Before I start with my regular post, I just want to apologize for my less than stellar post rate the last week or two. Sadly, my dear friend’s mother passed away recently, and I have been spending much time and energy with her, trying to help in whatever way I can with this unexpected tragedy. I won’t dwell on sadness for this post, but I did want to offer up some small explanation. My heart goes out to my friend and her family.

This Chicken was three weeks in the making – lol! I had ordered a Gleason Ranch Chicken two weeks in a row before I finally received one on the third week. Frustratingly, Planet Organics ended up being out of stock on them the first two times I ordered – which left us without our weekly Meat-As-Main-Dish meal, since I didn’t order a back-up plan. Of course, on the third week, having learned my lesson about Chickens and being out of stock, I decided to order back-up meat, in the form of some Marin Sun Farms Sirloin, and I end up with both. Just my luck.

My initial plan was to portion up the chicken in to breasts, legs, thighs and wings – poach the breasts for chicken salad or casserole, freeze the wings until I had a couple more sets to make Buffalo Wings, and roast the legs and thighs. Unfortunately, the chicken arrived in a half-frozen state, leading me to believe it was previously frozen, so I decided not to risk the loss of quality by freezing the wings again. Boo. I was really bummed. I also broke my come-apart kitchen shears disassembling the chicken. Which also bummed me out. They weren’t anything special, but now I have to replace them. <sigh>

Roasting Chicken and Potatoes on a cold winter evening makes for a great comfort food – especially when there’s any kind of malaise making it’s way through your household. Miss Thing was home sick with some sort of bug yesterday, and it looks like Mr. Man has the same thing now. Fortunately, this dish is so nice and simple to throw together leaving plenty of spare time to clean up – and even watch some television while it roasted. Add a tossed salad, and you have a hearty meal, and only one dirty pot. When I first planned to make this, I thought I had some carrots to add to the pot as well, but I when I went digging in the fridge I realized I was mistaken. If you have them, I would say add them – they’d make a nice addition. But with or without them, it’s durn tasty. One other note – because I had been mucking about with the chicken for while, and then needed to start dinner, I didn’t have time for a proper brining. I’m going to list what I did and how I did it, but if you have the time, inclination, and Plan-ahead-ed-ness™, I’m sure your results would be much improved by an overnight brine in more flavorful liquid.

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Leg Quarters
• 2 Chicken Wings
• 3 lbs Red Potatoes; cut in to 1″ chunks
• 1 Onion; diced
• 3 cloves Garlic; minced
• 2 small sprigs of Rosemary; minced
• 1 tbs and 1 tsp Olive Oil; divided
• Kosher Salt
• Water

Method:

• Place the chicken parts in to a bowl
• Cover with atleast an inch of cool water
• Add 1 tbs or so of Kosher Salt (a very generous couple of pinches)
• Set aside while chopping and prepping other ingredients
• Preheat Oven to 350°
• Place the potatoes, onions, garlic and rosemary in to a dutch oven
• Toss the potatoes mixture with the tablespoon of Olive Oil and a generous sprinkling of kosher salt
• Press the potatoes in to the bottom of the pan
• Drain and pat dry the Chicken Parts
• Rub remaining Olive Oil and another sprinkle or two of kosher salt on to the chicken parts
• Place the Chicken on top of the potatoes
• Cover and roast for 40 minutes, or until juices run clear and potatoes are cooked through
• Uncover and broil for 1-2 minutes to crisp skin, if desired.

Miss Thing was recently complaining that there isn’t enough chicken in her life. Apparently, she has recently decided she doesn’t like beef that much. I swear, every week there’s something different that she used to like that now she says she hates. But anyways, I threw this little dish together the other night, and I think it came out rather well. We served it with a Veggie Tian that I will be posting a little later.

Oh – and if this blog post seems a little scattered and distracted, it’s probably because I am scattered and distracted. I’ve spent all morning monkeying around with Miss Thing’s Ipod, and now have it finally accepting music, but of course we had to wipe it and restore it to make that happen – and if there’s anything worse than a teenager, it’s gotta be a teenager who is grumpy about her ipod being wiped and not having music… even if it’s only for a week or so until the new iphones come out… So while I’m typing this up, I’m also playing DJ/Playlist maker, calling out “This One? How about This one?” over and over.

