Al Pastor Style Tacos And Enchiladas

This recipe transforms very inexpensive or "scrap" meat into something really special.  Although the total preparation time for the pork is lengthy, the actual hands-on time is very short.  This recipe is well worth the effort and time because it's so yummy!

Traditionally al pastor tacos are made with pork that is marinated in some combination of achiote paste, dried chile paste, and/or pineapple or other fruit juice.  Following is a technique I used to prepare tender, juicy pork, which was then combined with an al pastor style paste to make a flavorful filling for tacos and enchiladas.

CARNITAS DE PUERCO (the pork meat)

There are several tender, fatty, flavorful cuts of pork that can become Carnitas de Puerco.  This time I used  the meat from the ribs that I trimmed away from the pork bellies that we made into bacon and pancetta.  But any fatty, tender pork, such as Boston Butt, would work for this recipe also.

The little racks of ribs that I removed from the pork bellies were just too good to waste.  I sprinkled them with some yummy Penzeys spice rubs (use whatever spice rub you like) and let them sit uncovered in the fridge for about a day and a half.  I then used a technique that I learned from my friend, Terri, braising the ribs in coffee.  I put the ribs in a Dutch oven, poured some leftover coffee over them, added a few peeled, crushed cloves of garlic, a thinly sliced onion, a couple pinches of salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a big splash of Marsala.

I covered the Dutch oven tightly with aluminum foil to seal in all the liquid, and then put the lid on.  Braised the ribs at 250 degrees for six hours, checking and stirring only every two hours.  After six hours, I removed the Dutch oven from the oven and allowed the pork to cool.  Once cool, I removed the meat from the bones, although it was so tender it practically fell off the bones of its own accord.  I refrigerated the braising liquid, letting the fat rise to the top so I could skim off and discard the fat.  (I actually saved the leftover braising liquid after preparing the al pastor pork and froze it to use later because it was so flavorful.)


AL PASTOR PASTE/MARINADE

2 dry chipotle peppers
5 dry guajillo peppers
3 dry ancho peppers
2 Tablespoons braising liquid or water
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup minced onion
4 minced garlic cloves
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Simmer the chipotle, guajillo, and ancho peppers in about 3 cups of water until soft and pliable.  Drain and cool.  Remove the veins and seeds from the peppers (use disposable gloves to avoid burning your hands).  In a blender or food processor combine the chiles, braising liquid, kosher salt, onion, garlic cloves, pineapple juice, cumin, cloves, tomato paste, and cinnamon, and pulse to make a paste.

Warm one to two tablespoons of bacon grease (or other oil) in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the al pastor paste/marinade, and saute gently for about five minutes.


TACOS AL PASTOR

Stir a small amount of the al pastor paste/marinade into 1 to 2 pounds of carnitas de puerco and saute in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until pork is slightly crispy on the edges.  Spoon pork into softened corn tortillas and top with your favorite garnishes, such as cheddar cheese, lime juice, diced fresh onion, and cilantro.


ENCHILADAS AL PASTOR

Leftover carnitas de puerco
Thinly sliced green onions
Bacon grease
Leftover al pastor paste/marinade
Corn Tortillas
Extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


Add sliced green onions to shredded pork.  In a skillet over medium heat mix leftover al pastor chile paste with bacon grease (or other oil).  Spread a small amount of the chile/bacon grease mixture over the bottom of a glass casserole dish.  One by one, dip corn tortillas into the remaining chile/bacon grease mixture in the skillet to soften the tortillas.  Place about 1/3 cup of the pork/green onion mixture in the middle of each tortilla, followed by a sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese.  Roll up the tortilla and place seam side down in casserole dish.  When casserole dish is filled with enchiladas, pour the remaining chile/bacon grease sauce over the enchiladas.  Cover the enchiladas with shredded cheddar cheese and sprinkle with sliced green onions if desired.


Bake uncovered at 350 degrees until the enchiladas are hot and the cheese is bubbly and melted, 30-45 minutes.

If the tortillas appear to be getting too dry while baking, add 1/2 cup of chicken broth to the dish.

