Carnitas de Yucatán

This outstanding and wonderful-tasting preparation for pork was inspired by a friend of mine from college. As some of you may recall, I got a huge load of country-style ribs at a great price earlier this year, and was looking for ideas on what to do with them. here was Mike's suggestion:

quote:

cut them into 2 inch hunks, and brown them in a dutch oven. Deglaze the pan with 1 cup of orange juice and 1 cup of water. Add your chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne, and pepper (you know your own heat tolerances, keep it reasonable).

Throw the meat in, put a piece of foil over the top and put the lid on. Throw it in a 250 degree oven until all the liquid is gone, all the fat has rendered, and the pork has started to fry itself in it's own fat. Crank the heat to 400 for about 10 minutes to get a good fry in.

This sounded so good that I had to try it, and made it a goal to do so. The ideas seemed familiar and after doing some reading, i found out what I was making ~ Mike's method outlined above seemed very close to traditional Mexican carnitas as described by Wikipedia:

quote:

Carnitas, literally "little meats," is a type of braised or roasted (often after first being simmered) pork in Mexican cuisine.

Pork carnitas is traditionally made using the heavily marbled, rich 'boston butt' or 'picnic ham' cuts of pork....usually cut down to a workable...size and seasoned heavily before slow braising or slow roasting....At this stage the collagen in the meat has broken down sufficiently to allow it to be pulled apart by hand or fork or chopped with a cleaver.

Prior to serving, the pork, along with some of the rendered liquid, is placed in fairly shallow pans (to maximize surface area) and roasted at high...heat for a few minutes to produce the desired alternating texture of succulent softness and caramelized crispness.

[They can be] served accompanied with chopped coriander leaves (cilantro) and diced onion, salsa, guacamole, tortillas, refried beans (frijoles refritos), lime and radishes....It can be a dish by itself, or as an ingredient in tamales, tacos, tortas, and burritos.

The thing that really caught my attention in Mike's preparation was the use of orange juice, which seemed to give it a Yucatán flair, which relies on a combination of sweet, sour and spicy flavours in a fusion of traditional Mexican, Caribbean and even Mayan influences. I had seen similar flavour profiles in cuisine from the Yucatán Peninsula and was eager to finally try something that had the same concepts.

So, with an idea in place, I got going.

Using a little over 6 lbs of CSRs, I cut them into chunks and browned the meat with salt and pepper in the trusty Dutch oven in batches (similar to doing beef for carbonade flamande):



When the pork had seared well, and the liquid that was released had gone, I poured off all the rendered fat, leaving those wonderful brownish bits of crusty goodness in the bottom of the Dutch oven, and added two cups of orange juice and a cup of water to de-glaze:



Since this first preparation, I have made this a couple of times using straight orange juice, and it seems to work just as well, giving a tangy, piquant burst of bright flavour to the final dish.

Once the bits were lifted up and the orange juice had reduced a little, I added my spices; I was completely guessing where this was concerned, and I do believe I got very close to the mark the first time:



Pictured above are 2 tablespoons of chili powder and 1 tablespoon each of garlic powder, onion powder and cumin.

Note - Could a person use "real" onions, garlic, chiles etc., rather than powder? I imagine so! The best way I can think of to do this would be to finely chop up an onion or two and mince a few garlic cloves, according to taste ~ along with any other small chiles etc. Then saute everything but the garlic until they are getting good and carmelised, then add the garlic for just a minute or three. This step could be done in butter or a little oil before the meat is seared, or in a separate pan, using some of the rendered pork fat. If using a separate pan, be sure to de-glaze it with a little juice and/or water to lift and remove and brown bits, and add the whole thing to the Dutch oven when you add the pork back to it.

Another note - Feel free to experiment when adding the spices! To stick with the Yucatan theme, a person can add achiote seasoning, coriander, oregano, cloves, allspice and other flavours that are found in the region. Also, cayenne pepper, appropriate to one's own tolerances, can really add a kick here. Out of deference to the beautiful Mrs. Tas, and because this was a first attempt, I kept the spices fairly simple, but in subsequent preparations, I did add some traditional spices that are common in achiote and the Yucatán region, with really good results.

Back to work! I brought this fragrant, beautiful mixture just to a bubble:



Then added the pork chunks:



And stirred them around to coat them really well.

