Okay, this smelled fantastic, but tasted very bland. My thinking is that it needs a lot more salt, and the fresh cilantro should have been added in at the end. Also the onion should have been cooked up instead of added to the mix raw.
So, still working on crock pot carnitas.
Bunny's Guacamole turned out delicious though!
Carnitas!
1 pork shoulder, bone-in if possible - this is a pretty inexpensive cut of meat, which might be nice if, say, you blew most of your meat budget on shrimp :X)
1 orange, quartered
2 limes, quartered
Cumin - I say 1 tbsp but might need to tweak
Fresh cilantro to taste
2 or three cloves minced Garlic
1 Onion
Beef stock or water as needed
Dump all this in a crock pot on high and let it sit all day. Or start it the night before on low. Remove bone and fruit, and shred meat when tender. Serve with soft tacos, rice (with a little lime/cilantro seasoning might be tasty), black beans, salsa, Bunny's Guacamole (which is somewhere around here, it's very good and even tells you how to peel a tomato). Lettuce/tomato...red onion might be tasty too.
I might add some green onion and tomato to the shredded meat, we'll see. Just trying this for the first time today, so I'll let y'all know how it goes. Smells -heavenly- right now though!
Verileah
14 years ago
Lessa
14 years ago
you might also try adding some mexican oregano or more cumin, or chili powder if it needs more flavor, or green chiles, but I have never made carnitas, or had them, so I am not sure how it would taste with the orange.
ROzbeans
14 years ago
http://www.theangrycrayon.com/f/threads/4206-Bunny-s-Kickass-Guacamole!?highlight=guacamole
Verileah;107620
Okay, this smelled fantastic, but tasted very bland. My thinking is that it needs a lot more salt, and the fresh cilantro should have been added in at the end. Also the onion should have been cooked up instead of added to the mix raw.
So, still working on crock pot carnitas.
Bunny's Guacamole turned out delicious though!
http://www.theangrycrayon.com/f/threads/4206-Bunny-s-Kickass-Guacamole!?highlight=guacamole
Verileah
14 years ago
Thank you Roz - for some reason I couldn't copy-paste my link to the guacamole recipe :\.
So this time, I used more dry seasoning - equal parts salt, garlic powder, and cumin, half as much black pepper, coriander, and oregano (I didn't have mexican oregano, which is apparently a real thing and not another term for weed, who knew! I thought Lessa was pulling my leg, lol!). I cut up the roast and coated the pieces in the dry rub. I think I used about a tablespoon of the first three ingredients and then a half of a tablespoon of the others. Dumped everything in the crock pot with chicken stock. Slow cooked, then shredded. In an oven-safe pan, I heated up some of the juice from the pork and used that to, uh - caramelize? - a large onion, diced. Once the onions were transparent and tender, I poured the contents of the crock pot into the oven safe pan along with some cilantro, lime juice, and a little honey, and then put it in the oven at 400 for about 15 minutes.
Turned out pretty darn tasty but it was more work than I really like to do on a weeknight, especially since I had to prepare all the stuff to go with carnitas. It will probably go faster next time, I am turtle slow in the kitchen :\.
I didn't put the orange in the crock pot because last time the pork came out a bit bitter and I suspected that was the culprit. It turns out that traditionally carnitas is cooked with an orange because the citrus keeps the lard at the right consistency, but since I wasn't cooking the meat in boiling lard I figured I could skip the orange.
So this time, I used more dry seasoning - equal parts salt, garlic powder, and cumin, half as much black pepper, coriander, and oregano (I didn't have mexican oregano, which is apparently a real thing and not another term for weed, who knew! I thought Lessa was pulling my leg, lol!). I cut up the roast and coated the pieces in the dry rub. I think I used about a tablespoon of the first three ingredients and then a half of a tablespoon of the others. Dumped everything in the crock pot with chicken stock. Slow cooked, then shredded. In an oven-safe pan, I heated up some of the juice from the pork and used that to, uh - caramelize? - a large onion, diced. Once the onions were transparent and tender, I poured the contents of the crock pot into the oven safe pan along with some cilantro, lime juice, and a little honey, and then put it in the oven at 400 for about 15 minutes.
Turned out pretty darn tasty but it was more work than I really like to do on a weeknight, especially since I had to prepare all the stuff to go with carnitas. It will probably go faster next time, I am turtle slow in the kitchen :\.
I didn't put the orange in the crock pot because last time the pork came out a bit bitter and I suspected that was the culprit. It turns out that traditionally carnitas is cooked with an orange because the citrus keeps the lard at the right consistency, but since I wasn't cooking the meat in boiling lard I figured I could skip the orange.