Best Ever Carnitas

Yeah, you read that right. I love caritas... they are my family's favorite Mexican dish. When we lived in San Diego we used to go to this great Mexican place near our house for dinner weekly and caritas were our favorite, but alas once we moved away there were no caritas to be had. So there started our quest for the perfect caritas recipe. I have been tweaking it for about 15 years and the batch I made last night was proclaimed by my better half as "The Best" I have ever made. Thanks sweetie! I think they were damned good too, my kids agree and I hope you will too!

Caritas1 Pork Shoulder, bone in
2 tbsp. Canola oil
1 large sweet onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp dried Mexican oregano
2 bay leaves
Salt and Pepper
1 c. Orange Juice
1/2 c. Lemon juice
1/2 c. Lime juice


Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Salt and Pepper the Pork shoulder well on all sides.
In a large Dutch oven, sear the meat well on all sides over medium to medium high heat, about 5 minutes per side. This is the most important step! Don't skip it or skimp on the sear time and make sure you sear all around.... even the sides. Trust me, that golden brown crust on that meat and the bits that are in the bottom of the pan are flavoring gold!

 Now that you have that bad boy seared, remove to a plate and move onto he the aromatics.

Turn the heat down to medium, add the onions and garlic, add oregano, bay leaf, salt and pepper and sauté  until slightly translucent.

Now add the citrus juices. Now I'm not going to lie, fresh is best (and if you go fresh please add some of the zest of those beautiful fruits!) but I usually do a combination of fresh and store bought juices. I usually have fresh lemons and limes in the house so I use fresh there and orange juice from one of the great bottled brands you can pick up at the grocery store.

Return the meat to the Dutch oven. The juice should reach about a 1/3 of the way up the meat. If not you can add a bit more of any (or a combination) of the juices to get to that level. Now pop the lid on the pot and sit back and relax while the oven does the rest of the work.

The meat is ready when the bone slips out of the roast easily, this usually takes about 4 hours but cook times vary depending on the size of your roast ( I start looking at it after around 3 1/2 hours, but if you have a very large roast it can take up to 5 hours)

Once the meat is done, remove bone and shred with 2 forks, mixing the meat with all of the wonderful braising liquid. 

Now you are ready to eat! This makes great tacos, burritos, burrito bowls, or nachos but my favorite is as Enchiladas Verde.

This is a great recipe for parties because it feeds a crowd affordably (and deliciously) but it also freezes great!

Hope you give it a try and let me know what you think.

Bon Appetite!

K

Summer Grilled Peach and Chicken Salad with Goat Cheese and Lemon Vinegrette

Where did June go?? We have had terribly hot temperatures here this June and today was the worst yet- upper 90s with 90% humidity!! Ugh!! And yet, bought these great looking peaches that I really want to use in one of my favorite summer salads.... Grilled peaches and chicken with goat cheese. I can't think of anything right now that could scream summer. And that it is a breeze to throw together and doesn't require heating up the house is just bonus.

 

 

 

Summer Grilled Peach and Chicken Salad with Goat Cheese and Lemon Vinaigrette

 

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 medium to large peaches

10 strawberries, sliced

1/2 pint fresh blueberries

4 oz soft goat cheese

1 large bag fresh baby spinach, baby arugula, or romaine lettuce

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

 

 

Vinaigrette:

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 lemon, zest and juice

1 tsp. honey

2 Tbsp Olive oil

2-3 chopped herbs of your choice- anything you have in your fridge or garden will work really. I use thyme and parsley, chives if I have them are nice here too but feel free to play!

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

 

Preheat grill on med-high to 400F

Salt and pepper the chicken and grill until the internal temperature is 160 degrees, which is about 10 minutes preside depending on the thickness of you chicken breast.

 Half way through the cooking time is when I add the peaches, cut side down and grill for 5-10 minutes until the juices are running and you have some lovely grill marks.

 

Once done, remove the peaches and the chicken to a plate and let rest for 5-10 minutes (to allow the juices to redistribute throughout the meat).

 

Now is the time for your vinaigrette. Combine all the ingredients except the olive oil until combined. Now, slowly drizzle in the oil with a small whisk until all of the oil is emulsified. Set aside.

