Mexican Pulled Pork with tortillas

In preparing this dish of Mexican Pulled Pork with tortillas, my mind flew back to the time I visited Mexico many years ago. It was an excursion during a tour of the USA, and we did a day trip to Tijuana, from San Diego.

I honestly can’t remember what we ate, probably something in a café – we did eat a lot of ‘soup and salad’ while in the US, and I recall drinking some 7UP in Tijuana. I was pretty excited about the duty-free shopping there and picked up some Estee Lauder perfume (!!!) because, at the time, the Aussie dollar was hopeless against the greenback, so Mexico was fairly cheap in comparison. I also bought some little handcrafted dolls from a street vendor, as souvenirs.

Well, Tijuana was hot and dry and a bit grimy, and it was a relief to get back onto our pink tour bus/coach for the journey back. The most exciting part of the trip was having the coach searched at the border, with the armed guards looking at the underside of the bus and in the hold for any stowaways. When they realised it was just a bus full of gawking, English-speaking tourists, they lost interest and waved us through without even checking our passports. So much for any hoped-for intrigue, because there was none, so it was a rather sanitised visit, as far as I was concerned.

This recipe can also be made in a pan on the stove – just simmer for 1½ hours and you too can experience the flavours (though slightly restrained) of Mexico.

Mexican Pulled Pork

serves 4

Ingredients

2 tblsp olive oil

500g piece pork scotch fillet

2 medium brown onions, sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tblsp ground cumin

2 dried bay leaves

400g can diced tomatoes

Flour tortillas or rice

Avocado, green chilli and lime wedges, to serve

Method

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Sear the pork on all sides until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the pork to a slow cooker.

2. Heat the remaining oil in the pan and add the onion, cooking until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, cumin and bay leaves and cook for another 1 minute.

3. Stir in the tomatoes plus ½ cup of cold water. Season with salt and pepper, then bring to the boil. Remove from the heat.

4. Pour the tomato mixture over the pork in the slow cooker and cook on Low for 6 hours.

5. When ready to serve, remove the pork from the cooker and shred the meat using 2 forks.

6. Heat the tortillas, if using, and top with the pork and some of the tomato sauce. Serve with sliced chilli and lemon wedges. Alternatively, serve the pork and sauce with rice.

recipe adapted from taste.com.au

Ingredients, including tomatoes, onion, cumin, bay leaves and pork, and a lime, green chilli and avocado for later.

The pork is shredded with forks ('pulled') after it's cooked, and just look at that luscious meat.

Serve the pork and its sauce on warmed flour tortillas with the chilli and lime.

The avocado ended up being hard as a rock, so I didn't use it in the end and replaced it with some salad leaves.

Make like Speedy Gonzales (who is from Guadalajara, Mexico) to get your hands on this delicious dish.

Chicken and Broad Bean Casserole...with Bjorn

Fudge, it’s cold – Winter has well and truly hit us here in Sydney town. 

You know how they say that Sydney is the coldest place in the world? Well, it’s because no one is ever prepared for the cool weather, so there’s no central heating in our houses, no double-glazed windows to keep out the drafts, scarves and overcoats are of the lightest weight because we think oh, it’s just a short cold spell that will be over by Wednesday, so man up, you wuss!

What this means is that the Bureau of Meteorology website is my favourite bookmark at the moment. I love looking at the radar map of approaching storms, and the prediction of ‘95% chance of rain’ for tomorrow, well, der, I already knew that, but it’s good to see it confirmed!

OK, that’s enough conversation about the weather for now. Here is another slow cooker meal that I did on the weekend, a smooth and warming Chicken and Broad Bean Casserole. It’s adapted from a dish that’s in this month’s (June) Australian Women’s Weekly. They used celeriac in their casserole, but there was none at the supermarket, so I used swede and potato instead. The rest is your usual slow cooker method of browning the meat first, then letting the flavours meld in the slow cooker while you enjoy your (cold) weekend.

By the way, don’t you just love swede? It holds its shape so well during long cooking, and it has such a fresh flavour, compared to, say, potato. Can’t wait to visit Stockholm one day (swede, smorgasbord, meatballs, Stockholm... geddit?)

Chicken and Broad Bean Casserole

serves 4

Ingredients

6 chicken thigh fillets (about 600g total), cut into thick slices

2 tblsp plain flour + 1 tblsp extra

2 tblsp rice bran oil or canola oil

20g butter

1 medium onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, roughly chopped

1 medium carrot, peeled and roughly chopped

2 tsp crushed garlic

1 tblsp Dijon mustard

2 cups chicken stock

1 medium swede, peeled and roughly chopped

2 medium potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

1 cup broad beans (frozen or fresh)

Method

1. Place the chicken and 2 tablespoons of flour into a large plastic bag and toss the chicken around so that it is coated in the flour. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat and cook the chicken until browned. Remove from pan and set aside.

2. Wipe the pan with paper towel, then add the butter, onion, celery and carrot. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the extra 1 tablespoon of flour, then the garlic and mustard and stir for one minute. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes.

