Instant Pot Carnitas
For something almost restaurant-quality at home...
It’s the end of August, which means we’re probably about to get some cool crisp fall weather coming our way soon. There have already been hints of that here in NYC, but it’s also mostly just been … muggy, and not a good time for keeping the stove on for very long. So I’m doing something I did back when I dealt with my old broken kitchen and sharing an Instant Pot recipe I tried out recently. I’ve also realized that this is my first meat-based recipe for this newsletter. (I don’t eat beef or relish seafood very much, so you’ll never get those kinds of recipes from me, but the three months straight of vegetarian/vegetarian-friendly recipes also ended up being somewhat unintentional.) I know not everyone eats pork… and everyone probably doesn’t have an Instant Pot, but there’s other links and non-recipe stuff here as always, so feel free to scroll past and check out the rest, until next month’s newsletter is out.
RECIPE: Instant Pot Carnitas
I am not trying to teach you how to make the lazy tacos pictured above, but I figured this image was a little more appealing than a giant plate of shredded meat (of course, I know those who would beg to differ). A few things: I am not necessarily an expert on making carnitas. In fact, this recipe is definitely adapted from Platings + Pairings. But I made a few adjustments, and here’s what I liked about making this: It’s a relatively cheap meal (at least thanks to the butcher I have the fortune of living near), it makes a lot of food, and it’s flavorful. Is it 100% authentic? Nope. Does it give you some of that restaurant flavor without making you spend a ton on takeout? Yup. You can’t lose.
Ingredients
Serves around 5 to 6
Approximately 3.5 pounds pork shoulder (extra fat slightly trimmed, plus cut into 1- to 2-inch cubes)
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons dry oregano
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon dry basil
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1.5 oranges (cut into half slices)
1 lime (cut into half slices)
1 cup water
Instructions
Mix all the dry spices together. Then rub the resulting mixture all over the cut-up pork, which you should then put in the Instant Pot.
Squeeze the juice from the oranges and lime over the pork inside the Instant Pot.
Place the rinds from two halves of an orange and either one or both halves of a lime (depending on how citrusy you want everything), pulp side down over the meat, while pouring the cup of water into the pot.
Lock your Instant Pot lid (with the sealing ring inside it) onto the pot, and make sure the release valve is in the sealing position.
Use the “manual” setting to run the pot at high pressure for 40 minutes.
Once the time is up, allow the pot to release pressure naturally for 15 minutes, before releasing the remaining pressure yourself.
Remove the pork from the pot using a slotted spoon, place it on a plate or large oven tray and shred it using two forks.
Serve by either immediately placing onto tortillas and garnishing as you’d like (we used avocados and pickled onions) or after broiling the pork for three to five minutes in the oven before assembling on tortillas.*
Notes
* We just ate them post-shredding the meat on the first night. On the second night, I used my toaster oven to broil the pork a little bit, which also worked without forcing me to turn on the bigger oven and deal with smoke detector drama.
Adapted from Platings + Pairings.
Food for Thought
Okay, here’s one more pork thing I made—Schnitzel from Natasha’s Kitchen, though you could easily change the meat to your choosing. I used about half the amount of pork specified for our household of two and maybe one less egg, but kept the spices about the same. My schnitzel ended up a bit smaller, but still delicious.
And remember how I mentioned a red cabbage debacle in the last newsletter? I supplemented the schnitzel with this Sweet and Sour Cabbage recipe from Spoon Fork Bacon. It was a good contrast to the meat, and pretty tasty!
Do you like scotch? Do you like ice cream? Then this No-Churn Ice Cream with Vanilla Bean & Scotch from Food 52 is for you. It took us more than a couple of days to finish what I made for two of us, and the scotch flavor wore off a little more as each day went by, but I would still recommend it.
Bites of Culture
What I’m Reading
When I’m not getting distracted by Pokémon Sword, which has occupied my time tremendously ever since my husband surprised me with a Nintendo Switch for my birthday, I’m making my way through Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore (which I’m enjoying so far), finished Sally Rooney’s Conversation With Friends (I preferred Normal People), and also finally completed a gigantic full volume of Hercule Poirot short stories by Agatha Christie.
What I’m Watching
The Marvel rewatch went on pause for the John Wick franchise (we’re planning to watch the third movie this weekend, before it’s gone from HBO next week) and other movies like Missing Link. I also enjoyed the Netflix movie The Half of It.
I also am officially done with Jane the Virgin, we are done with the second season of makeup competition Glow Up (it’s really fun and creative), which hit Netflix a couple of weekends ago, and now I’m catching up on The Mindy Project, the Hulu years, because I have Hulu these days, but didn’t when the show first made its move there from broadcast.
… and There’s My Other Obsession, Knitting
It’s been 16 years (!!) since I first picked up knitting needles, but I didn’t make anything other than scarves or similar objects until I decided to take it more seriously a couple of winters ago. This year, I finished my first sweater just as the pandemic started, and I currently have a list of 10 or so different projects I’m trying to do for various reasons. I still have a ton to learn and there’s mistakes in a lot of my work (I call this making a piece “unique”), but I most recently finished the lacey scarf and mitts below, and this is what eats up my time when I’m not thinking about food or TV. I am very grateful that I got serious about this craft now, because it’s really helped me feel better in what has been an incredibly weird year. Have you taken on any hobbies more seriously in 2020?
Thanks for reading this edition of Rad Dishes! You can follow me on Instagram. I’m also on Twitter and Facebook (though also wondering if I really need all the social media for this). The original Rad Dishes still exists here.
Radhika
Earlier Newsletters:
Mushroom Spinach Risotto (or Arugula If You’d Like)