What I found out is that people don't really celebrate Cinco de Mayo on Cuatro de Mayo in the city. Oh well. Live and learn and drink some cerveza.
I went home for a night on Friday. I had to drive my mom back from school... felt bad that she has to take 3 modes of transportations to get to me .. for a 15 minute appointment. Oh the things mothers will do... Anyway, after a nice 7 course beef meal, we headed back to the East Bay.. My goal was to get back to the city early the next day to do lab work.. well that never happened. I spent a lot of my time still getting ready at home, getting my car fixed, and shopping at the Mexican market down the street. It was FUN. I felt like I was in another country... not much was in English... but since I kind of knew what I wanted, it didn't take too much time. I kind of looked at other shopper's baskets to see what they were buying... I spent a whopping $12.48 ... the last $2.48 was for a slice of tres leches cake ( amazing!) .. so yea.. 10 bucks worth of groceries.. that's unreal! I bought almost everything to make all of the foods for my very own party.. including a hefty sack of tortillas... ( 80 of them for 2 bucks?!) The only thing I didn't buy there was the pork.. in which I walked down to Mollie Stones and had a piece cut to the size I wanted.... plus I love their meats, so much fresher than other places... always good to "splurge" on those things :)
I was inspired by a meal I had recently at Nopalito. It was a pretty good spin on Mexican foods... nothing like those burrito joints... but we're really comparing apples to oranges when talking about those two types of restaurants ( Best one so far is El Farolito)
I made these carnitas from start to finish... all while talking on the phone... multi tasking at its very finest... nothing like a 5 hour phone conversation... and waiting for the pork to get tender :)
On the menu ~ Apologies in advance that this probably isn't authentic... it was very good regardless... I don't really cook Mexican foods, but definitely am a fan of eating it!
Carnitas
Salsa Verde
Regular Salsa
Guacamole
SkinnyMinhy's Carnitas
2.5 pounds pork butt/ shoulder - fat slightly trimmed
1 bottle of beer (I used Hoegaarden because I had an opened one leftover from the night before...I didn't have any Mexican beer)
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp cumin
1 guajillo chile - dried ( I found it in the bulk section... one chile costs 5 cents!)
Half an onion- diced
Half an orange
1. Heat a cast iron dutch oven over medium high heat, place in the pepper and lightly toast until it starts to soften up. Remove from heat and cut up into small pieces. I like things spices so I left the seeds, the result wasn't spicy.
2. Rub pork with salt, paprika, oregano, cumin and place into hot pot, brown on all sides, then add in the beer, water, and chile, onion, and squeeze the juice of half the orange into the pot, and throw the orange into the pot as well.
3. Cover and simmer over medium for 2-3 hours. Check to see if it's running low on liquid, if needed add more water
4. Uncover and let sauce reduce until half, remove pork and shred. Remove orange. Replace the pork and add 1/2 cup water, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
5. Line a baking tray with foil and turn on broiler on low. Remove pork from pot and spread onto tray. Broil until the tips of some of the pieces start to turn brown/black. Remove from oven, and serve with some warm tortillas!
Salsa Verde - I won't post a recipe since most of the recipes are similar. I broiled my tomatillos until they charred, chopped them up and placed them into my food processor. Also roasted a serrano pepper and garlic to throw into the mix too.
Fresh Tortilla Chips - Cut up corn tortillas into 6 wedges, heat oil to 350 degrees fry until brown, sprinkle with salt. I thought this was the best way to have portion control since I knew if I bought bag of chips.. I'd eat it all.... in a few days.
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