3. Put the swede and potatoes into the slow cooker, then top with the chicken and then the stock mixture. Cover and cook on Low heat for 5 hours.

4. Put the broad beans into a heatproof bowl, then pour over boiling water to cover. Leave for 2 minutes, then peel the outer covering from the beans. Add the beans to the cooker and cook for another 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

This is a swede. I will call him Björn.

Other veg includes carrot, celery and potato.

Condiments include chicken stock, garlic and Dijon mustard.

The partly cooked chicken, carrot, celery and onion are dumped into the slow cooker.

The colours of this casserole are lovely, almost like Spring rather than Winter.

Hope you are keeping warm, wherever you are!

Non-vintage Lamb Curry and WIN a Slow Cooker

What are the ages of ‘vintage’ and ‘antique’ items? I used to think that Antique was anything over 200 years old, Vintage was more than 100 years old, and anything less was just ‘second-hand’.

Then, Vintage got upgraded, you know, like when a lairy knit jumper from the Eighties is described as ‘vintage’ in those supercilious street-style photographs, as in “Darya wears a Yohji Yamamoto gilet, vintage sweater from a Paris flea market, Ksubi jeans, Chanel booties and her mother’s scarf”. Oh, how unbearably chic!

Well, in that case, my mother has a vintage slow cooker. I think it’s from the 1970s, and it’s hot orange in colour with a neat brown floral/leaf pattern around the base with ‘Crockpot’ written in a funky, hippy font. It is the coolest thing ever, although it used to be considered daggy. I suppose that’s when something becomes Vintage – when it turns the corner from eye-rollingly kitsch (but useful) to nostalgically coveted.

By the way, I have a NEW slow cooker and made this wonderful Lamb Curry in it. And you could have a NEW slow cooker, too. Just salivate over this recipe and enter the giveaway below.

Lamb Curry

serves 4

Ingredients

3 tblsp plain flour

500g diced lean lamb

2 tblsp oil

1 medium sweet potato, cut into 2cm chunks

1 brown onion, sliced

1 tsp crushed garlic

1 tsp grated ginger

½ tsp ground cumin

¼ cup Indian curry paste (Korma for mild, Madras for hot)

270ml reduced-fat coconut cream

1 tsp vegetable stock powder or paste

1 bay leaf 

chives or coriander, to serve

Method

1. Put the lamb in a plastic bag and add the flour and some salt and pepper. Close the bag and shake until the lamb is coated with the flour.

2. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frypan and add the lamb. Cook in batches until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer lamb to a 3.5 litre slow cooker.

3. Add sweet potato, onion, garlic, ginger and cumin to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes, until onion is soft (the sweet potato will still be uncooked). Add curry paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

4. Add coconut milk, stock powder and ¾ cup of cold water and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and pour into the slow cooker with the lamb. Add bay leaf.

5. Cook, covered on Low heat for 6 hours. Remove bay leaf before serving with a sprinkle of chives and rice or naan bread.

recipe adapted from Super Food Ideas

Ingredients, including ginger and garlic, Korma curry paste, onion, sweet potato, light coconut cream, bay leaf, cumin; coat the lamb pieces in seasoned flour and brown in a pan before adding the other ingredients.

After 6 hours, the lamb incredibly tender. Liquid does not evaporate from a lidded slow cooker like it does in a pan on the stove, so there is lots of sauce left in the pot.  You should also make sure that the slow cooker is filled half to three-quarters full for best results, with liquid covering most of the lamb and potato.

Serve the curry with naan bread and accompaniments like yoghurt and pappadums.

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Fantastic Giveaway from Kitchenware Direct

Thanks to Brad from Kitchenware Direct for allowing me to review this Morphy Richards Accents Slow Cooker.

I was really excited about this product because I wanted to have hot, ready-prepared meals to come home to (and I am too cheap to get takeaway). This slow cooker does not disappoint. It is a compact size (3.5 litres) that is perfect for 2-4 people and it doesn’t take up too much bench space. The burgundy ceramic pot is removable for serving and easy cleaning, it works like a dream and the instruction manual is mercifully to-the-point with useful essential tips (I always read the manual before operating appliances, and you should, too).

And Kitchenware Direct are also offering one of these fantastic slow cookers to a lucky Ooh, Look… reader (sorry, Australian entrants only). Just leave a comment on this post with the magic words ‘Please, Miss, I want a slow cooker’. Terms and conditions and closing date are below. Good luck!

Conditions of Entry

1. Entry to this contest is by a comment on this post containing the words “Please, Miss, I want a slow cooker”. Alternatively, enter by sending an email to oohlookbel2000 [at] gmail [dot] com

2. Entries close at midnight 10 June 2012.

3. Winner will be randomly selected

4. The prize can only be delivered to Australian addresses. Prize will be supplied and delivered by Kitchenware Direct.

5. Please include an email address or your blog URL in your entry so I can contact you if you win.

------ UPDATE ------ 

Thanks to everyone who entered this competition.

A winner has been selected:


Congratulations to Reemski.  I will email you.
Hope you enjoy the slow cooker from kitchenwaredirect.com.au.