I’ve been trying to get this posted for a couple of days now, but it just seems like everything’s been conspiring against me. My whole week just keeps getting swallowed up. On Wednesday we saw Spamalot in San Francisco with some friends after having an awesome dinner at Farmer Brown. I had the Fried Chicken, which was EXCELLENT and Mr. Man had the Ribeye, which was also excellent. I think that Farmer Brown might just be my new favorite restaurant evah. If you’re in the city, I highly suggest you check them out.

Anyhow, this dish turned out really well. Miss Thing and Mr. Man gave it a thumbs up. I threw some chopped pecans in with the breading, but next time I think I’d skip them, since they didn’t really stick that well. I used Chicken breast, because I’m not really a big fan of dark (chicken) meat, but you could easily use thigh meat or whatever cut you like for this – although it might take longer to cook if you go with thicker pieces. The chicken breast cooked up quickly and evenly though – so I whole-heartedly endorse the idea of cutting them in to semi-uniform sizes, even if you go with another cut of meat. Best part is, it didn’t really require a whole lot of planning to do – since I hadn’t really set up a marinade or anything. Not to say that the chicken couldn’t have benefitted from a spice rub, but this was one of those “n33d f00d na0 pls, kthx” nights when I didn’t really have a plan, per se.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless, skinless Chicken Breast, cut in to strips
• 1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
• 1/2 cup Finely Shredded Romano Cheese
• 1/2 cup Chopped Pecans
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 2 tbs Butter
• 2 tbs Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Black Pepper (or to taste)
• 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt; plus extra

Method:

• Lay the chicken pieces out on a plate and sprinkle liberally on both sides with kosher salt. Set aside.
• In a shallow dish (I used a pie pan, stir together the panko bread crumbs, pecans, romano cheese, 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt and the Black Pepper
• Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat
• Working on one strip at a time, first dip a piece of chicken in the egg mixture, and then the bread crumbs, pressing the bread crumbs in to the chicken pieces for good adhesion.
• Place the chicken strips in to the frying pan and cook until golden brown and cooked through.

The other day I was wanting to make a quick and easy dish, using up some of the zucchini and tomatoes I received in this week’s FFTY box – but I didn’t want to make a pasta dish, which had been my norm recently. When I went poking around in the pantry in search of something besides pasta to make with them, I saw the brown rice, and thought, “aha! rice casserole!” Perhaps a casserole isn’t the most elegant meal, but it definitely is home-y and dead easy, which is why it’s such a staple in most homes, but a casserole definitely doesn’t need to be boring.

I had some (very) spicy italian sausage leftover from a large package I had in the fridge – I used some of it earlier this week to make Anise Soup with Sausage and Mushrooms. It needed to be used up in the next few days, and if there’s anything casseroles are good for, it’s definitely as a use-stuff-up-dumping ground. But in a good way.

As I was making this – I realized that I really should make more casseroles. I mean, with all the oven-friendly pots I have, it’s the ultimate one-dish meal. Just pull out a dutch oven, saute up some onions, add some meat, veggies, rice, and broth, and then stick the whole kit n’ kaboodle in the oven. What’s not to love about that? It’s low-mess, easy and yummy. Casseroles get a bad rap, methinks.

Anyhow – this casserole is sure to be a crowd pleaser. It’s a little spicy, creamy, and chock full of flavor. If you want to cut the cooking time down, you could use pre-cooked rice, and skip the broth and then just bake it in the oven, but I like the way the rice absorbs all the flavor of the meat and veggies. As an added bonus, it was pretty chilly the day that I made it, so it was just hearty enough to warm us up a little bit, without being too terribly heavy-like-a-winter-dish hearty.

Ingredients:

• 4 Spicy Italian Sausages; cut in to slices
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 3 zucchini, cut in to 1″ chunks
• 2 Small sweet Peppers; diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 2 tomatoes; diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 and 1/2 cups Broth
• 1 and 1/2 cups Brown Rice
• 1/2 cup Cream Cheese; softened
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Preheat Oven to 350°
• In a dutch oven, or other oven-safe pot with a tight fitting lid, brown the sausage over medium heat
• Add the onion and saute until onions are translucent
• Add the peppers and saute until tender
• Clear a spot in the pan and add the sliced mushrooms
• Saute mushrooms until tender
• Add the garlic and the cream cheese, stirring until the cream cheese melts and coats everything
• Remove from heat
• Add the rice, stir to combine
• Add the broth, tomatoes, zucchini and kosher salt to taste
• Cover and bake in the oven for 1 hour, or until all liquid has been absorbed by the rice

Tonight, I managed to get dinner served before 8 PM – yay me! Which is awesome, since we were then able to sit outside and enjoy dinner on the patio in the warm spring air. (Even more awesome when you consider that dinner has been consistently being served at like 10 PM lately). It was a perfect night for it, too. The weather was nice and cool – but not too cool, you know? The only thing that maybe could have been a little bit better was if Miss Thing hadn’t been in one of her moods. The joys of having a teenager.