Basic Asian Soup Base



Basic Asian Soup Base With Homemade Wontons, Shrimp, Mung Bean Sprouts, Green Onions, Cilantro, And A Sprinkle of Chili Oil


Here's a good base for making all kinds of Asian soups.  This is not authentic to any specific Asian cuisine, just a nicely balanced mixture that I really like.  Make the basic broth, then add whatever veggies, proteins, and noodles you prefer.  The proportions in this recipe are for broth to use when making soup for immediate consumption.

This recipe also freezes well.  If you're preparing this to freeze for later use, make it very concentrated in order to conserve freezer space.  Use the same amount of water, but triple the proportions of the other ingredients.  When you thaw and prepare the frozen soup, dilute it with three parts water (or to taste).

Basic Asian Soup Base Recipe

(Makes 2-3 entree portions, 4-6 starter portions)

3 quarts water
2 6-inch pieces lemongrass, bruised well with dull side of knife and cut in half lengthwise
6 green onions
2-inch knob of ginger, unpeeled, sliced
9 garlic cloves, unpeeled, crushed
1 or 2 Thai bird chiles (to taste), cut in half lengthwise
1 bunch of cilantro or stem ends from 2 bunches of cilantro
a few basil leaves
a couple of kaffir lime leaves *
5 white peppercorns
1/4 cup fish sauce
 
* Kaffir lime leaves can be hard to find.  I found kaffir limes at Central Market a while back, bought a bunch of them, juiced them, and froze the juice in an ice cube tray.  I used one kaffir lime juice ice cube for this recipe.  You could also substitute the juice of 1/2 to 1 regular lime.
 
Bring all ingredients to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer at least one hour.  Strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove solid ingredients.
 

Plunging Headlong Into Charcuterie ... Homemade, Home-Smoked Bacon



Check out this peppery, smoky, sizzling greatness!

 I love all things salted, cured, and preserved ... and I love pork ... therefore, I love Charcuterie!

We've dabbled over the years at smoking salmon, chicken, and turkey, and in the more complicated and sophisticated realm of curing pancetta and curing and smoking our own bacon.  I finally invested in this amazing cookbook:

I'm so in love with this cookbook.  If you are enamored (as am I) with the art of salting, curing, aging, smoking, preserving food, this cookbook is your Bible, a must-have.

Although I like to consider home-curing and home-smoking bacon and other delectables to be so 2011, so avant garde, I remember my daddy talking about his youth, when slaughtering a pig was a routine part of survival in rural life.  They would hang the various pork cuts in the smokehouse to cure, and they dropped pieces of the pork skin into hot oil, creating the treasured delicacy "cracklings," like what we call pork rinds or chicharonnes. 

There's a Biblical passage in Ecclesiastes that says, "There is nothing new under the sun."  No words could be more appropriate.  When we smoke our own bacon, we're not reinventing the wheel, folks; we're simply getting back to our roots.

Yummo, look at all this beautiful pork belly just waiting to fulfill its bacon destiny!

I was lucky enough to find large, bone-in pork belly portions.  And as a bonus I got to practice my meat fabrication skills.  I think that's the culinary school term for having a lot of fun butchering meat, meat fabrication.  I removed the rib sections from the pork bellies, reserving the ribs for another use, which I'll detail in a later post.

You only need a couple of specialized items to make your own bacon.  You need pink salt, a special salt made for curing and preserving (look for sources online) and it's best to use a food scale for accuracy in weighing your ingredients (you can find very inexpensive food scales -- I found this one at Wal-Mart for around $20).

Basic Dry Cure For Bacon


1 pound/450 grams kosher salt
8 ounces/225 grams sugar
2 ounces/50 grams pink salt

Bacon


One 3- to 5-pound slab pork belly, skin on
Basic Dry Cure for dredging


Trim the belly so that its edges are neat and square.  Spread the dry cure on a baking sheet.  Press all sides of the belly onto the cure to give it a thick uniform coating.


Place the belly in a 2-gallon ziploc bag.  Refrigerate for 7 days, flipping the bag over to redistribute the liquid that will accumulate every other day.


After 7 days, check the belly for firmness.  If it feels firm at the thickest point, it's cured.  If it still feels squishy,  refirigerate it for up to 2 more days, checking it every day.


Remove the belly from the cure, rinse thorougly, and pat dry with paper towels.  Let the bacon rest in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 3 days.


