carnitas

While I was home for the holiday break, we had a big meal at my dad's house the day after Thanksgiving as our Thanksgiving. As Ebe and I had already done Thanksgiving at mom's with all the traditional food, we decided to do a Mexican take on it for Dad's. I made some carnitas (one of my few meat experiences!), we had tilapia, steak, and the typical Mexican side dishes. I found this recipe on SK and instantly wanted to make it. I waited a few weeks until I was home to make it at dad's, but I really liked it. The pork tasted delicious and it was so incredibly easy to make. It took a while, but it was minimal effort and interaction. Really do follow her directions; it will eventually cook all the liquid off, and if you let it sit and sizzle a bit at the end, you get these lovely, crispy brown sides that are so yummy.

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder or pork butt, cut into 2-inch cubes
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lime juice (from about 2 to 3 limes)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Kosher salt, plus more to taste

Corn tortillas, for serving plus
Avocado slices, chopped cilantro and fixings of your choice

Place the pork in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot. Add the orange juice, lime juice, garlic, cumin, salt and enough water to just barely cover the meat. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for two hours. Don’t touch the meat.

After two hours, increase the heat to medium-high and while occasionally stirring and turning the pieces, continue to cook for about 45 minutes, or until all of the liquid has evaporated, leaving only the rendered pork fat. Let it sizzle in this fat long enough to brown at the edges, turning pieces gently (they’ll be eager to fall apart), only as needed.

When pork has browned on both sides, it’s ready. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve on warmed tortillas with fixings.

mexican food

This weekend was the 2nd Annual NACHO COMPETITION amongst the International faculty at ACS. I was very excited about it, not least because the rubric is hilarious. I was a little distracted talking to someone on skype, so I didn't really get my entry ready in time. But I did make some chile con queso, because it is one of my favorite foods of all time and I figured it would be unique amongst regular melted cheese nachos. I was correct. I had a bunch of other ingredients for my planned-but-not-executed nachos, and they turned into dinner tonight plus a few other ingredients. I had to invite a couple of other teachers over to help make sure everything got eaten.

The menu was chile con queso, guacamole, spicy black beans, spicy chicken, and cilantro-lime rice. It featured a little more spice and kick than my normal meal because I had jalapeños in my ingredients for the Nacho Competition and because aforementioned skype friend teased me about not eating spicy foods, so I'm trying to branch out a bit. Plus, I need to get ready to move back to Texas and eat spicy food again.

• For the chile con queso, I used a recipe that I found after googling chile con queso on both US and Mexico's google sites and decided that this was the one that would work best for me. 
• For the guacamole, I just used my innate Texas guacamole skills. And it was delicious.
• The spicy black beans, I just sort of threw some things together as I was heating them up, and I liked the outcome even though it was spicy and I am usually a gigantic spice wimp.
• The spicy chicken was from a recipe I did a while ago for spicy lime chicken, and I really like it a lot. Plus, it is quite simple. 
• For the rice, I just cooked rice, which generally is a task unto itself for me, but I am finally starting to get the hang of it. Then I decided to try something new and stirred in some lime juice and fresh cilantro to give it a bit of flavor and to fit the theme of the meal. 

Chile Con Queso 

[note: she says serves four. She must mean 4 linebackers eating it as soup, as this made a GIGANTIC bowl and I didn't even use all the cheese]

1/2 onion diced (about 1/2 cup)

4 cloves of garlic minced

3 Serrano peppers diced [I have no idea what kind of peppers we have here, so I just grabbed one of each]

3 jalapeno peppers diced

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of flour

1 cup of milk

6 cups of shredded cheese, can use any combination of Longhorn cheddar and Monterrey Jack

1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped

2 plum tomatoes, peeled and diced (about 1 cup, can use canned if tomatoes aren’t in season)

1/2 cup of sour cream

Salt to taste

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat, and then cook the onions and peppers for about five minutes or until onions are translucent.

2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

3. Whisk the flour into the butter, vegetable mix and cook for about 30 seconds.

4. Add the milk to the pot, and cook on medium, whisking constantly until sauce is thick, about five minutes. Stir in the cilantro and tomatoes.

5. Turn heat down to low, and a 1/4-cup at a time, slowly add the shredded cheese stirring into the white sauce until completely melted. Repeat.

6. Stir in the sour cream.

7. Add salt to taste.

Guacamole

3 avocados

1 tomato

1/4 onion

1 jalapeño

1 clove garlic

1/2 lime juice

cilantro

salt

pepper

Remove avocado however you like. Pour 1/2 lime juice into bowl and mash up avocado pieces to desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. Chop up tomato, onion, jalapeño, and cilantro. Mash/dice/press garlic. Mix everything together. Check flavors, refrigerate until ready to eat, and then enjoy! :)

Spicy Black Beans

can of black beans, drained (rinse if you like)

1/2 onion, diced

jalapeños as desired, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped/diced/pressed

butter/olive oil

Heat up butter/olive oil [I used a combination of both]. Add garlic, onions, and jalapeños. Saute over medium heat until onions are soft. Add in black beans on medium/medium low heat until warm. Serve!