Carnitas Michoacanas (Fried Meat "Michoacan" Style?)

My mother makes very delicious "Carnitas Michoacanas" "Michoacanas" means from "Michoacan, Mexico" it's a very simple yet delicious meat dish, it is chunks of pork meat strongly seasoned with salt and black pepper, simmered in 1/2 pork fat 1/2 water, once the water evaporates it fries and browns in the fat then beer is added to deglaze and when it evaporates you fry them a little longer then they are ready.

It is simple and delicious. I asked my mother how she learned to make them, she said that when they lived in Michoacan, Mexico that her neighbor had many pigs and she would always call them and her siblings to go help slaughter the pig, clean and cook it. The lady would have these huge shallow wok looking pans called "Cazo's" and would simmer the pork meat in water and lard until the water was gone and everything was fried there my mom said it would be huge you could fry whole pork shoulders and people would throw in fatty cuts of pork belly etc. to make "Chicharrones" just a medley of tasty fried pork and fat.

All the rendered delicious pork fat would be strongly seasoned, once used it would be strained through a type of cheese cloth and stored in jars, you can cook any Mexican dish with that fat it lends great flavor.


Lard get's a bad reputation, but a good quality NOT hydrogenated lard is nothing to be afraid of, go educate yourself about fats the American media and pharma have really advertised strongly against this stuff but guess what Americans now are fatter than ever and have a higher heart-disease rate than many other's hmmm... wonder why they support hydrogenated fats like Margarines and Shortenings... just so ya'll know read labels even if it say's trans-fat free if the ingredients have the word hydrogenated it's THERE they can legally round anything that is less than 0.5 grams to 0 grams a lot of American margarines and stuff have about 0.2-0.4 grams per tablespoon those little grams add up... also just about every processed food in USA and some places uses "partially hydrogenated soybean and corn oils, etc. ...." ... oh and don't get me started on "high-fructose corn syrup" all this they forget to mention to support the corn and soy industries did anyone see that rediculous commercial funded by the corn refineries? It's retarded... and what's up with people thinking "Vegetable Oil" is healthy? Cuz it's vegetables? Guess what ALL plant based oils are considered "vegetable oils" when you buy vegetable oil it can be any type of oil the manufacturer wants to put in there, here in USA it's usually "Soybean Oil" or whatever oil is cheapest at the market currently or there is excess of...

Here is a nice informative topic on fats:

http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html

You can research other stuff on the effects of certain fatty acids. I gaurantee you will never find a studty PROVING saturated fats clog you up, or give you a heart attack... I could write a whole essay several pages long on his type of stuff but I don't want to bore any of my fellow foodies :)

Ingredients:
-3 pounds pork shoulder, roast, leg whatever with fat
-1 tablespoon salt
-1 tablespoon ground black pepper
-1 cup lard
-1 cup water
-1 cup beer (whatever beer you like, here we used "Miller", "Corona", or "Tecate" the typical stuff)

Directions:
(1)Wash pork really by putting in a large bowl rinsing and draining several times! (In my house when washing meat we squeeze limes over the meat add salt and scrub it then rinse and drain again to clean it really well)
(2)Now cut pork into 2 inch cubes DO NOT REMOVE FAT! Trust me.
(3)Heat a large shallow pan (we used a wok), and add 1 cup water and 1 cup lard, stir until it's incorporated, add pork meat, salt, and pepper, stir gently. On high heat let it come to a boil, now cover and boil meat for 15 minutes covered on medium heat.
(4)After 15 minutes stir, higher to medium high heat and let it boil for an additional 30-40 minutes uncovered stirring occasionally until all the water evaporates.


(5)Now stir every 5 minutes carefully for about an additional 15- 20 minutes on medium high heat, until meat is golden brown on all sides.

(6)Add beer carefully about 1 cup and it will bubble and sizzle, gently with a wooden spoon slide it around carefully to not let pork stick and to deglaze the whole pan. Wait until all the beer evaporates and keep frying the pork until browned nicely, when browned strongly and they have a rich golden dark reddish sort of brown they are ready to be taken out and let it drain on paper bags or towels, cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.

