Rocking Breakfast – Recipe #12

If you missed the Pork & Waffles at Josh Coletto’s Rock N Roll Brunch last month, I’ve got two good pieces of news for you.

One:
This Sunday, the RNRB is heading back to The Low Beat in Albany. No, the dish won’t be on the menu a second time, but there will be another savory waffle and meat combination. This month it will be Goat & Waffles. And man, does it sound good. But I’m also a sucker for Red Flannel Hash. You can see the menu as it now stands right here.

Two:
Today, Josh is sharing his recipe for carnitas, which was the pork in the Pork & Waffles. Turns out, it’s easier than I thought. I’ll turn it over to Josh to explain.

All you really need is some carnitas, some rice, beans, a couple tortillas and maybe some escabeche. This may be the secret to a happy life. I used some local pork, from Climbing Tree Farm in New Lebanon, NY. The difference between this and factory pork makes all the difference.

Pork Carnitas

Ingredients:
4 pounds fatty pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch pieces
3 cups water or beer like tecate
1 lg red onion, chopped
1/2 orange
1 lime
8 garlic cloves, peeled
4 bay leaves
2 teaspoons mexican oregano
2 tsp cumin
4 guajillo chiles
5 arbol chiles
1 Tablespoon kosher salt

Directions:
1) Put all the ingredients together in a pot, being sure to squeeze the citrus and throw the peels in as well.
2) Bring the pot to a boil and cover, throw in the oven at 275 degrees for 2 hours or until the meat is fork tender and falling apart.
3) Pull the meat out of the liquid and shred it a bit into a delicious meaty mess.
4) Remove the citrus and the bay leaves and puree the leftover mix. Reduce down until thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Reserve for a tasty little meat sauce.
5) When ready to eat tacos (or whatever you wanna throw carnitas on) heat a pan with a little lard and fry the pork until brown and crispy.
6) Put in your tortilla!

Dammit, I did not need to know that. Holy cow that sounds amazing.

There is a possibility that I might be able to pop into The Low Beat on Sunday for the nineteenth iteration of this brunch.

But right now I’m so full from tackling Tavern Time last night. And on Friday night I’ll be attending the Alliance for Positive Health’s Beaujolais Nouveau festival. There’s also a big dinner on Sunday night. So the idea of squeezing another large meal into the mix is daunting, to say the last.

Still, there is so much delicious stuff on this menu, it’s so tempting. We’ll just have to see how I’m feeling on Sunday.