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Citrus-Braised Pork Tacos

Ingredients

Pork

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 onion, chopped fine
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup tomato paste
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
  • 3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 5 bay leaves
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 (2 1/2- to 3-pound) boneless pork butt roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch chunks

Pickled Red Onions

  • 1 red onion, halved and sliced thin
  • 1 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon Salt

Habanero Sauce

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
  • 1 vine-ripened tomato, cored and chopped
  • 1/4 cup chopped onion
  • 1/2 habanero chile
  • 1 garlic clove, smashed and peeled
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons lime juice, plus lime wedges for serving
  • 18 (6-inch) corn tortillas

Instructions

  1. FOR THE PORK: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook until lightly browned, 4 to 6 minutes.
  2. Add garlic, cumin, oregano, allspice, and cinnamon and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until paste begins to darken, about 45 seconds. Stir in water, orange juice concentrate, 2 tablespoons vinegar, Worcestershire, bay leaves, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper, scraping up any browned bits.
  3. Add pork and bring to boil. Transfer to oven, uncovered, and cook until pork is tender, about 2 hours, stirring once halfway through cooking.
  4. FOR THE PICKLED RED ONIONS: Meanwhile, place onion in medium bowl. Bring vinegar, sugar, and salt to simmer in small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Pour over onions and cover loosely. Let onions cool completely, about 30 minutes. (Onions can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.)
  5. FOR THE HABANERO SAUCE: Combine water, carrot, tomato, onion, habanero, garlic, and teaspoon salt in now-empty saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat and cook until carrot is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let carrot mixture cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Transfer carrot mixture to blender, add vinegar and lime juice, and process until sauce is smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste; set aside. (Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.)
  6. Transfer pot to stovetop; discard bay leaves. Using potato masher, mash pork until finely shredded. Bring to simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook until most of liquid has evaporated, 3 to 5 minutes.
  7. Off heat, stir in remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve on tortillas with pickled red onions, habanero sauce, and lime wedges.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:

To make cochinita pibil, the inspiration for our recipe, a whole suckling pig is swaddled in bitter orange juice and banana leaves before being nestled under a pile of hot coals to stew. To make this process feasible for a home cook, we substituted pork butt for the whole pig. We nixed the banana leaves and annatto, a spice typically used in this dish but hard to find. Instead we added bay leaves for herbal flavor and Worcestershire for meaty tanginess. Tomato paste gave the meat its vibrant color. A quick habanero sauce and pickled red onions balanced out the rich meat.

SERVES 6

Pork butt roast is often labeled Boston butt in the supermarket. For a spicier sauce, add an extra habanero or two; if you are spice-averse, substitute less-spicy jalapeos for the habaneros.

TEST KITCHEN TIP: SAFELY HANDLING HABANEROS

Take our word for it: Dont handle habaneros with your bare hands. The capsaicin levels are so high that they can irritate your skin (or worse, your eyes). To protect yourself, wear disposable latex gloves. In a pinch, zipper-lock bags can serve as makeshift gloves.

TRANSLATING COCHINITA PIBIL

Authentic cochinita pibil is full of hard-to-source ingredients, including ultratender whole suckling pig, fragrant banana leaves for wrapping the pork during cooking, and annatto (pebble-like seeds that contribute color and a mild herbal flavor). We skipped the banana leaves since the flavor contribution is negligible, swapping in substitutes for the rest.

  • PORK BUTT: Well-marbled, collagen-rich pork is nearly as succulent and tender as suckling pig.
  • BAY LEAVES: These provide an herbal aroma thats similar to that of annatto.
  • TOMATO PASTE: Concentrated tomato paste adds saturated color, just as annatto does.

ON THE ROAD: TRACKING TACOS IN EAST LOS ANGELES

In 2010, when Armando De La Torre Sr. turned 50 and decided to open a restaurant, he reached back to the comfort food of his youth, the guisados (stews and braises) that his mother used to make. Growing up we didnt come home to carne asada. Like many Mexican families we ate guisadostinga, calabacitas, picadowith beans and tortillas. One-pot meals. I remember sneaking into the kitchen, and my mom would be yelling that it wasnt ready, but Id run in, grab a tortilla, and make a taco out of whatever she was cooking. Thats how I enjoyed her food.

Scores of brightly colored signs hang above the storefronts and restaurants that pack Cesar Chavez Avenue in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles. The vibe on the avenue is mildly gritty yet a little tender, and the smiles I encounter are genuinely warm. A few steps inside Guisados, I stop at the counter to take in the large chalkboard menu that climbs to the ceiling; pitchers of aguas frescas sit next to the register. Im mesmerized by a woman hand-patting tortillas from a bowl of fresh masa and slapping them onto the hot griddle. She moves quickly and flips the hot tortillas with her bare hands. I order several tacos and finish up just as Armando and his son, Armando Jr., arrive to greet me.

We head outside around the back of the building, step down through a low door, and make our way up a flight of stairs to the Guisados prep kitchen. Theres a blur of shuffling bodies and bubbling pots, and the aroma of chiles and cumin hangs thick in the air. Armando Sr. dips a spoon into a guisado, clearing the chile-laced oil slick on top, and offers up a taste of the meat and pepper combination from its lower depths. Again, Im mesmerized.

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Source: From Cook's Country | June/July 2016

Recipe category: Entree