2013 Cooking Club Week 30: [An epically over-long ode to] Carnitas

Malari

Keep meaning to ask - what's a hash? Is it just frying it up? I've seen a couple of people mention it in this thread and the pulled pork one for leftovers.

Faith

I think it's me constantly talking about it . It's an American thing, usually considered brunch food but I love it for dinner. It's basically cubed potatoes (I parboil them first), fried with onions, optional garlic and your meat of choice, served with fried eggs.

This isn't my picture, but it gives some idea of what it looks like:



(Mine usually look WAY messier )

confusticated

Kept wondering too, thanks Malari! Faith, that looks unreal, added to my to-make list!

Gauge

Faith wrote: »

I made this tonight. Oh yum. Yum yum yum!

I did it in the slow cooker because I've no pot for the oven at the moment. Cut into 4 pieces, the 1.5kg or so took about 6 hours to be absolutely falling apart. It didn't crisp up that much in the oven, but it didn't matter at all.

This is next on my to-do list for my shiny new slow cooker so I was wondering, did you follow the recipe pretty much exactly, or did you need to adjust the liquid at all?

Faith

Gauge wrote: »

This is next on my to-do list for my shiny new slow cooker so I was wondering, did you follow the recipe pretty much exactly, or did you need to adjust the liquid at all?

I followed it pretty much exactly. The liquid was 2/3rds of the way up the meat, and I turned the meat a few times .

emaleth

Full marks from emaleth household

I had half a pork shoulder (deboned and skinned) in the freezer and it was football Sunday, so what else could possibly be on the menu? I used a whole ancho in the braising liquid as that's what I had and it worked very well - lovely warm spice, particularly with the cinnamon in there too. We had it with corn tortillas, home made guac, pico and Smitten Kitchen's Dead Simple Slaw.

Today's lunch was substantially better than my co-workers and no, I wouldn't share. Thanks again MissF, it's a keeper.

Oh, and the other half of the pork shoulder was used to make Rick Stein's pork in almond sauce from the Spain cookbook. It's very nice, needs quite a bit of lemon and is better the next day, if anyone's wondering.

Pigwidgeon

I finally got around to making this last night. Had to order the meat into my butchers, I think it was €7.50 per kilo, I didn't even end up cooking it all, have some leftover in the freezer for another time!

Anyway, it was amazing, I know it takes some time, but it's such a simple recipe I'll definitely make it again!

Mellor

Picked up a rolled pork shoulder today. Dinner on Sunday sorted.

OP, you mention cinnamon in the ingredients, not not in the recipe. Guessing it goes in to liquid with spices. Wonder would ground cinnamon do?
A few recipes I seen put the spices in a spice bag so they can be removed away from the cooking liquid.

biddywiddy

I made this yesterday. Sealed the pork in a pan in the morning and then popped it into the slow cooker with the spices, an ancho chilli and added water to about 2/3 the way up. Left it on low for about 8 hours. The smell was incredible when I got in from work! The pork was just falling apart.

I tore it into smaller chunks and popped it into the oven (with some of the cooking liquid) while I was gathering the fixin's. Really delicious dinner and loads of leftovers - enough for tonight's dinner.

Thanks for the recipe OP. So simple yet so tasty.

MissFlitworth

Mellor wrote: »

Picked up a rolled pork shoulder today. Dinner on Sunday sorted.

OP, you mention cinnamon in the ingredients, not not in the recipe. Guessing it goes in to liquid with spices. Wonder would ground cinnamon do?
A few recipes I seen put the spices in a spice bag so they can be removed away from the cooking liquid.

God I was *slightly* cack handed with my recipe writing! Yes, cinnamon stick goes into water. I'd say you could use ground cinnamon but not sure how much to use to keep it over the right side of 'Christmas biscuits'

pugwall

Awesome recipe, had these for dinner this evening and they went down a treat

Star Lord

Finally got round to making these today!

I got a 4.1Kg boned and rolled (and vaccuum packed) shoulder of pork from the Meat Factory Outlet in Ballymount. Cost all of €16.95 (or thereabouts.) It still had the rind on, but getting a good grip of it, and running a nice sharp knife between the rind and the meat while pulling the rind away from the meat does the trick VERY easily. Much easier to remove than you'd think. I cut it in half, half is frozen for run #2 of Sparks Pulled Pork soon, but I digress!

I cooked the meat in a slow cooker for ~4 hours. Didn't have Ancho chilli powder, so used 1 tsp hot chilli powder and 1 tsp cayenne pepper. I used around 2.5 teaspoons of the Chipotles in Adobo too. When it was cooked, I tore it up, then baked for around 15 minutes. Delicious meat. The guacamole, I added chilli to it too, and a chopped up red pepper, for a little kick separate from the limey zing and a nice colour contrast.

Delicious, will be coming back to this one again too!

juke

I got around to this this week also.

I used extra hot chili powder, and a random green chili that was lying in the fridge. Delicious kick.



That's my lunch meat sorted for the next week or so, thanks op

foodaholic

So managed to squeeze this recipe in this week. I'm sooo glad I did - and so is everyone here. I cooked a whole shoulder so loads of leftovers. Thanks OP

pampootie

Somehow I only managed to get around to this recipe tonight, after drooling over it for months. Kicking myself for having waited so long, its amazing. Lying on the couch now in a pork coma and planning 3 carnita based meals for tomorrow. Thanks Miss Flitworth, it's a winner!