Carnitas is a traditional and excessively tasty Mexican pork dish. There are tons of recipes out there, but this one is drop-dead easy and all about the pork.
I chunked-up the recipe a bit as one of the guests was not in an onion-y way (poveracita!). I cooked them separately so that she could set her own onion levels. Soup to nuts, this will take 2 or 3 hours, but you can absolutely watch Back to the Future II (as I did) while you’re cooking. Both the film and the food will get the attention they deserve. Biff, Marty and the Doc sure do get into some trouble in this one!
The combination as a taco has everything: rich roasty-crispy pork, sweet onions and smooth cool guac wrapped in a soft touch of carbs (i.e. the tortilla)…
The idea is very simple:
1. Get some boneless cut of pork with fat on it; 2+ pounds ought to do for tacos for 6. Remember, the whole low fat diet “science” was recently debunked. We all know it’s not good for you, but it might not be as bad as we used to think. Get fatty pork and don’t apologize.
2. Cut it into bite-sized chunks, season with salt and pepper and put it into a skillet that’s large enough to leave the chunks not crowded.
3. Add about a half inch of water (You could add chicken broth, I suppose, but I don’t recall chicken flavor coming from pork, so I’d stick with the water; IT’S ALL ABOUT PORK). It should look like this when the water is almost evaporated:
4. Cook at a medium-low temperture until the water has evaporated
5. Let the pork keep cooking in it’s own fat and brown it like crazy. It should start looking like this:
6. When you’re done, trim out the truly gross chunks of fat and give it a good coarse chop.
(I’ll be upgrading my camera and attention to photographic detail soon).
Then, use some NOT ALL of the rendered fat in the pan to caramelize the onions. Coarsely chop 2 large spanish onions, add them to the pork pan (minus the pork obviously), give them a really good pinch of salt and let them go. Keep the onions moving every few minutes, but have an activity that makes you feel like the onions don’t own you. I recommend drinking, smoking or making the guacamole.
They should start looking like this soon:
Don’t cheat. Don’t add balsamic vinegar to sweeten and color the onions. The onions will get sweet and sticky enough. What you want is that big deep soft natural flavor.
Just a quick note about caramelizing vs carbonizing: The onions are caramelized, the pork is carbonized. Caramelization is cooking the natural sugars in the onions and making caramel. There’s really not much sugar in pork; in browning meat, you’re burning it and making carbon (like what’s left over after a camp fire). Anyone who tells you different is misinformed.
Anyhoo…
So when they’re good and brown and dry-ish and sticky, put them in a bowl and set them aside.
Guac’s easy, right?
2 avocados
2 smashed and finely chopped toes of garlic
1 medium handful of cilantro (give it 2 baths if there is even a HINT of grit/sand)
1 medium-small tomato chopped
1 handful of finely chopped onion
The juice of one juicy lime (2 tablespoons)
Salt
You could add some heat, but I left it out to accomodate a guest who was in a not-so-spicey way. It should start out looking like this and you can just mash it up with a fork.
Or you can do what I did and break out the mini-emersion blender and smooth it out…
To assemble, I chilled the guac and warmed the pork and onions (the Stonewall Kitchen earthenware bowls go right in the oven!). Wrap the tortillas in tin foil and toss them in too. 20 minutes at 300 ought to do.
So put out the guac and onions with spoon and the pork with some tongs or a fork. I love the Chipotle Tabasco sauce with this. Total crowd pleaser. Garnish with cilantro. You could jazz it up by also putting out some jicama with chili powder and a good squeeze of lime. Girls love jicama.
I dropped the ball on presentation for this one, but you get the idea. Just wait till I get that new camera…