 

Now pop those salad greens into a bowl, add the dressing and to coat. Add your blueberries, strawberries, crumbled goat cheese, grilled peaches and sliced chicken.

 

Serve with warm crusty bread. Hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

 

Bon Appetite!

 

K

 

Hazy, hot and humid= Summertime Salmon Salad

Oh my God it's hot! I leave the DC area for a week long class, sunny skies and cool breezes in Newport, Rhode Island and come home to August in June! Lol! I mean it is crazy hot here-low to mid 90s with high humidity, hazy skies, and the occasional thunderstorm. Definitely summertime now. 

Unfortunately, while I would be perfectly content with summer fruit and a cheese platter for dinner, the rest of my family has been swimming in the pool for three hours and needs something a bit more substantial. This kind of day calls for a big dinner salad. Tonight's version:

Garlic-Parsley Butter Grilled Salmon Composed Salad with a Honey-Mustard Vinegrette  

This is a super fast and easy recipe and satisfies even the hungriest little fish at your table. 

Summertime Salmon Salad:

4 Fillets Salmon (wild Alaskan is my favorite but farm raised will do just as well)

1/3c. Softened Butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 c. fresh parsley, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat grill to high

For the garlic butter, combine butter, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper until well combined

Pat the salmon fillets dry 

Spread  about 1/2 tbsp butter mixture on each fillet

Once grill reaches 400 degrees, grill the salmon skin, side down, for 8-10 minutes depending on thickness and cook until just cooked through. Remove to a plate

Honey Mustard Vinegrette

1/4 c fresh lemon juice

1/4 c extra Virginia olive oil

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

Composed Salad- 

Now here is where you get to use your imagination, favorite flavor combinations, or (in my case) whatever you have in your fridge. 

Today I used chopped romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, diced cucumber, hard boiled egg halves, olives, and some wonderful leftover marinated oven roast tomatoes I had in the back of my fridge. I'll post that recipe another time :)

I also had some leftover garlic butter, so I popped that on a few ciabatta rolls I had tossed in the freezer a few weeks ago and toasted those up as well. I love the crunch of hot grilled bread along with a cool salad. 

(Bread before picture because my kids are the grilled bread before I remember to grab a photo of it! But trust me when o say it was grilled to crunchy perfection. Lol!)

Now the easy assembly- 

Dress the salad with the Vinegrette, top with the grilled fish and serve with some of the lovely grilled bread. Easy peasy, healthy and satisfying. 

Hope you enjoy! 

Xx

K

Rainy Day Banana Bread Blues

First off, apologies for not writing in so long. Hopefully you aren't waiting for me to post new recipes in order to get food on your table every day. I have been in a bit of a simple food phase lately...loads of big salads and grilled proteins. Not sure if it has been the weather- which has been unseasonably hot and humid (I think I read we had the warmest May on record!)- or if I have been waiting for summer's bounty to inspire me. 

Looks like I am going to have to wait as it has been rainy, gray, and chilly for the last week. So as I sulk over my lost opportunity to go strawberry picking for the first time in 4 years (insert whine here). 

So after spending yet another rainy day at the pool for my kids' swim team practice I and going to pour myself a cup of tea and baking a fresh chocolate chip banana bread. That should warm us all up! 

CHOCOLATE CHIP BANANA BREAD

2 cups all purpose flour (you can substitute whole wheat if you like here. It makes a slightly denser bread but has great flavor)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp kosher salt

2/3 cup sugar 

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

2 eggs

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp lemon juice 

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp ground cinnamon (I'll be honest, I only eyeball this) 

3 very ripe bananas- 2 mashed, 1 diced

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F 

Combine the flour, salt and baking soda

In a separate bowl combine the sugar, Greek yogurt, eggs, cinnamon and vanilla. 

Add the wet to the dry and mix gently. Next, combine the lemon juice to the milk, and then add to the batter

Now the fun part- mash up 2 bananas and dice the third. Add to the batter along with chocolate chips

Pour batter into a well buttered loaf pan and bake at 350F for 60 min until golden brown and delicious. 

Hope you enjoy!! 

Xx

K