Cue in the salsa verde, wild black rice, white rice and black beans. Beans and rice are a great side for almost any latin dish, so I decided to go for cerdo en salsa verde and use up all of these leftovers!
This dish is especially awesome because:
- Bruno has been wanting it for a while
- I get to use my crockpot for the first time!
So exciting, and so easy, check it out.
Cerdo en salsa verde
Servings: 2 (or 3, maybe even 4)
1 lb pork meat for stew, cut in chunks
1/2 tbsp all purpose seasoning (adobo)
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp oil
2 cups green salsa (recipe here or you can use Herdez brand)
5 sprigs of cilantro
1 medium zucchini, cut into cubes
1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder
Transfer the meat (garlic and all) to a slowcooker. Pour the green salsa over the meat, then add the zucchini, chicken bouillon powder and top with cilantro sprigs. Cook for 4 to 5 hours on high heat or 8 to 9 hours on low heat.
Go out and forget about this and come home to some seriously delicious smells! Pair it with rice and beans or corn tortillas and viola, a hearty homey meal.
If I cook this again I might not brown the meat in the skillet beforehand. I think it will cook just fine in the crockpot and it would have an even more melt-in-your-mouth consistency!
Bruno gives this meal a:
8.1 / 10
He said he could not ignore the unfamiliar consistency of the wild black rice... I on the other hand loved it!!
slow cooked pork is carnitas right?? :) looks great!!
ReplyDeleteCarnitas are also pork but they are cooked very differently and are not swimming in sauce... I'll make those someday too!
ReplyDeleteThe dish in this post is similar to what the menu at Rey Azteca calls carnitas. I would call it pork in green sauce or pork with zucchini.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about carnitas is that they cook the whole pork together (with no sauce, just spices) so that the flavours mix. Then you ask for a taco of whichever parts you want (leg, skin, loins, rib, ear, some of the stomach, or mixtures) put it in a soft corn tortilla (hopefully handmade) and put lime, whichever sauce you want and usually onion and cilantro on it. It's a completely different dish!!
So if you are having carnitas you should see three things going on:
1) A hot place with a lot of weird looking meats:
http://www.extramsg.com/albums/album327/mexicolindo4.sized.jpg
2) A cutting board with a butcher knife:
http://lesleytellez.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/img_6148.jpg
3) Hot sauces and slices of lime and probably a a plate with chopped cilantro and onion, (they have this in most places I've had carnitas [which happen to be a lot because I am a HUGE fan] but not everywhere)
http://adrienfelsmann.fr/bv/wp-content/uploads/20110808-la-comida-mexicana8.jpg
In the end your plate should look something like this:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_a9ZbnDDdmzo/SN65QDNEhWI/AAAAAAAAAB0/MFMlURPQuqg/s320/1532640116_592f1250ac_b.jpg
Unfortunately I think it will probably be very difficult to find in the Northeast (I've had some decent carnitas in Houston) or at least in central PA since we have very few Mexicans and I don't see Day coking a whole pork any time soon.