Anyhow – this pork tenderloin was an inspiration love-child that I had tonight when I realized that I had four mangoes that were all ripe right now that I had completely forgotten about. They came in this week’s FFTY box, and were a little under ripe when they first arrived. So naturally, I stuck them in a brown paper bag to finish ripening… and promptly forgot about them. Boo.

Given that they were very ripe, I had to come up with a plan to use them up quickly. I had a pork tenderloin that I also needed to make tonight, so I decided to use three of the mangos in this dish, and use the fourth in a Mango Avocado Salsa that I served on the side. These mangoes were much smaller than the ones that I used to make Mango Ice Cream and Mango Curd from the last time I received Mangos in my box, but they are also a different variety. Aside from being smaller, they also peeled much easier and were sweeter and creamier.

Overall, I’d say the dish was a success – Mr. Man’s word on it was “you could totally make this again, and I wouldn’t mind” – which when translated, from Mr. Man Speak actually means “Wow, this is really good.” He generally saves the backhanded compliments for the dishes he really likes – so it’s a Good Thing. Miss Thing liked it, but probably would have liked it better if she hadn’t gotten hung up on the whole “it has mangos in it” thing. Sometimes she gets something in to her head, and nothing will dissuade her from her point of view. I can only hope that as long as I keep shoving new foods at her, sooner or later she’ll overcome her aversion to anything different. The glaze didn’t stick quite as well as I might have hoped, but it was still delicious, and the spicy mango puree that slid off was delicious with a piece of crusty No-Knead Bread that we had with dinner as well.

Ingredients:

• 1lb Pork Tenderloin
• 1 cup Pureed Mango
• 2 tbs Brown Sugar
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
• 4-6 slices Proscuitto

Method:

• Preheat oven to 450°
• Oil a baking dish
• Wrap the Tenderloin with the slices of proscuitto and place in oiled baking dish
• Puree the brown sugar, garlic, cayenne pepper and mango together in a blender until smooth
• Add kosher salt to taste
• Pour mango puree over the proscuitto wrapped tenderloin
• Place baking dish in oven and roast until tenderloin reaches an internal temperature of 135°
• Remove from oven and baking dish and cover with foil to rest until internal temperature reaches 145°
• Slice and serve with Mango Avocado Salsa, if desired

When I saw the Eye of Round on sale earlier this week, I went ahead and picked up two to make this week. One of them, I’ve already posted – was the Mustard Crusted Roast Beef. And, although it was really delicious, I wanted to try doing something different with this one – and I think I hit a little closer to what I was aiming for earlier this week. This roast came out so delicious – a little spicy, a little sweet, and a whole lotta beefy flavor. I still managed to overshoot with the cooking – I think next time I won’t cover it to coast or something because I really wanted it to be rare-r, but I can’t complain too much, because this was still a damn fine piece of meat.

Ingredients:

• 1 2-3 lb Eye of Round Roast
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup Homemade Catsup or other catsup
• 1 tbs Roasted Garlic
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt
• 1/4 tsp Horseradish
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Method:

• In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, catsup, roasted garlic, cinnamon, salt, horseradish and cayenne pepper.
• Coat the the roast completely with brown sugar mixture and allow to sit at room temperature for 1 hour while roast comes up to room temperature
• Preheat Oven to 500°
• Insert a meat thermometer in to the thickest part of the roast
• Place the roast on roasting rack over a drip pan and place in the oven for 20 minutes
• Turn off oven and allow roast to continue baking in the residual heat until internal temperature reaches 130°
• Remove from Oven and allow to rest before slicing

If you like to cook as much as I do, every so often, all the elements come together, and you create something so sublime and delicious, that you almost have to pinch yourself to double check and make sure that you actually did make it. This Sirloin is one of those dishes. We had this for dinner last night, and it was beyond a doubt, the best sirloin I’ve ever had. Ever. Mr. Man at one point commented (to my embarrassed pleasure), that he would pit this chateaubriand against a steak at Ruth’s Chris – that he felt it was that good.

