(no subject)

While kylecassidy has been a good landlord these last few years, one of the things I didn't love about living here was lack of unrestricted kitchen access -- and even when I did use the kitchen, Kyle keeps a vegetarian household. Tonight, over at the new place (I'm still living here in the old apt for the next week or so), I cooked!

Inspired by xraytheenforcer, I made carnitas, and also an Indian eggplant dish. The eggplant was easy -- roast eggplant, mash it up and cook it with tomatoes, onion, cilantro, peppers. I threw in some cardamom and mustard powder along with some salt and pepper, and it turned out great. I can serve it over rice and it should last me several days.

The carnitas were a bit more elaborate. I bought four pounds of pork butt (aka boston butt, aka fresh shoulder, aka many other things -- that cut of meat has quite a few names!), deboned it, cut it into strips and then braised it at a simmer for just over two hours with three cups of water, three tablespoons of brown sugar, 3/4 cups of lime juice and a quarter-cup of vinegar-based hot sauce. After two hours I turned the heat up, boiled off the water and tested the meat. It wasn't quite tender enough, so I added more water and a little salt over the course of the next half-hour, until the meat shredded easily when I put a fork to it. Next, I cooked it down again until all the water was gone and it was cooking in its own fat (it was a particularly lean cut of shoulder so i helped it along a bit with some olive oil), shredded it with a pair of forks and then laid it out on a baking pan in low, wide mound. I drizzled it with hot sauce and a couple of spoonfuls of brown sugar, threw it under a hot broiler until the top was carmelized and crispy.

I served it on corn tortillas with a quick and easy watermelon salsa (3 cups watermelon, 1-2 cups cilantro, 2 chopped jalapeno peppers (no seeds), 1 medium onion, and couple of spoons of balsamic vinegar) that I had prepared earlier and refrigerated, so it was cool and refreshing.