OT: Non-Egg Recipe Help Wanted: Carnitas -- Beli?

I've also been looking for a recipe for carnitas. I found this one that I was thinking of somehow adapting to the egg. Most recipes I found seem to be a combination of braising and roasting. Of course most also say to trim off excess fat which won't go over well here. :( I'm sure they will be better when done on an egg. Am looking forward to see what comes along.

BTW, my sister lives in Ozark, on the lake.

--Dave

Carnitas

4-5-pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into 5-inch chunks, trimmed of excess fat
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons canola or neutral vegetable oil
water
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon chile powder
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
2 bay leaves
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly-sliced

1. Rub the pieces of pork shoulder all over with salt. Refrigerate for 1- to 3-days. (You can skip this step if you want. Just be sure to salt the pork before searing the meat in the next step.)
2. Heat the oil in a roasting pan set on the stovetop. Cook the pieces of pork shoulder in a single layer until very well-browned, turning them as little as possible so they get nice and dark before flipping them around. If your cooking vessel is too small to cook them in a single-layer, cook them in two batches.
3. Once all the pork is browned, remove them from the pot and blot away any excess fat with a paper towel, then pour in about a cup of water, scraping the bottom of the pan with a flat-edged utensil to release all the tasty brown bits.
4. Heat the oven to 350F (180C) degrees.
6. Add the pork back to the pan and add enough water so the pork pieces are 2/3rd's submerged in liquid. Add the cinnamon stick and stir in the chile powders, bay leaves, cumin and garlic.
7. Braise in the oven uncovered for 3½ hours, turning the pork a few times during cooking, until much of the liquid is evaporated and the pork is falling apart. Remove the pan from the oven and lift the pork pieces out of the liquid and set them on a platter.
8. Once the pork pieces are cool enough to handle, shred them into bite-sized pieces, about 2-inches (7 cm), discarding any obvious big chunks of fat if you wish.
9. Return the pork pieces back to the roasting pan and cook in the oven, turning occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated and the pork is crispy and caramelized. It will depend on how much liquid the pork gave off, and how crackly you want them.
I like mine deeply, darkly, crispy brown on the outside.

Ah, crispy bits of little meats...

I haven't made it, but:

Diana Kennedy's recipe has you cut 3 lbs of pork into cubes, season with a little salt, put in a heavy pan large enough that the cubes are in a single layer, with just enough water to cover, then simmer uncovered until the water is gone (about 2 hours). At that point you turn the cubes to each side and let all sides get lighly browned.

I have a pretty good shredded carnitas recipe, but it uses the slow cooker and the meat gets shredded/pulled and is very moist, not crispy (although you can crisp it up in a skillet, I guess). It's cooked with onions, Hatch chiles, cumin, oregano, and beer, so it's probably not quite the carnitas you're thinking of.

Here's one from Rick Bayless' web site.

Hold on......writing the recipe...

I'm pretty sure that it's a food law:

Slow Cooked in Lard = WONDERFUL!!

BobS wrote:

It is hard to argue with Beli, because he is Mexican and lives in beautiful Monterey.

That said, the Rick Bayless recipe that was posted here sounds like the carnitas that we got when living in Tampico.

They were slow cooked in lard and they were WONDERFUL.

I had many kilos of carnitas that came out of an open washtub, cooking over an open fire. YUM.