The inspiration for the steak started with this post I saw over on The Paupered Chef. In his post he talks about a steak cooking process using a slow carmelization rather than a quick sear. Because of the thickness of the chateaubriand, I thought it seemed well suited to a slower cooking process. The trick with this method I found, is to cook the meat evenly, so you don’t end up with one side of the steak being more done than the other. I wasn’t able to get mine exactly evenly done on both sides, as you can tell from my picture, but it did come out pretty close. You could probably use a thinner cut of meat if you had to, a regular sirloin cut, perhaps – just reduce the cooking times (dramatically).

Although the steak was delicious, what really made this dish was the pan sauce. The slow cooking process gave an ample amount of fond, creating such a wonderful and complex addition to the pan sauce. In fact, the pan sauce was so delicious that we all ended up using pieces of the crusty bread I had made to sop it up, so as to savor every last drop. Even Miss Thing, who normally doesn’t like onions, was chowing down with gusto on it.

Ingredients:

• 1 – 2-3 inch thick chateaubriand cut sirloin
• 1 large onion; diced
• 6 tbs Butter; divided
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/8 cup Fresh Cilantro; finely chopped
• 1/2 cup White Wine
• 1 lemon; juiced
• Fresh ground black pepper
• Kosher Salt to taste

Method:

• An hour or so before cooking, generously salt and pepper both sides of the chateaubriand and allow to come up to room temperature.
• Melt 2 tbs of the butter in a heavy skillet over low heat (recommend cast iron)
• Place the chateaubriand in the pan. Cook on low for 15 minutes.
• Flip steak, and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
• Insert a probe thermometer, and continue cooking (flipping every five minutes or so to ensure even cooking) until internal temperature reaches 130°.
• Remove steak from pan and cover with foil to rest
• To make the pan sauce, add the white wine to the pan and deglaze
• Increase heat to medium and reduce wine by 1/2
• Add the remaining butter and the onions
• Cook onions, stirring occassionally, until golden brown and carmelized; about 3-5 minutes
• Stir in the garlic, lemon juice and cilantro and Kosher Salt to taste and heat for about 1 minute
• To serve, spoon the sauce over the Chateaubriand

The last time I went to the store to pick up meat, I came across a really good deal for Eye of Round roast. ($2.89 a pound, woot!) So, I picked up two roasts to use this week. This one, the first one, I made tonight while Mr. Man was sitting at the bar and we discussed which direction we want to take the website in. It really is just so lovely to have that bar/kitchen area where we can share and work together.

Anyhow, because I also had happened to have made a new batch of homemade mustard, it seemed like a great starting point to use on my roast. I was shooting for a medium-rare, but I ended up with medium to medium-well. I became distracted during the final “coasting” process, and failed to pull it out of the oven in time. Fortunately I managed to save it at the last minute and it didn’t end up (too) over-cooked. With such a lean and tough cut of meat as eye of round, you really want to avoid overcooking. Otherwise your nice, juicy roast will turn in to a big piece of leather.

For best results, make sure to let the beef come up to room temperature before roasting, and when serving it, remember to cut across the grain of the beef. Cooking it at such a high temperature at the offset, allows for a delicious crust to form on the outer layer. The brown sugar in the coating, caramelizes and you end up with a sublime and juicy center surrounded by a complex and flavorful exterior.

Ingredients:

• 1 – 2-3 lb Eye of Round Beef Roast
• 1/4 cup Homemade Mustard or other Brown Mustard
• 1 tbs Roasted Garlic
• 1 tbs Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt

Method:

• Preheat Oven to 500°
• In a small bowl, mix together the Kosher Salt, brown sugar, roasted garlic and mustard
• Spread the mustard mixture on the beef, coating both sides
• Insert a meat thermometer in to the thickest part of the roast
• Place the roast on a rack inside of a roasting pan
• Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes
• Turn the oven down as low as you can (I set mine to 170°)
• Remove from oven when roast internal temperature reaches 130° (for medium rare)
• Cover with foil and allow to rest for 20 minutes before slicing.

Ah – the weather has warmed up again. Thank goodness for sunlight. I know we need the rain, but oh, it sure does feel good to have the sun on my face again. I know – it was less than a week, but it felt like forever. I’m such a weather-wuss. Anyhow, the sun came back just in time to help me celebrate the arrival of my new, new oh-so-awesome Canon Rebel XSI – the most awesomest camera I’ve ever owned ever, ever. It’s so coooooooool and amazing and I just wanna squeeeeeeeeeeee! everytime I think about it.

