Fricase de Puerco (Pork Fricase)

I had a good chunk of pork meat, well marbled good for stewing so I was planning on
making a stew with it, but not sure how I wanted to make the stew

I wanted a Cuban or Spaniard tomato based stew, and I knew the variations were endless.

However I remembered that some Cuban restaurants have something they call "Fricase de Puerco" which is a pork version of the Cuban "Fricase de Pollo/ Chicken Fricase" (which is chicken stewed in a tomato based sauce, traditionally/ typically chicken is marinaded in garlic and citrus first, browned, cooked in sauce and is somewhat sour with olives sometimes some capers but often balanced by stewing with the addition of raisins or sometimes instead of raisins some people add sliced carrot or leave it as is without the sweetness)

So here's my way of preparing a cuban-style "Pork Fricase" and let me tell you it came out delicious!!!! What made it special was marinading the pork in sour orange and garlic giving it that special cuban garlic sauce taste, but it married into the typical tomato based sauce made with the holy trinity of Cuban cooking (onion, bell pepper, garlic) the two married and gave birth to this, it was just amazing :D

-Ingredients to marinade pork-
-3 lbs. boneless pork shoulder cut into 1 inch cubes
-3/4 cups sour orange juice (you can substitute with 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/4 white vinegar or a mixture of 1/2 lime and 1/2 orange juice)
-1/2 head of garlic, peeled, mashed to a paste in a mortar or through a press
-2 tsp. salt

-Ingredients for for the rest-
1/2 cup lard or extra-virgin olive oil (I use lard for this)
-1 onion chopped
-1 bell pepper (red or green or both) chopped
-1 can 8 oz. tomato sauce
-1/2 cup dry white wine
-3 cups water
-2 bay leaves
-1 tsp. whole black peppercorns (or black pepper to taste)
-1 tsp. ground cumin
-4 potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks
-7-8 olives cut in half (black or green spanish olives)
-4 tablespoons capers (optional)
-1/4 cup raisins (optional)
-salt to taste (towards the end because the olives and capers tend to be very salty, also the wine depending what you use, like if you use a typical cuban cooking wine like Goya or Edmundo it also has salt)

Directions:
(1) Mix pork with all marinade ingredients allow to marinade at least 2 hours. When done marinading drain it BUT reserve the marinade, pat the meat dry.

(2) In a large pot, heat lard on very high heat, when it's real hot, add pork and brown on all sides (do not panic if the pork releases some juices and everything starts boiling, leave it uncovered and stir occasionally until everything reduces and it starts browning)

(3) When browned add bell peppers and onion and cook until translucent, add tomato sauce stir well and when the tomato sauce bubbles throw in bay leaves, peppercorns, and cumin, along with wine, and water. Bring everything to a boil and simmer for about 1 hour.

(4) When pork meat is tender (to check doneness pierce with a fork) add your potatoes, olives and the optional capers and raisins bring back to a boil on high, and cover simmer on medium low until potatoes are tender (about 20 - 30 minutes) turn off heat and it's ready to serve over rice :)

PLEASE NOTE:
(1) For a very delicious variation, cut your potatoes into large cubes, and deep-fry them on medium high heat until inside is tender, and then crank the heat up and get them all well browned, drain and set aside. When the meat is fully tender, turn off stew and toss it with the deep-fried potatoes.

I learned that technique/ variation in these type of stews from "Maruxa Moíño" a wonderful home cook originally from Galicia, Spain now residing in Catalunya region of Spain. Her son created a blog documenting and making videos of her home cooking. So a big thanks and shout to them :)

http://www.enezeta.com/lacocinademispapis/?p=6

Estofado de Pollo Con Patatas (Chicken and Potato Stew)

Earlier this year I made a delicious Catalan style beef and potato stew , I had learned from Nuria's blog "Spanish Recipes" called "Estofado de Ternera Con Patatas", one of my readers "Fernando" commented asking me if he could substitute chicken for the beef, I thought a chicken variation of this would be delicious and so with the weather slowly cooling I decided to make it. It was different, but equally delicious :)

Like I said in the post for the beef version, if you love gravy, potatoes, and chicken this dish is for you. Served over a mountain of steaming white rice this dish is another one of those comfort foods.

Ingredients:
-1 whole chicken cut into segments (your choice how you want to cut it, I cut it into bite sizes)
-salt to taste
-ground black pepper to taste
-flour to dust chicken
-extra-virgin olive oil (about 1/4- 1/2 cup)
-1 onion minced
-4 cloves garlic minced
-1 carrot, peeled, minced
-1 large ripe tomato very finely minced or grated
-1/2 cup dry white wine
-2 bay leaves
-1 tsp dried thyme (or 3 fresh sprigs)
-1/2 tsp dried oregano (or 1-2 fresh sprigs)
-4 large potatoes peeled, cut into large chunks
-2 tsp chicken bouillon powder (optional)
-water enough to cover all ingredients
-1/2 cup frozen peas (you can use fresh too)

Directions:
(1) Like always don't forget, clean/ wash your chicken well, cut into segments, season it with salt and pepper (I used about 2 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper), coat the chicken in flour and shake off excess.
(2) In a large deep- pan heat generous amount of extra-virgin olive oil over medium high heat, brown the chicken on all sides (be patient you can chop everything while doing this), set chicken aside.

