lifted from my sister, who lifted it from SouleMama. In the words of its creator: A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
{this moment} - Day Late and a Dollar Short Super Triple Extreme!
lifted from my sister, who lifted it from SouleMama. In the words of its creator: A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Pineapple-Porky Goodness
The following message is Mycroft approved*:
Alrighty, I've been getting harassment on all sides, so I'll post how to make pineapple carnitas (cue heavenly music). There will be no pictures because, to be frank, all of the carnitas done got et before it occurred to me to stop eating from the pot with my fingers and grab for a camera.
I first got this wicked craving (or idea, as it would be known to people who are not me) from smitten kitchen, who was stealing from homesick texan, bless their hearts. The pineapple part comes from my own fancy combined with my traditional cooking method of grabbing whatever is sitting by the stove. Miracles occur.
Without further ado:
You will need:
~3-4 lbs. of pork shoulder cut into ~2" chunks (for reals 2", not like the 1/2" dice that means 1/4" - we need BIG chunks for this to work out right)
~ 1 T. of salt (Don't be shy. There is a lot of meat here and salt makes food taste good.)
~juice from 1/2 pineapple**
~ a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot that can hold this whole glorious mess.
You will do:
Toss the pork chunks, pineapple juice, and salt into the pot, cover with water (just barely, a few corners or edges poking out are totally fine) and place over low heat for about two hours, uncovered. And don't you dare start fussing with it. We are making magic here, lids and fussing will ruin the magic.
After your two hours of putzing about the house and becoming more and more ravenous, crank the heat up to medium-high and boil off the remaining water, stirring/poking/fussing occasionally. The remaining fat in the pan will fry the pork on the outside and give you crispy goodness. This should take about ~45 mins from when you crank up the heat.
When the meat is done cooking - for the love of fuzzy kittens - scrape everything off the bottom of the pan (You might want to hoard this part for yourself. If you are a more generous soul than I, you might mix it in with the rest of the pork and let others share in your crispy, delicious bounty).
Should you have the restraint to still have pork at this time (you may laugh, but get a few extra hands in the kitchen and watch it disappear), put it on a taco-sized tortilla with your favorite taco accoutrements. My standby for carnitas is a corn tortilla, avocado slices, a dab of crema fresca, and a tiny bit of minced cilantro. Keep it simple and let the pork-glory shine.
*This cat will eat entire blocks of the meat. Plural. In minutes. And beg for more. I'm pretty sure he would hop in the pot and eat his way out if we turned our backs for a second after pulling it off the stove.
** To juice a pineapple:
1) Cut off the top and bottom with a VERY sharp knife.
2) Set the pineapple down on one of its newly flat ends and use your VERY sharp knife to cut longitudinally down the pineapple so that you see the yellow flesh dotted with some little round brown circles with a pokey bit in the middle (these are fine to eat and you need to sacrifice way too much flesh to get them off entirely).
3) Cut the flesh from the hard core your pineapple***
4) Slice your flesh-slabs into 1" sticks, and then chop into chunks.
5) Mash half of your chunks with a potato masher, and then strain through a sieve.
6) Fight your two-year-old niece for the remaining pineapple chunks.
***I discovered that I like pineapple a week before a month-long south-pacific adventure. I basically had pineapple or fresh-squeezed pineapple juice for breakfastlunchanddinner. As with most foods consumed in their natural environment, in the height of their season****, they are much riper than their long-shipped brethren. Properly fresh pineapple is MUCH sweeter and does not need to be cored. They are generally just quartered longways and sliced. The core is maybe 1/4". It tastes like heaven. I was spoiled for life.
****If you, or someone you know, can access this sort of pineapple, please send pineapple!!!!!!
Alrighty, I've been getting harassment on all sides, so I'll post how to make pineapple carnitas (cue heavenly music). There will be no pictures because, to be frank, all of the carnitas done got et before it occurred to me to stop eating from the pot with my fingers and grab for a camera.
I first got this wicked craving (or idea, as it would be known to people who are not me) from smitten kitchen, who was stealing from homesick texan, bless their hearts. The pineapple part comes from my own fancy combined with my traditional cooking method of grabbing whatever is sitting by the stove. Miracles occur.
Without further ado:
You will need:
~3-4 lbs. of pork shoulder cut into ~2" chunks (for reals 2", not like the 1/2" dice that means 1/4" - we need BIG chunks for this to work out right)
~ 1 T. of salt (Don't be shy. There is a lot of meat here and salt makes food taste good.)
~juice from 1/2 pineapple**
~ a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot that can hold this whole glorious mess.
You will do:
Toss the pork chunks, pineapple juice, and salt into the pot, cover with water (just barely, a few corners or edges poking out are totally fine) and place over low heat for about two hours, uncovered. And don't you dare start fussing with it. We are making magic here, lids and fussing will ruin the magic.
After your two hours of putzing about the house and becoming more and more ravenous, crank the heat up to medium-high and boil off the remaining water, stirring/poking/fussing occasionally. The remaining fat in the pan will fry the pork on the outside and give you crispy goodness. This should take about ~45 mins from when you crank up the heat.
When the meat is done cooking - for the love of fuzzy kittens - scrape everything off the bottom of the pan (You might want to hoard this part for yourself. If you are a more generous soul than I, you might mix it in with the rest of the pork and let others share in your crispy, delicious bounty).
Should you have the restraint to still have pork at this time (you may laugh, but get a few extra hands in the kitchen and watch it disappear), put it on a taco-sized tortilla with your favorite taco accoutrements. My standby for carnitas is a corn tortilla, avocado slices, a dab of crema fresca, and a tiny bit of minced cilantro. Keep it simple and let the pork-glory shine.
*This cat will eat entire blocks of the meat. Plural. In minutes. And beg for more. I'm pretty sure he would hop in the pot and eat his way out if we turned our backs for a second after pulling it off the stove.
** To juice a pineapple:
1) Cut off the top and bottom with a VERY sharp knife.
2) Set the pineapple down on one of its newly flat ends and use your VERY sharp knife to cut longitudinally down the pineapple so that you see the yellow flesh dotted with some little round brown circles with a pokey bit in the middle (these are fine to eat and you need to sacrifice way too much flesh to get them off entirely).
3) Cut the flesh from the hard core your pineapple***
4) Slice your flesh-slabs into 1" sticks, and then chop into chunks.
5) Mash half of your chunks with a potato masher, and then strain through a sieve.
6) Fight your two-year-old niece for the remaining pineapple chunks.
***I discovered that I like pineapple a week before a month-long south-pacific adventure. I basically had pineapple or fresh-squeezed pineapple juice for breakfastlunchanddinner. As with most foods consumed in their natural environment, in the height of their season****, they are much riper than their long-shipped brethren. Properly fresh pineapple is MUCH sweeter and does not need to be cored. They are generally just quartered longways and sliced. The core is maybe 1/4". It tastes like heaven. I was spoiled for life.
****If you, or someone you know, can access this sort of pineapple, please send pineapple!!!!!!
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