A note from Sophie:
Every once in a while, my dear cousin “Miss Ellie” graces us with her presence. She flits into town and lands on my couch, regaling me with stories of her wide-ranging travels. She also has a habit of taking over my kitchen. Normally, my kitchen is MY kitchen – visitors sit and drink while I cook. But my cousin has a particular way with food. So, I let her do her thing. In this month’s blog, she kindly offered to share a bit of her passion for Mexican cuisine – and of course, how best to enjoy it with a good beer!
Food Cravings and the tacos your mother never made, unless you’re Mexican of course!
I love to visit my cousin Sophie!She always has an abundant supply of that Salt Box Beer in her fridge. As I kick back and savour a sip of their latest brew,I often wonder what I might cook to complement the flavourful notes in the beer, which brings me to these musings on food cravings and tacos. I confess….I have cravings. I don’t mean the bad kind but the good kind,food cravings based on flavoursand textures so delicious you can’t get them out of your mind and your taste buds demand to experience those flavoursand textures again and again and again.
Such is my craving for carnitas, a dish to which my husband and I were introduced by a dear friend several years ago. He pitched up one night for dinner, home-madecarnitas AND home-made tortillas in hand. My taste buds were in heaven and a craving was born.
In Spanish, the word carnitas means “little meats." However, in Mexican cuisine it refers specifically to pork that, when properly prepared, turns an ordinary, cheap cut of meat into a culinary miracle of flavourful and succulent, yet crispy, little “pieces of meat”. These little miracles are most often served with corn tortillas, guacamole, and salsa.
For many years my craving for carnitaswas answered by a simple phone call to our friend. A date would be chosen and he would turn up at our door with the complete meal no fuss, no muss, at least not in our kitchen. At one point though, I decided it was time to cut the cord, grow up and learn to make these tasty morsels on my own. Thus began the search for “my” recipe for the ultimate carnitas. The one I chose, and eventually tweaked, was from the food blog GimmeSomeOven. It won me over because of the smokiness brought to the dish by the addition of Chipotle chili powder. (Dried Chipotles can be found pretty much anywhere. I found mine at Your Independent in Lunenburg.)
For a super flavour punch, instead of relying on store-bought chili powder,make your own by grindingthe chilies of choice into powder.I use an old coffee grinder. This is very easy and adds SO much more flavour to the dish you will be glad you did! “My” recipe below uses two types of chilies: dried Chipotles for the smoke and your choice of Pasilla, Ancho or New Mexico chili. I use whichever I have on hand at the time, although Anchos are my favourite.
The recipe is in a link below; but before you get to it the two other important parts of your carnitas meal need to be addressed: the choice of tortilla and the choice of beer.
Choice number one – the all important tortilla.For an “as-true-to-authentic” taste experience as you can get at home, you absolutely MUST use a 100% corn tortilla. The best would be made with masa harina (see note below). Unfortunately tortillas made with masa harina are not easy to find on the South Shore. A good substitute is Old Mill white corn tortillas which I found at Your Independent in Lunenburg. If you want the real thing, make a visit to Pete’s Fine Foods the next time you are in Halifax. That’s where I found them the last time I made carnitas.
Choice number two –which Salt Boxbeer to drink? Three come to mind.
Holy Mackerel Pale Ale: The alcohol and hop bitterness will cut through the richness of the pork and refresh the palate while the fruity flavours will match the salsa.
Jeezus Murphy Irish Red: A more malt forward beer like an amber ale works nicely with the roasted flavor of thecarnitas. It also has enough hop bitterness toresonate with the tomato salsa and cilantro and to cut throughthe richness of the guacamole.
Dynamite Trail: The refreshingcitrus flavors of this Weissbierwill match up with the lime you just squeezed over the top of your taco filling.
LINK TO CARNITAS RECIPE HERE