Shredded Pork Tostados

I stinkin love Mexican food. I think it might be because I was raised on it, or maybe it was because it was the last thing that my Mom ate before she birthed me.  Regardless I LOVE IT! I made this dish from a pork shoulder that I slow cooked and made hawaiian bbq pork out of the first night and then soaked in orange juice and chipolte peppers the second day.  It was delicious.  The tangy orange juice was a nice partner to the spicy chipolte and then I topped it with finely chopped onion, chopped cilantro and avocado, queso fresco and a ton of lime. So really no recipe, except for the pork shoulder:

Kalua Pork
delightfully borrowed from melskitchencafe
10-12 pounds pork shoulder butt roast (don’t substitute a leaner cut of pork or it will be dry)
1 bottle liquid smoke
2 tablespoons sea salt (or hula salt if you can find it)
1 1/2 cups water
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Trim roast of large pockets of fat (but leave some fat on there to help the pork stay tender while cooking). Place pork in large roasting pan (the aluminum, deep roasting pans you can buy at the grocery store work great if you don’t own a heavy-duty roasting pan). Rub 2-3 tablespoons of sea salt into pork. Pour the bottle of liquid smoke over and around the pork. Pour the water around the pork. Cover roasting pan TIGHTLY with two layers of aluminum foil.
Bake for 5-7 hours

Italian Pork Roast with Rosemary Gravy

     Growing up my family had a serious thing for pork.  A serious love affair with the other white meat. Almost borderline obsession.  My dad is the king of pork. (that is kinda gross!) He loves to cook it anyway though, grill, baked, fried(hello bacon!) etc.  SA and I on the other hand rarely eat pork, however last week when I found pork roasts on sale for an incredible deal I jumped on it, remembering that last year I made a tasty Italian style pork roast and intending on using the same recipe.
Unfortunately once I got home I couldn't find the recipe anywhere.  Fail, time to wing it!

Italian Pork Roast with Rosemary Gravy
4 Garlic cloves roughly chopped
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. Rosemary
1/2 tsp. Basil
1/4 tsp. Chervil
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. olive oil
1-2 pound pork roast

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine spices, sugar and olive oil in food processor and blend until it forms a paste.  Pat over top of roast and place roast in a baking dish.  Bake uncovered for 30 minutes, and then cover and back another 45 minutes.  (Depends on size of your roast). Serve with garlic mashed potatoes and
rosemary gravy.

Rosemary Gravy (Not to be confused with Rosemary's Baby)
After the roast was done:
De glaze the pan with a little wine or broth (I used wine)
add roughly 1tbsp flour and mix into liquid, scrapping up the good meat bits in the pan.
Continue stirring until thick (add a little more broth or water if you need to) and then spice to your taste.
I used about 1/4 tsp of rosemary, the same of garlic and a little salt and black pepper.

Fall Food is THE BEST! (Pork Loin with Carmelized Onion Apple Cider Gravy)

     Fall food is my favorite.  Homey, comforting, seasonal and delicious it embodies everything I love about cooking.
     Yesterday was Halloween and I worked most of the day but I wanted to cook something that was full of fall flavor, but wouldn't take too long since we were getting a ton of little ghosties and goblins at our door, and it took both of us to control the pirate when kids came to the door:

     He gang busted out the first time kids came to the door and licked a little princess all over.  Lucky for me her parents just laughed  and it was a good laugh, but let me tell you after that I was totally scared he would do it again!

Pork Loin
2 sprigs rosemary leaves, roughly chopped

2 sprigs sage, roughly chopped
 Salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
pork loin
1 large onions chopped
2 C. Apple Cider
vegetable broth
        Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
In a food processor, combine the chopped herbs with the garlic, crushed red pepper, a generous pinch of salt and enough olive oil to make a paste. Brush the paste on the outside of the pork loin and put in roasting pan. Add 1 cup of Apple cider.  Roast the pork at 425 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until the pork has developed a lovely brown crust. Check the pork, Add vegetable broth if  too much of the apple cider has cooked down.
       Lower the oven to 375 degrees F and roast for another 30 to 35 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer reads 150 degrees F. If the crust on the pork starts to get too dark, cover it with foil. Remove 1 1/2 cups of the cider from the bottom of the roasting pan and reserve for the gravy.
      Let the pork rest for at least 15 minutes before carving. When ready to carve cut into thin slices.


Apple Cider Gravy
I Tbsp. butter
1 large onion cut in slivers
1 Tbsp. flour
1 1.2 cups reserved apple cider/broth
salt and pepper to taste.
1 Tbsp. Apple Butter
     Heat the pan on medium high heat until butter is melted. Add the onion slices and stir to coat the onions with the butter. Spread the onions out evenly over the pan and let cook, stirring occasionally. After 10 minutes, sprinkle some salt over the onions, and if you want, you can add some sugar to help with the caramelization process. Once onions have reached a caramel color, sprinkle flour over and mix in until onions are coated and you can't see the flour.  Pour in apple cider/broth mixture and turn up to high heat.
Still on a high heat, reduce the cider by half stirring all the time scraping the goodness from the bottom of the pan. Once the gravy has thickened add salt and pepper to taste and finish with the apple butter for an extra apple taste!
     I loved this recipe. It was super easy and combined some of the best flavors of fall.  The next time I make it I am going to make a pot of garlic mashed potatoes to go with it so that I have something else to put the delicious gravy on!!!

Happy 4th of July! and Going Country...

Country--
Style Ribs that is!!!
Today was a pretty great day, and the start of what will most definetley be an awesome week. BBQing had to be done today, however, to celebrate the 4th and the only thing I had in the freezer was some country style ribs. I had no idea how to cook those bad boys but I knew I needed to do something to make them tender and to add the the flavor since we have a gas grill, not a charcoal grill, and I have yet to get any cedar planks or woodchips to practice with.

Country Style Ribs
8 pork country style ribs
3-4 Tbsp. Mustard
1 Tbsp. Braggs Amino Acids

Rub:
1/4 C. packed brown sugar
2 tsp. seasoning salt
2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
1 1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. grated orange rind
1/4 tsp. cumin

1.Combine the Rub ingrediants, and smear ribs with mustard and amino acids. Sprinkle 1/2 cup rub mixture evenly over the ribs. Press into mustard and wrap ribs tightly in aluminum foil.
2.Now here you have two options, you can either cook them on the grill on low for 90 minutes or you can do what I did and put them in a 350 degree oven for 90 minutes. Since I was cooking with a gas grill, I really saw no point in wasting gas for that long when it really wasn't necessary.
3.Remove the ribs from foil and sprinkle the remaining rub mixture over the ribs. Place the ribs on the grill over indirect heat. Cover the grill and cook for 10 minutes. Turn the ribs so they are facing meat side up. Cover grill and continue cooking an additional 10 minutes or until ribs are tender.
You should definetley check the ribs before ten minutes because I actually overcooked my ribs a bit, but they had a great taste and the mustard did a lot to make them both flavorful and tender.
I served these with some twicebaked potatoes, and wanted to have some baked beans, but unfortunatley, we were out of beans, or maybe that will be fortunate ;).