Photo Courtesy: Joe Bressler (I ripped it from Facebok)
Pulled Pork Tacos in my Grandma's Kitchen
A couple of months ago my Grandma Dody passed away. It was a pretty sad time for all. A lot of mixed emotions, or maybe I had a lot. But there is always one good thing that comes from a loss of a family member: family comes together. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's scary, sometimes it's a learning experience - but no matter what it's good to be able to be surrounded by love.
I used to talk to my Grandma a lot about cooking. My Aunt Kelly and Aunt Chauna gifted me the set of her Julia Child's French Cooking books - notes n' all. It was a great gift. What was even greater was that I was able to cook dinner for my family in my Grandmother's kitchen. I have never cooked in her kitchen, so it was fun for me and I think they all enjoyed it. I think my Grandma enjoyed it. So here is the recipe for all of you.
Pulled Pork Tacos
(This is for a smaller portion - I made 6 pounds above and this is for 1.5 pounds)
1.5 pounds of Pork Shoulder Roast (can be boneless or bone in)
1 Pablano Pepper cut in strips
1 Jalapeno Pepper cut in strips
2 Tomatoes diced
1/2 yellow onion roughly chopped
3 whole crushed garlic cloves
1/4 cup of roughly chopped cilantro
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Cut the roast in half so it's in 2 slabs about 2" thick. Put in a roasting pan/dish and liberally sprinkle with salt and pepper (about 1 tsp each). Add peppers tomatoes, onion, garlic,and cilantro on top of the pork. Drizzle a generous amount of Olive Oil over everything (about 2 tblsp)
Roast uncovered for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes turn pork and putting the other ingredients around the pork and roast uncovered for another 20 minutes until the pork is a little brown on top.
Turn the oven down to 375 and turn the pork one more time and cover the pan with either a lid (if the pan has a lid) or tin foil and roast for another 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the pork should be tender and will pull apart easily.
Remove pork from the dish and into another dish to cool. Next take all the remaining ingredients and any juice in the bottom of the pan and put in a blender or food processor and blend till a smooth sauce.
Once the pork has cooled a bit (about 10 minutes) shred/pull the pork apart. Next add the sauce to the pork and mix together. Serve with tortillas, shredded cabbage, or whatever you like.
In the photo above you will see cabbage, Mexican Crema (sour cream), guac, salsa... the works!
Note: If you double the recipe, you can add about 5 minutes to each baking time.
Well, it's been a long time coming!
Enjoy
