper and a tomato. Dug out my chili sauce from the other day, some sour cream. Forgetting something I know.
Ack! Forgot the cheese! Oh well…
Enjoy!
What's 4 Dinner Solutions 