(3) In same pan add onion, carrot, garlic and sautee for 5-7 minutes until translucent,
add grated tomato, bay leaves, thyme, and oregano allow everything to cook together until the tomato is reduced and loses it's liquid it'll start frying in the oil about 5-7 more minutes.
(4) Add wine raise heat stir well and reduce it by about half. Now throw your chicken, add water enough to cover all ingredients (you may want to have your water already heated up and boiling in a seperate pot to speed things up), bring to a boil, add potatoes, chicken bouillon, taste for salt and add more if needed.
(5) Allow everything to cook together 30 minutes, on medium low heat, after 30 minutes, stir in your peas, let it come to a boil then turn off. Ready to serve :)
PLEASE NOTE:
So after making the chicken variation I had an idea, this dish would also be delicious if you omitted the potatoes and instead added some sliced button mushrooms towards the last 5 minutes of cooking... mmmmm.... next time I'll do it... wait sounds like "Chicken in Mushroom Sauce" to me :D ... wait there's a beef dish called "Fricando" (Catalan beef and mushrooms) maybe I'm on to something ha ha yeah I'm a dork sorry lolz. well more future posts to come :D

Jarritos Soda Review

"Jarritos" is a brand of soda's very popular in Mexico and among the Mexican community both in Mexico and in Southern California.

Awhile back I was contacted by Jarritos and asked if I could review, and sample some of their flavors and let my readers know what I thought about them, and honestly I was kinda honored and happy, and decided to give an honest review. I was sent a package of 11 flavors Mango, Strawberry, Guava, Grapefruit, Lemon Lime, Fruit Punch, Hibiscus, Pineapple, Tamarind, Mandarin, and Lime. Along with a cute little shirt, and a paisa music CD ha ha (thanks :)

My mother remembers growing up with these, and so do I. What sets Jarritos aside from typical American soda's? For starters they come in a very very wide array of flavors, sweetened with 100% natural white cane sugar/ no HFCS/ High Fructose Corn Syrup, they aren't overly sweet, usually more mild and light tasting, and often times taste very close to the flavor they are representing
Mango- this was a favorite! EVERYONE LOVED IT! It tasted just like a large, fresh, sweet, ripe, fragrant, juicy mango. It felt so natural, everything was just perfect. If you've never tasted a mango before this is what it taste like :) LOVE IT! and this is coming from someone who isn't a fan of soda.
Strawberry- tastes like Shasta strawberry soda, except it's made with real 100% cane sugar
Guava/ Guayaba- I was shocked that this wasn't my favorite, so was my grandmother/ Tata (I split it with her) because being of Cuban descent like we say "nos corre la guayaba por la sangre" (guava runs through our veins) we love almost EVERYTHING GUAVA, juices, shakes, sweets, cakes, cookies, pastries, marmalade's even fresh EVERYTHING guava we usually like. However the problem we had is we felt it wasn't sweet enough, it lacked sweetness in our opinion, but then again we are used to consuming Guava usually saturated in sugar (syrups, preserves, marmalade's, pastes, and incorporated in sweets, and when fresh very ripe and red) We felt the Guava taste was just too light for our liking.
Grapefruit/ Toronja- think of carbonated grape fruit juice, sweetened but still kept it's bitterness (which for me is a good thing because I love grape fruit it's tart, bitter, and sweet all at once) if you love grape fruits you'll enjoy this :)
Lima Limon- it tastes more like 7-up. It isn't as acidic as 7-up, it's more sweet, not overly sweetened however and it just captures the sweetness a lemon has, any hints of sweetness one would experience from a lemon has been isolated here. (I actually used another bottle of this to make a Vietnamese dish called "Thit Kho Tau" (Caramelized Pork and Egg) substituted the coconut soda for the Lima Limon soda, great results)
Fruit Punch- tasted like carbonated American Fruit Punch/ Koo laid, not overly sweet. If you like Koo laid, and not to sweetened you'll be a fan of this one.
Hibiscus/ Jamaica- my older sister said it tasted like "something rotted inside of it" she wasn't a fan of it. And we've tried real Jamaica/ Hibiscus, and my younger 11 year old sister said it tasted like sweet and sour water not so sweet though. I tried it myself, there was a hint of sourness but nothing strong, the taste was a very light hibiscus taste almost watered down, light hints of sweetness but some acidity and an off taste resembling Durian.
Pineapple/ Pina- it's my younger sister's second favorite, it doesnt really taste like pineapple, just floral fragrant hints of pineapple.

Tamarind/ Tamarindo - this is my mother's favorite, it has all of the elements of tamarind, pungent, sour, puckery but balanced with just the right amount of sugar. If your Mexican/ Hispanic and you love Tamarind, or the "Agua Frescas" made from Tamarind, if your in the mood for a soda grab this one you won't be disappointed

Mandarin- doesn't really taste like mandarin, tastes more like an orange.
Lime- tastes like a sweeter version of sprite.
Last Minute Note:
We don't drink all of the Jarritos soda's but the one's that we usually and almost always buy is the Tamarind one, it's my mother's favorite and everyone enjoys it.