Carnitas Tacos with Roasted Pineapple Salsa

Apparently my easily influenced pea brain is so susceptible to suggestion that one mere mention of Cinco de Mayo (well, there were photos too) and I'm adding taco shells to the grocery list. All I can say is, these tacos were so delicious that being strong willed is overrated. Score one for the wishy washy (we're way more fun at parties when there's a hypnotist).

CARNITAS (BRAISED AND FRIED PORK) TACOS

Makes 24-32 tacos

4 pounds fatty pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch pieces

3 cups water

1 medium white onion, thinly sliced

1/2 orange, cut into 2 pieces

2 tablespoons pork lard or vegetable oil

8 garlic cloves, peeled

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican, crumbled

2 teaspoons fine salt or 4 teaspoons kosher salt

24-32 taco shells

roasted pineapple salsa

1.      Put all the ingredients in a wide 6-to 7-quart heavy ovenproof pot (don't worry if the pork is not completely covered) and bring to a boil, skimming the surface as necessary. Lower the heat and simmer vigorously, stirring occasionally, until the pork is fork-tender and the liquid has completely evaporated, 1 ½ to 2 hours. Discard the orange pieces and bay leaves. [If the liquid hasn't evaporated after 2 hours, transfer the pork pieces to a bowl and let the liquid continue to bubble away, stirring often, until the excess liquid has evaporated and only the fat remains.]

2.      Preheat oven to 450° F. Transfer the pot to the oven and brown the pork, uncovered, for 20 to 30 minutes. There's no need to stir.

3.      Transfer the pork to a plate. When cool enough to handle, shred or pull off chunks with a fork. Serve in taco shells with roasted pineapple salsa.

Notes:

-Carnitas keeps in the refrigerator for up to three days.

-If you want to make half a batch, cut the amount of pork, salt, and oregano in half, but use the same amount of the remaining ingredients and water. You will need to use a slightly smaller pot.

barely adapted from Epicurious, April 2011 (from Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibañez with JJ Goode)

This was the smallest pork shoulder at the
store (it weighed in at a whopping 7.2 lbs.).

Because my pork shoulder was so large,
I doubled all the other ingredients.

I really pushed my pot to its limits, but managed to
keep my eye on it and prevent any boiling over.

2 hours later (obviously I needed to cook it
longer too, so I left it in for about 3 1/2 hours).

braised pork shoulder

Reducing the liquid left in the pot.

I used a slotted spoon to strain out the solids and leave
just the oil behind. The disgusting brown gunk is full of such
intense flavor, I called it carnitas pork base and couldn't bare
to throw it out. So I used it to make pork fried rice.

oil left behind
(plus what's stuck to the bottom of the pan)

pork shoulder back in the pot

after 25 minutes in the oven

For some people, that might be a
touch overdone, but I like a little char.

shredding/pulling off chunks

carnitas

carnitas in taco shell

carnitas taco with roasted pineapple salsa

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Roasted Pineapple Salsa

This salsa is really good. Especially on carnitas tacos. But what I've been totally obsessed with ever since I went grocery shopping is the fact that the store only had gigantic containers of habaneros. I mean truly enormous (I'm guessing about 50 habaneros in each). And I wasn't at Costco (or similar warehouse type store). Those peppers are damn hot. Who the hell is using that volume of habaneros at home? I actually asked that out loud in front of two produce guys (it's not as bad as it sounds, my husband was standing nearby). One of the guys echoed my sentiment back to me. The other one said I'd be surprised how many people make large quantities of salsa at home. I didn't even know what to say to that. So I just stuck a few jalapeños in the cart. But I can't get it out of my head for some reason. Like I want to stakeout the produce department and catch someone actually buying these habaneros and find out what their plan is. When I'm feeling fairly normal, it's stuff like this that reminds me that I'm slightly mental. Of course I haven't actually been on a stakeout yet, so there's still hope. 

ROASTED PINEAPPLE SALSA

Makes 2 1/2 cups

4 (1/2-inch-thick) round slices fresh pineapple (1/2 pineapple)

1/4 cup mild olive oil or vegetable oil

1 medium red onion, finely chopped (1 cup)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice, or more to taste

2 fresh habanero chiles, minced, including seeds

1/2 teaspoon fine salt, or 1 teaspoon kosher salt

1.      Set the oven to broil (alternatively, you can preheat the oven to 500° F) and preheat, or heat a lightly oiled grill pan over medium heat. If you're using the oven broiler, position the rack 8 inches from the heat source.

2.      Brush the pineapple slices with some of the oil and roast or grill them until they're browned on both sides and tender, 5 to 6 minutes a side on the grill pan, or 8 minutes a side under the broiler. Let them cool to room temperature.

3.      Dice the pineapple (about 1/8 inch), discarding the core, and mix it in a bowl with the remaining ingredients. Season to taste with additional lime juice and salt. Keeps in the refrigerator for up to one day.

from Epicurious, April 2011 (from Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibañez with JJ Goode)

pineapple

I used my apple corer to core the pineapple.
Then I realized it wasn't necessary because I was just
going to chop them up later and cut around the core.

pineapple rings

roasted pineapple rings

I used the broiler. I was going to grill them,
but it was raining and didn't seem worth it.

cilantro

pouring lime juice over chopped pineapple, red onion,
cilantro and the aforementioned habanero substitute 

roasted pineapple salsa

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Fudge Brownies

As much I love my old stand-by brownies, I can't help but wonder sometimes if there's an even better brownie out there (you've heard that old expression the brownie is always chocolatier in someone else's pan). So I tried this recipe from King Arthur (the flour people) because they said it achieves the perfect balance between fudgy and cakey. Their claim: they'll be ultra-moist without crossing the line into gooey/underbaked. Well, I'm happy to report, the claims are true. And even though an argument could be made that even bad brownies are good - great brownies should be so memorable that you often think back fondly about how fudgy and sublime they were and wonder how and when you can get your hands on more of those little chocolate blocks of nirvana on a napkin. (I'm good - I have some in my freezer. You're on your own.)

FUDGE BROWNIES

Yield: 2 dozen

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 1/4 cups double-dutch dark cocoa or dutch-process cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups chocolate chips

1.      Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan

2.      In a saucepan over low heat, combine the butter and sugar. Heat, stirring, until the butter is melted. Continue to heat just until the mixture is hot (about 110° F to 120° F), but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating the mixture to this point will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

3.      Crack the 4 eggs into a large bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla until smooth.

4.      Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.

5.      Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Note: If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips.

6.      Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan.

7.      Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

from kingarthurflour.com

melted butter and sugar

If it looks like a lot, that's because I made a double batch.

For some weird reason, I started melting the butter in a bowl
over simmering water (a double boiler) instead of a regular pot.
So I just went with it (I wasn't willing to transfer the mixture
to a pot and then clean the bowl and pot too).

sifting cocoa powder into the eggs

espresso powder

cocoa powder etc. added to the eggs

The recipe says to mix until smooth, but it's pretty
thick. That's about as "smooth" as I could get it.

adding the butter/sugar mixture

mixing

It looks like a hot mess, but it comes together.

mixed

adding flour and chococlate

batter

batter in pan

baked

brownies!

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