I’ve been wanting a DSLR for several years now, and although we’ve been close to purchasing one before – it just didn’t end up working out. The reason was, when we were researching DSLR’s and trying to determine which one we wanted, we settled on the Canon Rebel – but then we found out that the XSI would be coming out in a few short months, so we decided to wait. Well, by the time it came out, we were in escrow, and we didn’t really think it would be a great purchase at that time. So we waited, and waited. And then the kitchen remodel, and everything involved with it, and so on – priorities. But all the waiting, was soooo worth it. This camera totally rocks. Forecast says there is a 90% chance of increased pictures on this blog.

Anyhow, as much as I wanted to do nothing but play with my new shiny toy all night last night, I did find time to squeeze in this lovely dish. I haven’t made stuffed peppers in years and years, and I usually use green bell beppers. But when I saw the lovely red bell peppers in my FFTY box this week, I knew I wanted to try to do something a little different. When I was younger, my mom would occassionally make stuffed bell peppers, and I remember how each time was a little different – sometimes it would be rice mixed in with the meat, others times it’d be ramen or bread crumbs. A dish like this is really easy to be creative with.

Look for peppers that have a medium-thickness skin and can easily (or nearly) stand upright on their own. If they don’t quite stand up, try using a vegetable peeler to slice very thin pieces off the bottom until it will stand, and I recommend using a spoon to remove any seeds and membrane that might be attached to the sides. These peppers were the perfect size for stuffing, and their sweetness really complimented the stuffing. Next time I will probably double up on some of the spices, as it didn’t come out quite as spicy as I was shooting for – but it was still delicious.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 Red Bell Peppers; cleaned, top cut off, seeds and membrane removed
• 1 lb Ground Lamb
• 1 cup Cooked Wahini Rice (or other brown rice)
• 1 onion; diced
• 4 cloves garlic; minced
• 1 sprig of Fresh Rosemary; finely minced
• 1 tbs Olive Oil
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric
• 1 tsp Ginger
• 4 whole cloves; coarsely ground
• 3 whole cardamon pods; ground
• 1 star anise; ground
• 1/2 tsp Grated Nutmeg
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Cumin
• 1 tbs Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350º
• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat
• Add the Onions and saute until translucent
• Remove from heat
• Stir in the garlic and rosemary
• In a medium sized bowl, stir together the cooked rice, ground lamb, spices and onion mixture
• Take the lamb mixture, and stuff it in to the cored peppers.
• Place the stuffed peppers in to a heavy, oven safe baking pan and place in the preheated oven
• Bake until peppers are tender and roasted and meat is cooked through. Approximately 45-60 minutes.

We’ve had a lot of rain the last couple of days, which I suppose is good for that whole drought thing, but rain never really makes me happy-happy, so I haven’t been enjoying it as much. But the weather hasn’t curtailed my activities as I’ve spent much of the last couple of days canning some Strawberry Jam, Orange Ginger Marmalade, and Strawberry Preserves. Which seriously gives me a warm fuzzy, and I’m totally going to have to can more often – it’s way more cooler than I would have thought, and not nearly as hard as I thought. I’ll post the recipes a little later when I get a chance.

With all the canning, I’ve spent much of the last few days in my favorite place in the whole house – the kitchen. In addition to working the canning, I also think that I’m pretty close to perfecting my No-Knead Daily Bread recipe, which I will share when I get a chance. It’s kind of loosely based on the Mark Bittman recipe in the New York Times. I know, I know – I’m late to the party with that one, but hey – what are you going to do.

