Tag Archives: cumin

C’s Carnitas!

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A carnitas taco with homemade tomatillo salsa. Bien rico!

Roast pork of any sort is the bee’s knees. And by bee’s knees, I mean one of the greatest developments in the history of food – if you dig on the pig. So the Mexican style roast pork known as carnitas – literally “little meats” in Spanish – with it’s tender and crunchy bits is like the bee’s knees on steroids. Because good burritos and tacos were always readily available back in California, I never really had any need to make carnitas myself. But then I moved to NYC where the Mexican food was sorely lacking. Things have changed in the last few years.  There are better Mexican options and of course the Puerto Rican style pernil so prevalent in many of the Spanish American joints in NYCwill do in a pinch.  But I’ve found that when I have the craving for the moist, yet crispy morsels of savory pork, the best solution is to do it myself.  It’s so easy.  All it takes is a bit of time.  So without further ado, I present to you my version of carnitas. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
3-4 lbs of pork shoulder meat (cut into 1-2 inch cubes)
1-2 tbsp of white vinegar
1-2 tsp of salt
1-2 tsp of cumin
1/4-1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp of paprika
1-2 tbsp of dried oregano

This is how I do it:

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C’s Habañero Salsa: This spice goes to eleven…

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Such bright, beautiful little peppers...

Such bright, beautiful little peppers…

... and it grows up to become this salsa which will hurt you, but you'll love it anyway - kind of like a dysfunctional relationship.

… and it grows up to become this salsa which will hurt you, but you’ll love it anyway – kind of like a dysfunctional relationship.

Alright, are you ready to have your mind blown? or your mouth? or your stomach? ok, your butt? Well, I guarantee you that this salsa will do at least one of these and hopefully just the first two. Like the tomatillo salsa, this one has become a staple in our household but unlike the tomatillo which you can slather liberally on just about anything, with this salsa, a little dab will do ya (bonus points to anyone who remembers that slogan).  This stuff packs some serious heat so please exercise caution.  But, you have my personal guarantee that with its sunny, bright, citrusy and peppery spice, you’ll have a hard time limiting yourself to just a little dab. It enlivens whatever you put it on. I dare say the word “picquant” is the perfect adjective to describe this salsa.

Ingredients:
1/4 lbs of habañeros (roasted and seeded – you might want to wear rubber gloves when handling these peppers because the chili’s oils will actually start to burn your skin with prolonged exposure. Perhaps I should heed my own advice).
1-2 tbsp of white vinegar
juice of half a lime
1/4 tsp of salt
1/8 tsp of garlic powder
1/8 tsp of cumin powder (optional)
1/8 tsp of sugar
1-2 tbsp water (to thin out the sauce and mellow the spice – a little)

Here’s how I do it:

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NYC Eats (with a smaller group of people) – Fu Run

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This is the final installment of the NYC Eats (with Matt and other friends).  I wanted to get this out sooner, but I got a little waylaid by the recently acquired full time j-o-b.  So although this meal was eaten almost two weeks ago, its flavors  have been seared into my cerebellum and I remember it like it was yesterday… okay maybe like a week ago.  What I do remember is that with the exception of one dish (which was merely mediocre) the food was uniformly fresh, intense, full of strong, primary flavors and a whole lot of lamb.  We went to a Dong Bei restaurant in Queens called Fu Run. Using a year-old NY Times writeup about the proliferation of Dong Bei Restaurants in Flushing as a guide, we suggested for  Matt’s last NYC dinner one of the the recommended restaurants: Northeast Taste Chinese Food (don’t know if that was a direct translation or what).  Running late as usual – my fault, as usual – Shefali and I speed-walked from the Flushing subway stop the nine blocks to NTCF where Matt, Alex, Waine had been waiting for about half an hour.  Unfortunately, despite it’s super creative name,  in the year since the article was published, Northeast Taste had changed ownership and was now a Peking duck restaurant. While, we all love a good Peking duck, were really had our minds and stomachs set on food from former Manchuria so we stopped by another of the four recommended restaurant from the Time’s article, a nearby place called Hong Yi Shun.  Yet again – I was starting to sense a pattern here – HYS  had transitioned into a different restaurant and while the menu looked appetizing, it didn’t offer quite the dishes we were looking for.  The urgency of the situation was rising as I sensed the growing pissed off-ed-ness of everyone including myself  due to our lateness and the continued emptiness of our stomachs.  We decided to put our faith in the article one last time and headed to a third recommended restaurant, Fu Run which was all the way back where we’d all come from, a block from the subway.   After a wrong turn had us panicking that this restaurant was also no longer in existance (what had we done in our previous lives to deserve this karma?),  we finally righted ourselves and spotted the large awning and bright windows of the promised land, aka Fu Run.  After another nearly interminable wait, during which I kind of lost it – I get emotional when I’m hungry – we were finally seated. And then we ordered.  And then we ate.  Praise Buddha, did we eat.  Take a look for yourself.

[not pictured above: the two varieties of lamb dumplings]

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