A week ago I had friends over for lunch, and I made carnitas and tomalito, two things I love but had never made before (I always seem to enjoy trying new stuff out on said friends, who have been victims of stuff like homemade sushi, etc. before).
CARNITAS RECIPE (from food.com)
3 lbs pork tenderloin
4 cups chicken broth, hot
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder, medium hot
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat up chicken broth on stove.
2. Add spices and lime juice to chicken broth.
3. Put broth into crock pot.
4. Add pork to crock pot.
5. Cover and cook on LOW for like 8-9 hours until broth is reduced and pork is delicious.
6. Shred meat and mix into thickened cooking sauces.
7. Be amazed you cooked something so delicious.
NOTE: I forgot the lime juice till the stuff was basically done. I added the lime juice afterwards and the pork was able to marinate in the newly limed juices overnight before my friends came over. So, I would recommend remembering the lime juice at the beginning because the citrus flavor really adds to the meat. Also add more salt. NOTE #2: the online directions say cook it on HIGH for 4-6 hours but I wasn’t going to be home while it was cooking so I just cooked it on low per some other recipe I found when I was looking.
CORN STUFF (aka tomalito from Chevy’s. From allrecipes.com)
5 tablespoons margarine, softened
1/4 cup masa harina
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
2 cups frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons milk
DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium bowl, mix together the margarine, masa flour, and sugar until light and fluffy (use a hand mixer!).
2. In a food processor or blender, blend 1.5 cups of the corn kernels with the water and cornmeal just until smooth. Stir into the masa mixture.
3. Mix in the remaining corn, baking powder, salt, and milk until the batter is smooth.
4. Place batter in microwaveable container with a lid that seals so no steam escapes.
5. Cook in microwave on LOW (level 3 or 4) for 4 minutes, give it a good stir, then cook on HIGH (level 10) for seven more minutes.
6. Check to see if corn stuff is still soupy, if so, put it back in the microwave for another minute or so.
7. Stir up corn stuff so its texture is consistent and serve.
8. Be amazed that this is EXACTLY as delicious as the corn stuff from Chevy’s.
The directions actually call for the corn stuff to be cooked in a double boiler, but yeah, I don’t have one of those, nor did I have an hour for it to steam, either. The microwave method listed here worked just fine!
Anyway, enjoy. Right now I’m cooking another crockpot of pork, but I just did it regular with some seasonings. I will add mushroom soup and have it all gravylicious later. I like crockpot cooking, I’m glad I got over my irrational fear of it – there will be muchas pork tenderloin in my future!! I think real carnitas use a fattier cut of pork (shoulder or butt) however Trader Joe’s conveniently had tenderloin so that’s what I used.
Thank you! We are so making this <strike>
this week</strike> <strike>tomorrow</strike> as soon as I can pick up some pork!LOL, so much for html tags….
Trying this
out