Anyhow, aside from that I’ve been trying to come up with some innovative ways to use the veggies in my farm box, and I got to say, this recipe was an awesome way to include some veggies, while still creating something hearty and meaty for the family. Mr. Man has been after me to make him Meatloaf for a long time, since I guess it was one of his favorite dishes as a kid – I was never a fan when I was younger, but this dish has changed my mind. Sometimes I even impress myself. lol

Although I called it a Meatloaf, it’s probably more of a meat-cake, since I made it filled a 9″x13″ pan. (heh heh – meat cake… heh heh) I was shooting for planned leftovers, which worked well – up to a point. The meatloaf was so delish that we all ended up eating more than was really good for us in that first sitting, and so I don’t think it’s going to last for as many meals as I thought it would, lol. I know the picture is kind of crappy, but trust me – it tastes excellent. I wasn’t able to take a picture when it was fresh, because I had to rush off to take Miss Thing to her extracurriculars.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs Ground Beef
• 1.5 lb Italian Sausage
• 1 lb Ground Lamb
• 1 bunch kale; stems removed and coarsely chopped
• 1 large Onion; diced
• 6 cloves Garlic; minced
• 1 and 1/2 cups Panko Bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup Red Wine
• 8 oz Mushrooms; sliced
• 2 eggs; lightly beaten
• 1 cup Catsup
• 2 sprigs Rosemary; leaves removed and minced
• 1/4 Cup Dill; finely chopped
• 2 tbs Butter
• 1 tbs Kosher Salt

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350°
• Melt the butter in a large skillet.
• Add the onions and saute until translucent and just beginning to brown
• Clear a small space in the onions, and add the mushrooms. Saute until tender, 2-5 minutes depending on thickness
• Stir in the garlic and the kale and toss to combine with the onions and mushrooms
• Continue to toss until kale becomes bright green.
• Stir in the Red Wine and then remove from heat and allow to cool while assembling the other ingredients
• Place the meats, bread crumbs, and eggs and 1/4 cup of the catsup together in a large bowl, mix thoroughly.
• Mix in the rosemary, dill, salt, and kale mixture.
• Pat the mixture in to a 9″x13″ cake pan, tapering it down along the edges of the pan
• Spread remaining Catsup on top of the meat mixture
• Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until cooked through

The last couple of weeks have definitely taken their toll on my time – I realized yesterday afternoon that it was the last Friday of the month, and not still mid-March. This realization was closely followed with realizing that there was a DVP Meet & Greet that night as well. Sadly, I was far too exhausted to go – and since I also forgot to send out reminder emails, I think it’s probably a safe bet that hardly anyone else went either, which I feel terrible about. However, after I sent out an apology email, I promptly fell asleep and am now feeling much, much better. I think getting a little bit of relaxing and downtime in definitely made a big difference. Even if the late evening nap means that now my sleep schedule is scrooooed again.

When I woke up, I decided that I wanted to cook (big surprise), that I wanted to try making some thing that I had never made before, and that I wanted to use the Pork Shoulder I’d picked up at Costco earlier this week (for $1.89 a pound!!!) I remembered bookmarking this post on The Paupered Chef (one of the cooking blogs I’ve started following recently) a while back and at about 1 A.M. started frying up some crispy, meaty goodness.

Unfortunately, I did not have any Lard, (which is what they used at the Paupered Chef), but I did have (nearly) a gallon of Safflower oil that I had previously used for frying french fries. It may have been better to use lard, but I’m one to use what’s on hand than make a special trip to the store. And besides, I didn’t really have space for the Safflower oil in my fridge, and with the weather warming up (yippee!), I’m disinclined to have it sitting out in the pantry any longer. So better to use it up.

Anyhow, the Carnitas came out delicious. In all the years and ways I’ve made pork shoulder, I have never made pork shoulder this delicious. Many times I have tried and despaired of ever capturing that special taqueria flavor. Seriously – I will maybe never purchase a burrito again, this was so good. The outside was crisp and browned, the interior fork tender. Yes, it’s fried. Yes, it’s probably terrible for you (I don’t want to know – ignorance is bliss after all) but oh – what a party in the mouth. I will never look at pork shoulder quite the same again. Just trust me, you have to try this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs Pork Shoulder, cut in to 1 lb sections
• 3-4 quarts Safflower Oil
• 1 lime; juiced
• 1/2 cup White Wine
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt

Method:

• In a medium sized bowl, toss the pork shoulder in the lime juice, white wine and kosher salt. Set aside for 1 hour.
• Pour oil in to a large, heavy pot (Recommend: 8 qt) and heat over high heat for 2-3 minutes
• Using tongs, gently lower the meat chunks in to the hot oil – Be careful, it will boil furiously
• Reduce heat incrementally until oil is bubbling/frying somewhere just below a rolling boil
• Fry for 2 hours, or until meat is fork tender and Golden Brown.
• Transfer Pork to a paper-towel lined plate and sprinkle with kosher salt, if desired
• Serve with Tortillas & taco fixings if desired