Carnitas

This is a recipe I found in a library book I rented called New World Kitchen I renewed this book for many months.

While you could eat Carnitas on their own, you probably would be more satisfied using them as a filling in tacos, gorditas, pupusas, or any other Latin American dish. It's kind of like pulled pork, but it's fried.

I love Carnitas.They're so delicious. It takes some thinking ahead, this isn't a "30 minute meal", but it's sooo worth it.

To make them, we'll need some pork.

I used country ribs but you can use shoulder or butt. I actually had more meat than the recipe called for but it was fine. The recipe calls for 3lbs boneless pork butt, shoulder, or country ribs, cut into 1.5 to 2 in pieces. So mine had some bones...but I think that adds flavor. 

I cut 'em up with our ceramic knives. They are WONDERFUL. I might have sung their praises already, but you can cut anything a lot easier than any other knife. Tomatoes slice very well without tugging on the skins. We got ours at Harbor Freight hardware store for $Cheap (I'm talking less than $20/knife).

We also need 1 large spanish onion, roughly chopped. Again, I varied a little here. We didn't have "large spanish onions" so I used two smaller white onions. 

Next,  2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped. This is a very rustic dish, there's a lot of "rough chopping".

Now,  2 stalks of celery, roughly chopped. 

Time to get cookin'. We need 1/2 C. canola oil in a large pot.

Once the medium heat has gotten it hot, we add the onion, carrots, and celery.

Then, another inconsistency here, we add 6 cloves of garlic, sliced. We didn't have any fresh garlic so I used the canned already minced variety. I really suggest having this in your fridge all the time, it makes life so much easier and if you've forgotten to restock your fresh garlic you've got a back-up.

You'll want to cook that for 5-8 minutes,  until the veggies start glazing a little.

Let's talk spices. We'll need 2 bay leaves, 10 sprigs of thyme, and 12 black peppercorns toasted. I didn't have fresh time so I kind of just added "some" leaves from the shaker. The peppercorns came from our pepper grinder. I didn't toast them, but I have before. It's worth it, it smells wonderful and I'm sure it adds to the dish, but when I made this I was also dealing with the California Cake and wanted to make things simple. I'd suggest using cast iron to toast them if you do, heat them until they get nice and aromatic. 

 Mix that in with the veggies, and add your pork.

Cover with just enough water to submerge the meat (my pot's too small to do this effectively, I forget every time to use a bigger one) and get the water simmering.

According to the recipe there are "impurities" that come to the surface. I can see them, I try to get them, but it never really works out. I use a spoon and try to skim them off like he tells us to, but I quickly give up because it doesn't work for me. From there, we reduce the heat and cook for about 1.5-2 hours until it's very tender. I like when it falls off the bone.


We're going to need a strainer, to separate the meat from the liquid. You'll want to keep the liquid so strain it into a bowl.

Then with a spoon or your hands after it's cooled, separate the meat from the veggies. You can throw the veggies out now.

Once the meat cools enough, it's time to start pulling. 

Once you have it into small pieces, it's time to get back to that braising liquid we saved. The recipe calls for separating the fat from the liquid. If you've got a fat separator, knock yourself out. If not, you can either put it in the fridge and let it separate there when it cools (this takes longer than I've ever been patient enough to wait for), or you can do your best to catch those fatty bubbles with a spoon. You'll get some extra liquid but that's ok, and it's not too hard to see the separate layers. This time I used a baster to suck up the fatty layer and it worked great. 

Heat that until it sizzles when you add the meat. Add the meat when it's ready and brown it up. It gets golden, crisp, delicious. 

Yum.

It smells great.

You can eat it plain. It really tastes good either way, but it's better if it's got a sandwich or tortilla around it somehow.


The recipe calls for us to reduce the remaining liquid (that we didn't use the fat from) and then pour it over the meat, but I really don't think this adds to it in my kitchen. In fact, I think it tastes better before that step, so from now on I'm leaving it out.