Carnitas-- Olé!

I finally decided: If forced to eat one cuisine for the rest of my life, I would choose Mexican food. It is nearly perfect...if you exclude tacos de cabeza from consideration. But otherwise, the mix of spicy, sweet, fresh, fried, salty, crunchy, meaty, savory and mmmmmmmm tip the fare into flawless territory. (Okay, maybe not quite flawless. Two more blechs: escamoles and huitlacoche. But I forgive those, Mexico, because the rest of your eats come from heaven.)

Hosting a Mexican exchange student provides me with opportunities to prepare meals with Latino flare, even if I come up short of authentic. And one of my favorite dishes to make is carnitas.

Seriously, you gotta try these.

Carnitas (from chef Roberto Santibanez of Fonda in New York)

4 lbs fatty pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch pieces
3 cups water
1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
1/2 orange, cut into 2 pieces
1/4 cup pork lard or vegetable oil
8 garlic cloves, peeled (I used only 2, 'cause that's how I roll)
3 bay leaves
1 Tbs sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp dried oregano (preferably Mexican), crumbled
2 tsp fine salt, or 4 tsp kosher salt

1. Throw all of that into a 6-to 7-quart heavy pot (I like to used my enameled cast-iron dutch oven). Couldn't be easier, right? Hmmmm, but what to do with the remaining sweetened condensed milk? If you take a page from our exchange student's book, you will use it as banana dip. I whole-heartedly approve.

2. Bring to a boil and skim off any meat foam that develops. Meat foam. Gross. Lower the heat and boil vigorously, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is evaporated; 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If you're like me, you will help children with homework during this time and completely forget to "stir occasionally." But you'll find out why this may work in your favor during the next step....

3. Preheat oven to 450F. Discard bay leaves and orange pieces. Transfer pork and fat to an ovenproof dish (if necessary) and brown the pork for 20-30 minutes. If, on the other hand, through your lack of stirring in the previous step, you caramelized some of the pork pieces on the bottom of your pot, you will have no need to brown the top. (You run the risk of burning the pork with this method, however. Fortunately, I caught mine in time.)

4. At this point, you can shred the pork and serve it immediately. Or, it will hold 2-3 days in the refrigerator. (Gently reheat it before using.)

Carnitas are pretty versatile, but our favorite way to eat them is in warm corn tortillas with cotija cheese, cilantro and pico de gallo. If you really want a gut-buster, add a side of refried beans and rice to your plate.

Enjoy!