Then I covered the Dutch oven, using foil to achieve a good seal, and put it in the oven at 250 degrees to braise for about two hours, plus an additonal 15 or 20 minutes. I was guessing on the time, but, based on the size of the meat chunks and my previous experiences braising meats, I figured it would be close to "just right" in order to get the pork to a "shred-able" state. My timing seemed pretty good, and when I removed it from the oven, I discovered that the pork was fork-tender without being mushy. using a potato masher, I shredded the pork and removed the few bones that were in the mix:



And then increased the heat to boil off the remaining liquids and sear the meat just a little to give it that soft-yet-crisp texture that is a hallmark of carnitas:



This stuff was looking and smelling so good that I was very glad I had tried it ~ and if you try it you will love it too! One thing i saw was that the pre-searing of the pork really took out the overwhelming majority of the fat; I am sure there was SOME left in the pork, but there wasn't much - just enough to lend some great texture and flavour.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan, we fried up a few onions:



My plan, such as it was, was to serve the carnitas as the main component in a Yucatán version of tacos. Tacos are famous as a Mexican street food, but they have roots much deeper and older than that - once again from Wiki:

quote:

The taco predates the arrival of Europeans in Mexico. There is anthropological evidence that the indigenous people living in the lake region of the Valley of Mexico traditionally ate tacos filled with small fish. Writing at the time of the Spanish conquistadors, Bernal Díaz del Castillo documented the first taco feast enjoyed by Europeans, a meal which Hernán Cortés arranged for his captains in Coyoacán. It is not clear why the Spanish used their word, "taco", to describe this indigenous food.

We decided to keep it simple for this first attempt, and just have cheese, sour cream, salsa and sautéed onions for toppings. I had wanted to heat the tortillas first, but was over-ruled by the kids and the beautiful Mrs. Tas, who wanted to eat NOW after smelling this for several hours; consequently I was only able to steam-heat the tortillas for a few minutes. With subsequent preparations, I was able to heat the tortillas in a pan for a few seconds on each side, with even better results - an added bonus was that the toritllas stayed together better.

Here are the tacos de carnitas with the meat and onions:



And with a few of the toppings:



A person could push it in several directions where toppings are concerned, depending on preferences and willingness to try new things, such as peppers, lime juice, guacamole, frijoles refritos or whatever stikes the fancy.

After this picture was taken, it was every person for themselves, and a feeding frenzy involving multiple children, including neighbour kids, ensured. The meal didn't last long, but was very, very good and has become a favourite here at Casa De TasunkaWitko. Every component played its part, with careful preparation, to really make a special, savory base for a meal that was so much more than the sum of its parts, and I would like to give Mike my deepest thanks for suggesting this. It's a sure-fire winner!

If you ever find yourself with a pork shoulder roast, or a mess of country-style ribs or some other "cheap" pork, be sure to give this a try ~ and I can guarantee you will be impressed!

Here's the basic shopping list for this as we prepared it here. you can cut the recipe in half if you're not feeding half the neighbourhood:

6 lbs. country style ribs, pork shoulder or similar cut, cut into chunks of about 2 inches or so
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups orange juice plus 1 cup water
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 Tablespoon onion Powder
1 Tablespoon garlic Powder
1 Tablespoon cumin
Corn tortillas
Toppings of your choice, such as cheese, sourt cream, salsa, onions etc.

As always, thanks for looking, and if there are any questions or comments, please post them here for discussion!

Ron

Man, that sounds/looks really good. It's goin' on my "gotta try this" list. Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by craigster:
Man, that sounds/looks really good. It's goin' on my "gotta try this" list. Thanks!

Ditto....I'm salivating now, thankfully only 2 hours until turkey et al......

Modelo Especial, you forgot this critical ingredient. You have excellent photos and directions; you just forgot the Modelo.

hey guys - glad you like this one ~ i can absolutely guarantee results!

ole miss guy - you're absolutely right about the modelo especial.

Hey Ron,

Made this up tonite, excellent! Thanks!

glad you liked it! it's beome a family favourite here, and it seems to get better every time....

Ohhhh I'm a goner ....

Just finishing this up for tonight's dinner. It tastes awesome. I had one question though, when you are raising the heat to crisp the meat up at the end, are you doing in on the stove or back in the oven on like 500?

BTW, I am doing in a le creuset coated dutch oven, I don't have a regular cast iron one. It seems to work fine.

Thanks for the recipe
Wes

hi, wes - you can do it on the stovetop or in the oven - your le creuset might actually be just a little better than "bare" cast iron, because the enameled coating will protect it from the acidic properties of the orange juice. either way works just fine, but with bare cast iron, you may want to re-apply the seasoning.

you probably already know this, but with the le creuset, be sure to not raise the stovetop temperature past medium, or the enameled interior may eventually suffer damage. it will take a while to get heated up, but once it does, it's like it's on auto-pilot! also, let it cool completely before cleaning.