We made one slab of regular bacon and one slab of pepper bacon.  For the pepper bacon, we pressed cracked black peppercorns into one of the pork belly slabs after rinsing.

Prepare the fire in your smoker and smoke the bacon with wood of your choice, such as apple wood, at a very low heat until bacon reaches 150 degrees.

The easiest time to remove the skin is while the bacon is still warm from the smoker.  Be sure to save the smoky skin to flavor a pot of beans.

Both the regular and the pepper bacon are good, but the pepper bacon is probably the best bacon I've ever tasted.

Whole Wheat Applesauce Cranberry Muffin Recipe

This recipe is from examiner.com.  It's definitely kid-tested and kid-approved in our house.  This super easy recipe is a great way to sneak a little healthy fiber into your kids' diets, and it's a nice, simple recipe for the kiddos to prepare with you.  It's absolutely scrumptious!!!


Whole Wheat Applesauce Cranberry Muffin Recipe

1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I highly recommend Penzey's)
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven  to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together the applesauce, oil, butter, sugar, and egg.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, wheat germ, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir gently with a spatula or wooden spoon just until the mixture is combined -- don't overmix or the muffins will turn out tough.  Stir in the dried cranberries.

Spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray or line it with cupcake liners if you prefer.  Fill each cup about 3/4 of the way to the top.  Bake about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Beef Bourguignon Recipe

Keto/Low Carb Update Alert:  Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted!  Since I last posted, four years ago, we started following a keto/low carb way of eating.  I'm making this recipe tonight, but with a few updates to reduce the carbs.  I reduced the amount of carrots and onions.  I'm omitting the flour; the stew will be thick enough on its own.  And no bread for us, although you could certainly have low carb bread if you wanted.

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I've seen the movie "Julie & Julia" four times now, and I look forward to seeing it again.  I'm mesmerized by Julie Powell's story.  The movie inspires me to cook and it inspires me to blog.

This recipe is from Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa).  I think it's in the "spirit" of Julia Child's Boueuf Bourguignon, but slightly updated for us contemporary "servantless American cooks."  My baby sister-in-law, Joann (who trained at Le Cordon Bleu Dallas, I should add), introduced me to this recipe and assured me that although it requires a bit of effort and time, the result is totally worth the investment.  She is so right.  This recipe is going into the "rotation" here.

I had reservations about using an entire bottle of red wine in the recipe, that the result would be a tannic, sour stew.  Silly me!  How dare I not trust Barefoot when she's channeling Julia.  The wine helps to tenderize and flavors the beef during the cooking process and the result is a mellow, well-rounded, full-flavored stew.  This is one of the best recipes I've ever prepared, so classic and such an upscale comfort food.  I hope you'll give it a try.

When you prepare Beef Bourguignon, be sure to use really good quality bacon and beef, no mystery stew meat.  I skipped the toasted bread at the end of the recipe as my beloved and I are always looking to reduce those carbs that inevitably just end up as cellulite (or as I like to call it here in North Central Texas, hail damage, hahaha) on my thighs.  If "wearing" your carbs isn't a concern for you, serve this dish with the toasted bread or with egg noodles or mashed potatoes.

BEEF BOURGUIGNON

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon good olive oil
8 ounces dry cured center cut applewood smoked bacon, diced
2 1/2 pounds chuck beef cut into 1-inch cubes
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound carrots, sliced diagonally into 1-inch chunks
2 yellow onions, sliced
2 teaspoons chopped garlic (2 cloves)
1/2 cup Cognac
1 (750 ml.) bottle good dry red wine such as Cote du Rhone or
   Pinot Noir (I used Mark West Pinot Noir) 
1 can (2 cups) beef broth (obviously if you make homemade
   beef broth, use it in this recipe)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pound frozen whole onions
1 pound fresh mushrooms stems discarded, caps thickly sliced

For serving:

Country bread or Sour Dough, toasted or grilled and rubbed with garlic clove
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, optional

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the bacon and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is lightly browned. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a large plate.

Dry the beef cubes with paper towels and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper. In batches in single layers, sear the beef in the hot oil for 3 to 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove the seared cubes to the plate with the bacon and continue searing until all the beef is browned. Set aside.

