So being the FNG here I'm wandering around the forum looking at different stuff. And maybe cause its lunch time I wandered in here? Or am I just always hungry. ::)
Anywho....I was raised in New England by Yankees so barbecue might as well have been something from Australia as far as I knew. (Oh and did I mention my Mom is a lousy cook? ha! Love her dearly...but cooking is not her strong suit!) Then as I got older I tried ribs....mmmmm.....oh buddy. Had to learn how to make those! Then brisket....fahgetaboutit! Had to do that. Then I moved on to pulled pork (I like to have both traditional BBQ sauce and traditional NC vinegar sauce...mmmm!). My son loved that so much I ended up doing 90 lbs of it for his HS grad party (along with home made brisket baked beans and slaw ;)). THAT'LL keep ya busy! (especially on a small grille! yeesh).
Last weekend I made carnitas which (I only recently learned so sorry if all you guys already know about it) is a Mexican pulled pork sort of thing (albeit with completely different spices than traditional pulled pork BBQ). So I'll share this one as a recipe since its easy and tastes darn good. I made it with a grilled corn salad too and was a hit last Sunday Father's Day.
So start with a Boston Butt....I like that better than a picnic roast. Well primarily cause I'm lazy and don't like skinning the shoulder if I don't have to. :-[ So I cut up the Boston butt into 1" "steaks" with one big chunk with the bone left in it. I layered the crock pot with cut up onions. The put the pork cuts on top. Tossed in cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper (see? TOTALLY different spices than my regular pulled pork which is definitely a BBQ recipe and also is done with smoke on the grille). Added 2 bottles of lager (I would use any beer except light beer). I set it on slow an went to bed. Sunday AM I got up and it was fully cooked. I drained off the liquid (saving it), then shredded the pork. Added some liquid back.
Saturday when I did the pork I had also made fresh pico de gallo. Diced up about 10 plum tomatoes, about 5 or 6 Vidalia onions, 4 or 5 jalapenos, and added about a cup of chopped cilantro. Added equal parts vinegar (I used red cider but any will do), and extra virgin olive oil. Let that just sit until Sunday.
So Sunday I also made the grilled corn salad. For this I started by grilling the corn (corn grilled is just light years ahead of boiled/steamed). Also grilled some poblano peppers. Let the corn cool a bit before cutting the kernels off the corn. Pulled the blackened blistered skin off the poblanos and chopped them up. Made a mix of olive oil, lime juice, and some salt. Poured that over the corn and poblanos. Then cut up some avocados, red onion (small slices) and chopped cilantro. Then mixed all together (don't mix it too hard you don't want to beat up the avocados too much). This is just amazing.
Now where were we....oh yeah... the pork. :P So back to the grille.....added more charcoal....let that get ripping hot. Took my trusty cast iron made in China ::) camping griddle....threw it on the grille and started adding the shredded pork. It sizzled and smoked putting a nice crust on the pork. Turned it a few times. Took some off....added more....kept at it till I had cooked it all up that way and it was all nicely crusted and hot.
Now the tortillas....corn tortillas....a little oil on the grille....toss them on....give them a minute or so (I honestly forget how long...30 seconds when the grille is crazy hot? more if its just warm)...flip them and do the other side...the point is you want to heat them nicely and have a little brown on 'em but ultimately warm not crispy. They still need to be soft enough to make tacos with them.
Oh yeah....forgot the creama (I prefer this so I can drizzle it over the tacos instead of big clumps of sour cream)....couldn't find any creama around here so I mixed sour cream and heavy cream and a touch of sugar. Let it set until it flowed together nicely and was "soupy" like. (Sorry that's a technical term donchaknow?! ha!)
So now all comes to the table....grab a tortilla, add the carnitas, some pico, drizzle the creama....a side of grilled corn salad. Mmmm. Good eating! :)
