52 New Recipes | Carnitas
This week, I tried a recipe for carnitas from my ATK Best Mexican Recipes cookbook.
I've never made or eaten carnitas, so this was new on several fronts!
ATK's recipe called for braising chunks of pork butt in a citrusy broth for several hours.
Once the pork is fall-apart tender, you reduce the braising liquid to a syrupy consistency, toss it with the pork, and broil until the pork is a little bit crusty and browned.
And then you serve it in tortillas with fixings (and I have no picture of that part. Sorry!)
I was a little unsure of how I'd feel about the orange juice and lime juice flavors, but they were surprisingly good with the pork.
Even Joshua, who usually isn't a fan of fruity flavors mixed with savory flavors, was a fan.
So, yay!
Now, having not ever had real carnitas, I have no idea how completely authentic this was. But since we all liked it, I'm not too fussed about authenticity.
Here's a blog that has the whole recipe typed out for you. 😉
Next Week's Recipe
I poked through my ATK Mexican cookbook some more and am vacillating between a tequila-grilled chicken salad or Sinaloa-style grill-roasted chicken (halved, butterflied, marinated chicken cooked on the grill.)
Decisions, decisions...
I think I'm leaning slightly more toward the chicken because I've never cooked whole chicken on the grill; only pieces.
How about you?
What new thing did you cook this week? And did you decide on something for next week?
(Deciding on a new thing ahead of time is key for me! Otherwise I will totally put the decision off and not get around to it.)
I tried a new recipe this week because we have a lot of Bryan hot sausages in the freezer that came with a bulk meat deal. My family doesn't really eat super hot things so I was looking for a way to tone the heat down when I ran across a recipe for Rail splitters. Basically, you quarter the sausages lengthwise. I took this a step further and chopped them even smaller so I could put less on the kid's buns. The topping called for frozen corn, cream cheese, cumin, milk, sautéed onions, cilantro, and maybe salt/pepper. You put the sausages on a bun, add corn mixture on top, sprinkle shredded cheddar on top of that, then bake till buns are crispy and cheese melts. It was pretty good and the topping really toned down the heat of the sausages enough that my kids didn't even notice.
I should have mentioned that the sausages are first pan fried and the remaining fat from that is what is used to sautee' the onions. After onions are almost done, add corn and and spices. Once frozen corn is warm, add in everything else.
Those look amazing! I'm going to try them soon. 🙂
On a completely off topic note, has your family heard about rock hunting groups? People paint and seal rocks and then hide them all over town in parks, on trails, etc. My kids are loving the creative outlet, and we're all enjoying hunting. It's a great excuse for extra walks and bike rides. It sounded like something your family would love too if there's one in your area, so I figured I'd pass the idea along. 🙂
I hope this link to a map of local groups works. 🙂 https://goo.gl/maps/xsUe4j9uc7T2
I made a new soup recipe this week. A corn chowder that was supposed to be a copycat recipe for Panera's Corn Chowder. It didn't seem quite a copy, but was pretty tasty. And the girls didn't totally reject it (although the bacon and cheese I let them add in may have helped). Although, my 2-year-old was really hilarious as she spat out the little 1/4" piece of bell pepper she found :-).
Not really a recipe, but I'm totally psyched to try a new grocery store - there's an Aldi opening in our neighborhood today (and there was a long line waiting to get in before they even opened this morning!).
I made a Slow-cooker swiss steak for the first time last week. I served this over noodles. It was very good and I plan on having this again.
Ha, we discussed eggplant yesterday, but what I didn't mention, because I was waiting for this post, was that my new recipe this week was for eggplant! Eggplant French fries, to be exact. We tried some from a food truck at the church fair, and loved them, so I made them at home by adapting a couple of recipes I found online. Basically, eggplant is peeled, sliced into skinny fries and battered by dipping in egg and buttermilk mixture, then in a cornmeal and Italian seasoning mixture. I deep fried mine in a couple of inches of coconut oil, and they were delicious. We ate them all up. One new recipe that my husband loved, finally!
The eggplant taste is not real obvious in these fries, as a side note.
I've never had carnitas either. I like pork with fruit, so that might be good to try.
I made cinnamon roll flavored baked oatmeal last night for breakfasts and snacks and it is delicious! It is a little more crumbly that I would like, so I am going to tweak the recipe a bit to make them a little more moist. Not sure how to do that though... Yay for experiments! I'm glad you loved the carnitas! This would have to be a weekend recipe for us, but I'd like to try it!
Looks delicious as usual. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I roasted some broccoli for the first time last night and was quite pleased with the results. I'm not using a recipe, but tonight I am going to try to replicate a pulled pork pizza that we had in San Diego recently.
Hey carnitas seem easier than I thought! The idea of cooking a whole chicken on the grill intrigues me. This week Hubs made bone broth. I was shocked how easy it is, and it turned out great! We're adding this to our cooking routine!
I am a huge fan of whole chicken on the grill (we say braai), and often buy one ready marinated from the butcher. My husband is not as keen, as he says they're tricky to cook evenly, and the marinade is prone to burning. I still think he does a great job every time!
This carnitas look wonderful! I'm going to add it to my "new to try soon" list!
This past week we tried Basic Baked Eggs. The recipe was an adaption from Nigella Lawson recipe. It was simple, but the results were outstanding! My husband and I have had ramekins on our wish list for some time. After doing quite a bit or research we finally ordered a set and chose this recipe for our first foray into the ramekin world. It was an elegant treat. Next chicken pie!
My husband tried a recipe that had meatloaf layers interspersed with cheesy mashed potatoes. Not too bad.
We love our carnitas down here in Texas! I make mine much less healthy and stew them down in Dr. Pepper or Coke with some hot peppers. Mmmm.
This week we tried a riff on a pot pie. It... wasn't super great. It was worth trying though!
I made lasagna roll ups this week. I also made a chick pea soup. I don't eat chick peas, but my husband thought it was great.
Your carnitas look delicious! I didn't try anything new this week.
Monday: Fish, mac & cheese and corn
Tuesday: Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo, fries & salad
Wednesday: Chick-fil-A
Thursday: Chili
Friday: Thinking we may eat Pei Wei. We haven't eaten out on a Friday in a while.
My new recipe this week was your shrimp stir fry recipe and it was a success for all five of us!
Woohoo!
My mother always insists that mushrooms need to be destemmed and peeled. Yesterday I took all the scraps and made a small broth. It was very flavourful and simple to do. I then used the broth to make risotto to go with the cooked mushrooms. I will be keeping those scraps from now on.
Oh wow. I can't imagine peeling mushrooms! That's dedication.