Carnitas and Roasted Pepper Mini Quesadillas with Fresh Salsa

{ In progress...}

Invited to the neighbours for appero, or French cocktail hour, I thought for a week about what to bring. I recently perfected my recipe for carnitas - deep fried chunks of pork that are then braised in the oven for hours until you can shred the tender bits of meet apart with a fork that you then broil so the fatty bits get crunchy under the broiler - and I knew I wanted to test it on some new palates.

But carnitas is usually served in tacos, so my first thought was to make mini-tacos. I made the carnitas and salsa fresco last night because both taste better the 2nd day, and woke up this morning to make my mini tortillas, which turned out so cute I don't want to fold them in half.

Here they are fresh from the pan.

And here there are with my cheap IKEA silverware to show you how small they are.

Also, where is this world of single socks and vanished teaspoons? I have 24 forks, butter knives, and soup spoons but 5 teaspoons. Am I the only one this happens to?

 So now I've decided to make open quesadillas. I'll spoon a bit of carnitas topped with the roasted peppers, a bit of grated smoked gouda, and then top with chilled salsa right before serving.

 I rolled out my tortilla dough and used a jar cover to make the shape of my mini tortillas, so I have lots of scraps left over. I'm going to roll this dough as well, bake them, and serve as chips with the rest of the salsa fresco and the guacamole.

Flour Tortillas

The pork I bought to make the carnitas happened to come with a nice strip of pork fat wrapped around it that I rendered last night to have it nice and solid by this morning.  Rendering fat is as easy as heating it up and letting it boil down.  From about 25 grams of pork fat I rendered 5 tablespoons of lard, which I then used to make the tortillas because lard gives the tortillas the best taste.

4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons lard (canola oil or room temperature butter also work)
1 1/2 cups warm water

Whisk together the salt, baking powder, and flour.

Work the lard (or other fat) with your hands until it has a cornmeal consistency, and slowly add the warm water while working the flour with your hands, gathering it together and then "folding it over" until it becomes a nice soft ball of dough.

Let the dough rest 15 minutes and cut into 8 equal pieces.  Let dough rest another 15 minutes. Use a rolling pin to roll it out to desired thickness and shape.  Cook on dry griddle pan or cast iron frying pan until the dough puffs up and there are distinct little marks where the fat in the dough has been cooked by the heat. Turn over and repeat.

Store in a tortilla server if you have one or between slightly damp paper towels then wrap in foil.

Now if you want to make the mini tortillas follow all the steps but roll out your dough to maximize how many small circles you can get out of the dough (and if you're making chips later, save the scraps). Before re-rolling out any dough, give the dough 15 minutes to rest. Then cook your tortillas, etc. as normal.

I rolled these mini tortillas a bit thicker than I might if making regular sized tortillas because I wanted them to be able to hold the weight of the toppings and undercooked them just a tad because in the final step they'll be put on a cookie sheet to melt the cheese and the bottom of the tortilla will cook a little then as well.

Carnitas

This is a very complicated recipe and though I think I've perfected it, maybe not entirely yet. For example the recipe I've been working from definitely could be spruced up a bit. I'd like to make further adjustments, so perhaps you might want to incorporate some of these as well.

* I'd marinate the pork chunks in the spice rub for at least 8 hrs in the fridge on the chance it might give the meat a more seasoned taste.
* I'd discard more of the oil from the deep frying process, perhaps using it to fry something else for the same meal?
* I'd try braising the pork with something other than orange juice - Coke is often used in Mexico as well as Sprite, Fanta, and pineapple juice. I think the Fanta and Coke would probably have the best taste.
* I've pulled this out of the oven at the 2 hr and the original recipe's 4 hr mark. I would say 3 hrs is probably just about the right amount of time. You get a better texture than 4 hrs of braising and better taste than just 2 hrs of braising.

Like I said, I've perfected a version, but I think there's a lot of room for improvement, so if you know of a more trusted recipe I'd use that and please, send me more recipes. Carnitas is one of my favourite things to eat.

Spice Rub:

1 kg (2.2 lbs) of boneless pork shoulder
2 T freshly ground cumin
2 T garlic powder
1 T salt
1 T cayenne pepper

1. Cut pork into cubes, rub with spices, and let sit in fridge for 8 hours - overnight (original recipe calls for 30 minutes, I don't think this is enough time).

2. After pork has marinated, pour 1/4 cup of oil (I use olive) into a Dutch oven (I use my old trusty Le Creuset) and heat oil until nearly smoking.

3. Adding pork in batches, fry the pork in oil until browned (fat will look crispy) and cooked through.  Remove cooked pork from oil and set aside while cooking the remaining pork.

4. Once all the pork has been fried, remove several spoonfuls of oil, and deglaze the Dutch oven with 1 cup orange juice (make sure to dissolve the brown bits).

5. Add the pork back to the orange juice mixture, add enough water to cover just about cover the meat, and let cook in oven 3 hrs at 200 degrees (C).

6. Remove the pork from the juice, shred with two forks, and toss with remaining juice from Dutch oven.  Broil shredded pork under the broiler until slightly crispy along the edges.

Serve with rice, tortillas, and other Mexican side dishes.