Tag: Mexican
Menudo
Menudo
Menudo is a Mexican soup made from beef tripe, and sometimes cow feet, in a red chili pepper broth with hominy; topped with cilantro, onions, and oregano. Said to be the ultimate hangover cure, the heat of the soup will wake your drunk ass up. Traditionally, there is no beef shanks in the soup. I added a couple to give the soup additional meat and to enhance the broth’s flavor.
Equipment
- blender
Ingredients
- 2 lbs honeycomb tripe washed; cut into 1 1/2” cubes
- 2 beef shanks
- 1/2 medium white onion
- 5 garlic cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- water
- 3 cup white hominy drained and rinsed
Sauce
- 3 guajillo chilies
- 2 arbol chilies
- 1/2 medium white onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 3/4 cup water
- salt to taste
For Serving
- white onion finely chopped
- cilantro finely chopped
- Mexican oregano
- lime wedges
Instructions
- Add in tripe, beef shanks, onion, garlic, and bay leaves to a large pot. Add in enough water to cover 6” above the ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 4 hours.
- While the tripe is simmering, allow the dried chilies to soak in hot water for 5 minutes.
- Add the chilies along with the rest of the sauce ingredients to a blender and purée.
- Add the sauce and the hominy to the pot. Season with salt to taste.
- Simmer for 30 more minutes.
- Ladle the menudo into a bowl. Top with onion and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.
Pork Belly Carnitas
Pork Belly Carnitas
Recently, I’ve been eating a lot of pork belly in taco form. Instead of just browning it until crispy, I wanted to prepare it like carnitas. Typically, carnitas is pork shoulder simmered with lard, then browned. Since there is a lot of fat in pork belly, I omitted the lard. Most of the fat rendered out of the belly, allowing it to brown in its own fat. The belly was nice and crispy, but still tender.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs pork belly cut into small cubes
- 2 cups water
- salt to taste
Tacos
- vegetable oil
- corn tortillas
- white onion finely chopped
- cilantro chopped
- hot sauce
- lime wedges
Instructions
- Bring the water and pork belly to a boil in a sauté pan. Simmer for 1 hour on low.
- Increase the heat. Cook off all the water. Season with salt.
- Turn the heat to medium low and brown the pork belly until crispy; about 10-15 minutes. Drain any excess fat.
Chimichangas
Chimichangas
In the mood for Tex-Mex? Chimichangas are the solution to what you crave. The burrito was created in a Mexican restaurant in Arizona in the 1920’s, where a burrito was dropped accidentally in a deep fryer. Low and behold, it birthed the chimichanga. The chimichanga increased in popularity throughout the 1950’s, becoming a staple at many Mexican restaurants.
Ingredients
- 12” flour tortilla
- refried beans
- Mexican rice
- meat of your choice pork, chicken, beef
- shredded cheese
- hot sauce of your choice
- vegetable oil for frying
- 1/2 cup salsa rojo or verde
Instructions
- Lay a flour tortilla on a flat surface. Spread beans across the surface; followed by Mexican rice, meat, cheese, and hot sauce.
- Fold into a burrito; making sure both sides are tucked in.
- Fill up a medium sized pot with 2” of vegetable oil over medium heat. Place the folded side of the burrito into the oil. Fry for 2-3 minutes until golden brown.
- Flip over and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
- Drain the grease on a paper towel.
- Pour either salsa verde or rojo over the burrito. Top with more cheese and sour cream.