Toss the carrots and onions, 1 tablespoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of pepper in the fat in the pan and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the Cognac, stand back, and ignite with a match to burn off the alcohol.

Put the meat and bacon back into the pot with the juices. Add the bottle of wine plus enough beef broth to almost cover the meat. Add the tomato paste and thyme. Bring to a simmer, cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and place it in the oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until the meat and vegetables are very tender when pierced with a fork.

Combine 2 tablespoons of butter and the flour with a fork and stir into the stew. Add the frozen onions. Saute the mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of butter for 10 minutes until lightly browned and then add to the stew. Bring the stew to a boil on top of the stove, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste.

To serve, toast the bread in the toaster or oven. Rub each slice on 1 side with a cut clove of garlic. For each serving, spoon the stew over a slice of bread and sprinkle with parsley.

Korean Pickles

I'm always delinquent in updating the blog, but I think procrastination is part of my DNA.  Just as an FYI, I was born long past my due date and I've been a top-quality procrastinator ever since!!!  I could win procrastination contests.  If there were a procrastination event in the Olympics I'd be a gold medalist for sure.  I'm going to try to get caught up here because there has been some fabuloso food cooked in our kitchen lately that I want to share with you.  Maybe this New Year's Day my resolution will be to post more often ... or maybe next New Year's Day ...

The following recipe is from singleguychef.blogspot.com .  I've made these savory, crispy pickles twice now.  When I made them I reduced the amount of sugar and increased the amount of salt from the original recipe because in my home we prefer a salty pickle as opposed to a sweet pickle.

The most important thing about this recipe is that you need to use Korean cucumbers if you can possibly find them.  If not, use Kirby cucumbers (also called pickling cucumbers).  Regular cucumbers just don't have the proper snappy crispiness for pickling. 

Korean gochujang (hot chili paste) is available at most Asian markets.  You may see it with different spellings, such as gokujang.  I think it has something to do with the translation from Korean to English.  If the word looks similar, you probably have the right thing.  If you can't find gochujang, you can substitute a few squirts of sriracha sauce.  You've seen sriracha even if you don't realize it; it's that sauce in the squirt bottle with the rooster on the label and the green plastic top that's readily available at most every grocery, even at Wal-Mart. 

For the chili flakes you can use crushed red pepper flakes which are easy to find.  But if you're lucky enough to have an Asian market nearby that stocks Korean staples, use mild or hot Korean red pepper powder, depending upon your taste.  Korean red pepper powder is a lovely ingredient for recipes because it doesn't include the pepper seeds, so it gives you a nice, smooth texture.

These pickles are so easy and so full of flavor.  My mouth is watering just thinking about them!


Ingredients

1 lb. Korean cucumbers or Kirby cucumbers
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon Vietnamese fish sauce
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon hot chili paste
1 teaspoon chili flakes

Cut cucumbers about ¼-inch thick (leaving on the skin) and sprinkle with kosher salt. Gently work salt through the cucumber pieces with your hand and let sit for 30 minutes. Then rinse quickly under running water and drain in colander.

In a large bowl, mix together sugar, vinegar, water, fish sauce, ginger, garlic, chili paste, and chili flakes. (If you prefer a pickle that is more salty and less sweet, add 1 teaspoon of kosher salt to this mixture and reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup.)  Add cucumbers and then transfer everything into a clean mason jar.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Makes about 3 cups of pickled cucumbers.

My Catering Aspirations

My sis-in-law Leslie and bro-in-law Andy gave me the opportunity to prepare the food for a holiday party they had for their friends in their beautiful new home.  Andy was so kind to take these fabulous pics of the food.

Trio of Dips:

Sundried Tomato Dip (Recipe From Barefoot Contessa)
Tapenade and Feta Dip
Hummus

Baked Figs With Blue Cheese, Candied Bacon, Roasted Pecans, and Reduced Balsamic Vinegar:

Miniature Twice-Baked Potatoes Topped With Crispy Prosciutto:

Vietnamese Chicken Spring Rolls With Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce:

Grape Tomatoes Filled With Smoked Salmon Mousse, Served on Salted Cucumber Slices and Drizzled With Lemon Caper Vinaigrette:

Stuffed Mushrooms (My Photo):

This was a wonderful opportunity to prepare food for a party.  I hope to have more catering opportunities in the future.