Crispy Pork Tacos with Avocado Salsa

*Post by Angela.

There's nothing I like better than a lazy weekend when I can put a pot of something delicious on the stove and slow-cook my way through the evening.  This past Saturday, I decided to make the boneless pork ribs sitting in my fridge into tacos, and adapted this recipe from epicurious to do the job.  I liked the way this turned out a lot - the orange juice and zest gave the tender pork a tangy and sweet undertone, and while the avocado salsa tasted really similar to guacamole to me, it was still very, very good. 

 

List of ingredients for the pork:

• 2 lbs boneless country-style pork ribs
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp orange peel
• 1/8 cup brandy
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

First, I cut the pork into strips, and threw it into a pot with the water, orange juice, garlic cloves, salt, and orange peel, and brought it to a boil.

Then, I reduced it all to a simmer, covered and cooked for about 2 hours, until the pork was very tender, making sure to stir occasionally.  A couple of times throughout the process, I added a little water and orange juice to make sure the pork was mostly submerged.

Next, I uncovered the pot, brought it back up to a boil, let the liquid reduce down by half (about 10 minutes), and poured in the brandy.  I continued cooking over high heat until all the liquid had evaporated.  The meat was so tender at this point, I didn't even need to shred it! 

I removed the meat from the pot, heated up some oil in a pan over medium high heat, and sauteed the pork until it had some good crispness and color, and set it aside while I whipped up the avocado salsa.

List of ingredients for the avocado salsa:

• 3 large ripe avocados
• 8 oz (or two medium) tomatillos (little green tomato-looking things, they come in husks)
• 2 serrano chiles
• 1 habanero chile
• 2 tbsp cilantro
• Salt, pepper & onion powder

 

This "salsa" was really simple - it's just a matter of peeling and pitting the avocados...

husking, rinsing and chopping the tomatillos...

seeding and chopping the serrano and habanero chiles...

and chopping up the cilantro.

After that, all that's left to do is throw all the ingredients in a bowl with some salt, pepper and onion powder, and blend until you get the smoothness of your liking (you can also do this in a food processor). 

I warmed up some corn tortillas, and loaded them up with the pork, avocado salsa, some store-bought extra hot tomato salsa, and a little shredded lettuce.  Such a great dinner!  And it made enough pork for me to make sandwiches/more tacos for the next couple of days.

Comments

[miguel]

Holy crap, that looks delicious!

[Angela]

Miguel!!! I was wondering where you had gone! Was starting to worry about you a little...

The tacos were really good. SO good, in fact, that I continued to eat pork tacos for the next 4 meals or so.

In other news, I may be taco'ed out.