The rest is OPTIONAL in my home in the drippings of ANY pan-fried or fried meat dish we like to sautee onions and serve them as a side dish:
(7)Turn off heat, drain some of the fat through a strainer BUT leave some, heat pan on medium high and sautee about 2 large onions julienned until they turn limp and sweeter, deglaze with freshly squeezed lime juice.

(8)Serve with fresh corn tortillas, a nice hot sauce, and some lime wedges and caramelized onions.... maybe Guacamole or Pico de Gallo" (minced tomato, onion, chili pepper, and cilantro tossed with lime juice and salt) however in my house we ate it sort of NOT traditional way... it's the Cuban influence in me I'm addicted to rice.... I had the "carnitas" with the onions over it, with white rice on the side and a bowl of "Potaje de Frijoles Colorados" (red bean stew) which I made meatless this time because we where eating pork and for dessert sinful me just ate sweetened condensed milk out of the can with a big spoon...

NOTE:
This method of cooking meat can be used also on thick cut pork chops with the fat on or pork ribs, but it is no longer called "Carnitas" after this it'll be just called "Chuletas de Puerco" (Pork Chops) or "Costillas de Puerco" (Pork Ribs) my mother likes to sometimes get any fried pork using this method, then sets them aside, drains out some of the fat leaves a little and she will add back the pork and throw a huge bowl of the homemade hot sauces we have in our house usually "Salsa de Chile de Arbol" or "Salsa Verde" she will deglaze with it and serve the meat in the boiling spicy sauce. We love it. Or she will make a special "Salsa de Chile Colorado" that is very mild the which is the same sauce used to make "Chilaquiles" and "Carne de Res en Chile Colorado"

Most of the time we don't make this dish we just felt like it today, sense we have a lot of stores that cater to Mexicans that sell these fried meats fresh made and hot. What we did at home is a very small portion compared to the huge bubbling pots in the eateries.

I know the recipe is very time consuming but it is very easy to do, you just leave it there for most of the cooking time and towards the end just check it occasionally and stir, just multi-task you can do that while doing other things in the house, or relax enjoy a cold beer or other alcoholic beverage of choice, watch TV while doing this, or read, etc. (but be sure to keep an eye on the clock)

P.S. I really shouldn't be given credit it was my mom doing most of the cooking, I just took pictures, observed, helped a bit, and ate it :)

Platanos en Tentacion (Plantains Temptation Style?)

I got this recipe thanks to Sonia R. Martinez who is a nice Cuban lady also a cook book author and writer and has a few blogs one of them is "Sonia's Hawaii" usually focuses on her life in Hawaii, food, and gardening. She is also the wonderful moderator of a Cuban group I love called "Cocina Cubana in the Exile" and does a great job at it.

She has given me permission to post her recipe on my blog, of course I slightly altered it, I changed the ratio's a little bit because the original recipe was for "3 plantains" and I used "4 plantains" also her mother uses "sherry" wine for this, the recipe calls for dry white wine, but I used "Edmundo Vino Seco Dorado" (it's what I usually use and what I have on hand along with red wine)

Platanos en Tentacion is a rich sweet plantain dish, it is ripe plantains simmered in a rich cinnamon infused butter, wine, and sugar syrup. This is a Cuban recipe, but to be honest it was never made in my house (we always fried the plantains and used it for other stuff) that's why I put no recipe of my own. Other countries have their own "version" of Platanos en Tentacion but the version I am presenting is the Cuban version.

Ingredients:
-4 dead ripe black plantains

-1/3 and 1 1/2 tablespoons white cane sugar
-1/3 and 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-2 cinnamon sticks broken into pieces
-4 tablespoons butter
-4 tablespoons dry white wine

Directions:
(1)Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Butter a baking dish.

(2)Peel plantains, cut them in half, place on greased baking dish, insert broken cinnamon sticks into plantains, mix two types of sugars and cinnamon powder, sprinkle half of the sugar over plantains, drizzle all plantains with some wine, add more sugar, and dot it with butter cut into little pieces.

(3)Place in oven and bake for about 1 hour until golden brown and bubbly,

NOTE:
-Sonia say's this is not meant to be dessert you can eat it with your food, I agree with her.
-If you wish you can have it as dessert or snack, it would be delcious with some vanilla ice cream.
-The plantains have to be dead ripe black because that is when they are at their sweetest and softer, do NOT worry it won't be mooshy or anything they are still firm just very sweet.
-I wasn't so patient my plantains could've been riper like Sonia say's "black with a whitish cast" something a long those lines.

