food What was the last spicy meal you cooked?

That's a great looking Tom soup, EOFResno. I love spicy tomato soups.


We tried some carnitas- here's the play-by-play-
Ingredients-boneless baby back pork, orange juice, beer, southwest spice mix, (didn't use the frozen chiles), garlic, rec chile blend
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Trimmed and diced the pork, into the marinade overnight-
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The next day, into the crock pot with some ham stock to cover the meat pieces. Slow cook for about 8 hours.
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Drained and shredded the pork,
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Since the idea was to make something a little more heart-friendly than the typical lard-cooked carnitas, I fried the shredded port in olive oil in a hot CI pan.
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The Results~
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Looks GREAT! Taste verdict...not so good :(

The pork tasted OK when it came out of the crock pot, very tender and citrus-y from the marinade, a little spicy, but not very Southwest-ish. After it was fried in the olive oil, it seemed to loose all of it's flavor. Plus it seemed greasy.

We liked the crispiness, but it had no flavor! I don't know what to do next time, but it definitely needed something after the fry-up. Maybe mix the fried pork with a southwest style sauce of some kind on the tortilla, or put it back in the crock pot for an hour or 2 with the SW sauce.

Anyway, just thought I'd share one that didn't quite turn out as planned.
 
hey, Pauly,

The crock pot worked great to get it tender, and the CI and olive oil worked great to get it crispy, but the taste was a big FAIL. It was weird in that the shredded pork tasted OK but lost all flavor in the oil.

Next time, I might try less citrus and more SW spices in the marinade, maybe add some spices to the shredded pork before frying, and if that doesn't help the taste after the fry-up, then top it with some kind of SW/Mexican flavored tomato based sauce.
 
Good pork tacos SL. Carnitas is pulled pork, you should try cooking the shoulder (Boston Butt). And why did you fry it after shredding, noooooo! The shoulder is cooked in lard, and then shredded, not fried after it is shredded. You are ruining the juicy pulled pork. There is no point in braising it for hours just to crisp it. Booo.
 
We were trying to do the crispy pork thing like Pauly's recent post (in The DC, I think) where he dutch oven-ed the pork in lard and then oven braised it to crispy it up. Tried to do it a little more heart-healthy than the lard thing. It didn't work out so great. :(

I don't mind admitting to the FAIL now and then :) Too much good inspiration around to worry about the occasional screw up. Some things just have to be done the original way, like cooking in the lard, in order to really turn out the way they are supposed to.

BTW, Boss... gotta St Louis cut per your suggestion in the refer right now, on the menu tomorrow~
 
I am digging the whole thing SL, the only thing I would change if I were doing it, is you have to add some of the sauce/marinade in there when you put it in the CI. That will add all the flavor with the sauce carmelizing on the meat. You can do it with out as THP said, but I like the cripsy bits so that's how I would do it. JMO
 
thanks JayT, we wanted the crispy bits also. The process using the crock pot worked really well to get the pork tender, but if I were to just use the shredded pork, I would definitely use a different marinade and spice blend. It would be good out of the crock pot with a tomato-based sauce.

I drained the shredded pork really well thinking that I didn't want a bunch of liquid going into the hot olive oil and creating a huge splattering cauldron. Maybe adding some dry spices to the shredded pork before frying would get some flavor onto the meat that wouldn't get lost in the oil?
 
Yes, the trick is caramelizing the meat before you shred it. Those crispy bits (sometimes) in carnitas are just the outer meat, so if you want a lot of those bits, cut your shoulder into pieces before cooking, but don't cook, shred, and then fry. This really defeats the braising process.

Can't want for the St. Lou ribs.
 
SL, I usually don't like TV cooks, but Rick Bayless probably has some good carnitas recipes online. He has a restaurant (XOCO) where he uses the large copper vat and lard to cook his carnitas, which is traditional. His recipes, I am sure, try to mimic this process.
 
Thanks, THP, we'll give it another go sometime.


I'll check out Rick Bayless (that name sounds familiar from somewhere, maybe I've looked at his recipes before or something~~~)
 
Yeah, he used to have a show, but he's not one of those fake cooks, he's the real deal. As far as I can tell.
 
Just made a quick snack. a couple of mushies cooked in butter & garlic until it all evaporates and then poured a little Yellow7 in it, for a tiny bit of heat. :)
 
salsalady said:
We were trying to do the crispy pork thing like Pauly's recent post (in The DC, I think) where he dutch oven-ed the pork in lard and then oven braised it to crispy it up. Tried to do it a little more heart-healthy than the lard thing. It didn't work out so great. :(

I don't mind admitting to the FAIL now and then :) Too much good inspiration around to worry about the occasional screw up. Some things just have to be done the original way, like cooking in the lard, in order to really turn out the way they are supposed to.

BTW, Boss... gotta St Louis cut per your suggestion in the refer right now, on the menu tomorrow~
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JayT said:
I am digging the whole thing SL, the only thing I would change if I were doing it, is you have to add some of the sauce/marinade in there when you put it in the CI. That will add all the flavor with the sauce carmelizing on the meat. You can do it with out as THP said, but I like the cripsy bits so that's how I would do it. JMO
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I think the next time I do'em I'll be using the shoulder, AND searing them a bit after in a little of the cooking lard (like Jay suggested).....


....yeahhhhhhhhh crispy AND juicy!!! :dance:
 
Had a fit of the 4am munchies last night after reading the health benefits of capsaisin thread. So I decided to throwdown on a hot pepper breakfast scramble.

The ingredients
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The eggs
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The whole shebang
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And of course, what every well rounded breakfast needs. Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies!! For the fiber, of course.
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I had some dough left over from the cooking bit I do on a local web show. And it seemed a crime to just let it dry out in the fridge. So while I had the bacon cooking, I tossed a few lumps into the oven. By the time everything was done, so were they. And after grubbing down on the eggs, they were perfectly cool, yet gooey on the inside. And 30 minutes later, I slept the sleep of the dead. :woohoo:
 
For Carnitas I cheat and don't do the lard, wife wouldn't eat it. I take a whole pork butt (bone in) and braise it til the bone comes free. Then pull it apart in chunks and into the oven at 450 till it''s crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside. Chop it up and eat. You can add what ever spices and fruit to the braise and add spice to the chunks before you put them in the oven. The trick is to use pork butt with some fat, pork loin is too lean (pork fat rules). It's a pretty simple and flexible way to do Carnitas and comes out great.

Rick Bayless is the real deal. I wish I could try his restaurant sometime. Have a couple of his books.
 
LC - I see Carnitas have been making their rounds from members here for meals, cant wait to see what your meal looks like.
I've never had them so have no opinion of them but I agree with you & some others here...I'd forget about cooking in lard.
 
chilehunter said:
LC - I see Carnitas have been making their rounds from members here for meals, cant wait to see what your meal looks like.
I've never had them so have no opinion of them but I agree with you & some others here...I'd forget about cooking in lard.
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CH, if you like pork there's nothing like Carnitas. You can do anything you want in the braise and spice the chunks up after for the oven. Lard is the traditional Mexican way for Carnitas, but you'd have a hard time finding the traditional cooking method in a restaurant today.
 
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