Oh and here is a question for anyone who may be reading this, How do you make your Platanos en Tentacion? Or a similar dish? I'm open to new ideas :)"

LASTLY... click on the final last picture and you can see in detail how wonderful it looks, the size of the picture there doesn't give the dish justice :)

Salmon a la Vizcaina (Salmon in Vizcaina Sauce)

I got the idea to make this from one of my readers whom calls himself "Mamey" (his name is Omar) he was kind enough to comment my "Boniatillo" and share a recipe he made of Salmon in a Vizcaina type sauce. It sounded delicious, he pan-fried the salmon and added it to a delicous tomato based sauce served over sliced "Boniato" (a type of white sweet potato).

So today I made it, I kind of just followed my instincts and tried to imagine how it was done, and made the type of sauce my grandmother would use for "Bacalao a la Vizcaina" and just replaced the Bacalao with a well seasoned, pan-fried salmon it was wonderful try it you won't regret.

Oh I forgot I had a wonderful Boniato in my kitchen but half of it spoiled as I forgot about it and it was a couple weeks old (ooops) so I used regular brown potatoes instead.

Ingredients for Salmon:
-1 1/2 pounds salmon filets cut into medium large serving pieces
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1 teaspoon paprika (sweet smoked I like)
-1 teaspoon ground black pepper
-1 teaspoon of sea salt (more or less to taste)
-4 cloves of fresh garlic mashed to a paste (more to taste)
Ingredients for Sauce:
-1 small green bell pepper finely minced
-1 small red bell pepper finely minced
-1 medium onion cut into thin rings
-5-6 cloves garlic mashed to a paste (garlic press or mortar and pestle)
-1 cup crushed tomatoes
-1 cup tomato sauce
-1/2 cup dry white wine
-1 cup water
-2 bay leaves
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
-sea salt to taste

Ingredients for "bed":
-2 large Boniatos (white sweet potatoes) or in it's place substitute it for 4 potatoes (boiled, peeled, cut into thin rounds)
Directions:
(1)In a mortar mash garlic to a paste with sea salt, cumin, paprika, and pepper. Rub it all over the fish filets.

(2)Heat some olive oil on medium high in a pan, brown the salmon filets on both sides. Set aside.

(3)In the same pan let's start making the sauce, sautee onions and minced bell peppers for 5 minutes, add garlic sautee another 2 minutes, add cumin, oregano, bay leaf sautee 1 minute, now add crushed tomato, stir until it mixes well and higher heat, now add tomato sauce, stir and bring to boil, add 1 cup water, and 1/2 cup dry white wine, sea salt to taste bring to a boil and and simmer on medium low for atleast 10 minutes.

(4)Add salmon filets in carefully along with drippings, in a big dish make a bed with peeled sliced into thin rounds potatoes or boniatos and carefully place the salmon filets in the sauce over this bed with the rest of the sauce.

(5)Served it with rice and a wonderful salad my mom made marinaded in white wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic and salt. (It was delicious it has orange cauliflower, broccoflower, red onion, aspuragus, and minced cilantro)

"Mamey" (aka Omar) served it with "Harina de Maiz" (Polenta I'm assuming it was simply cornmeal, salted, and boiled with water but even though it sounds simple it goes well with most stuff atleast these types of food, I would've made it but I was tired and had leftover cold rice which I decided to make a "Garlic Fried Rice" with which was simply rice sauteed with minced garlic and salt I learned it from a Filipino friend, simple and delicious), and a watercress, tomato, avocado salad (I think)

NOTE:
-You can skip the whole "bed of potatoes" and or "boniato" and simply throw the over the salmon and sauce. Or you can while making the sauce when you cover it to boil let it cook 15- 20 minutes with chunks of potatoes or boniato and then when done you add the salmon in for a more "home-style" approach I guess.

-Some other time I will show my families way of preparing the "Bacalao" (salted dry cod) with this sauce.

-Don't worry if you don't have sea salt just use regular salt it will still be good.