If you like to cook but don't own Mr. Bittman's book How to Cook Everything I highly recommend purchasing a copy. Bittman's writing style is clear, not overly overwhelmingly pretentious, and the directions are a simple to follow as you'll find in any cook book. In the introduction, Mark Bittman states that at any given time less than half of the adult population in the US know how to cook. At one time the extent of my culinary knowledge included how to make blue box mac'n'cheese and Schwan's frozen chicken patties. At some point I decided that I needed to expand my horizons, and started trying to cook things that I enjoyed eating out. I was mostly a blind man walking in the forest until I stole a copy of the better homes and gardens cook book from my ma and pa, and from there learned that once I knew how basic ingredients worked together I could adapt and change recipes on the fly. Over the course of the next year I'm setting out to make a big Sunday dinner from How to Cook Everything, and yesterday I made Puerto Rican Adobo Pork Roast, roasted potatoes, and green beans. Recipe after the jump.

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With a heads up to the Doc on this recipe, I give you the king of all pork recipes (IMHO) ---> Carnitas. Equal parts crispy and soft, the texture of this dish alone is divine. Salty, and a bit sweet, rich and filling, this is one of those foods that is capable of transporting me back to a special place and time. You'll need:

A boston butt or pork shoulder roast (what ever size will be able to fit in your crock pot)
A dry rub consisting of roughly equal parts brown sugar, red chili powder, cumin, salt and some crushed black pepper (feel free to proportion your rub however you want, what you're looking for is a balance between the sugar and the spice, and everything nice)
1/2 a bottle of beer, really doesn't matter here, but for argument's sake we'll go with bohemia
1 small onion chopped medium
4 cloves of garlic smashed and minced
1 4 oz can of hot green chili (or fire roast a couple anaheim peppers, remove the skin and seeds, and chop fine)
corn tortillas
fresh cilantro

Method:
The night before rub the meat with dry spice mixture and cover with plastic wrap. The next morning remove the roast and let sit while you cook breakfast and read the morning news. Wash your breakfast dishes and heat a cast iron skillet (or any pan for that matter) over medium high heat. Brown the roast on all sides. Put the roast into the crock pot and cover with 1/2 bottle of beer, onion, green chili, and garlic. Cover and cook on high until the liquid is near a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for ~6 ish hours. You're looking for the bone to fall out and the meat to fall apart and shred easily. Remove the meat, shred and remove and discard the fatty deposits. While you are shredding the meat place the ceramic dish with liquid into the fridge to aid in de-fating the pan juices. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat and toss in the shredded meat making an even layer. Don't stir too much here because you're looking for the bottom of the pan to get crispy while keeping the soft texture of the braised meat intact on top. Once you have de-fatted the pan juice, and the bottom of the pan is good and crispy, pour the liquid into the pan and stir quickly to release the really crispy bits of fond from the bottom of the skillet.

On the side, you'll need a small frying pan over medium heat to warm up the corn tortillas. This is a little labor intensive but worth the time. I've found using a kitchen sprayer to spritz a little olive oil onto each side of a tortilla reduces the amount of fat that you'll be depositing into the corn which equals a slightly healthier final product. Cook on one side until you notice little puffs developing, spritz a little oil onto the other side and flip over. You're looking for these to be flexible and a little bit browned but not tortilla chip crunchy.

Serve the carnitas on corn tortillas with some chopped cilantro on top with calabacitas on the side (or some Elote (corn on the cob with mayo, lime, and chili powder if you want to be less healthy). A perfect summer dish.

A day late and a dollar short. Spanish chorizo, or any chorizo for that matter, is a gift from the gods. This extremely versatile sausage can be used in so many applications from burritos to pizza topping and everything in between. You can remove the casing, crumble, and fry the sausage in a pan adding peppers, onion, corn tortilla strips, and once the tortilla strips are firm scramble couple of eggs in the pan. Viola, breakfast. You can substitute chorizo for any other sausage in almost any recipe to kick it up a notch, but for today's installment we'll be focusing on one simple little side dish that highlights the salty, fatty goodness of chorizo complimented by the acidity of red wine. Very simple, and very delicious.

You'll need:

cured chorizo (the better quality / more expensive = better final product. Yes, really, purchase the good stuff)
cheap red wine
a clove or two of garlic minced

Method:

Cut sausage into 1/2 inch thick rounds and toss into a shallow pan with the garlic. Hit the works with a couple of grinds of black pepper and heat the pan med/high. When the sausage begins to sizzle a little add the cheap red wine until the sausage rounds are about half way submerged (a little more won't hurt anything). Bring the wine to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook on one side 5-6 minutes, turn sausage over and cook until the wine has reduced about half. You're looking for the pan juice to be thick, but not burnt. Serve with some fresh bread and sharp cheddar cheese, or just eat them by the handful.

Carne Adovada, pork marinated in red chili, is one of my all time favorite dishes. You can eat it topped with a fried egg for breakfast (or dinner for that matter), in a burrito, on corn tortillas, smothered in cheese with a side of sour cream, or, my personal favorite, stuffed into a sopapilla and drowning in red chili sauce. If you ever find yourself in Albuquerque I would recommend stopping by the Frontier restaurant for breakfast (order the number one with carne adovada) and then have dinner at el Patio (get yourself a stuffed sopa with red). This is not a dish for the faint of heart, but it doesn't have to burn you on both ends either. There are a ton of variations on making adovada that range from mostly canned to the totally-labor-intensive-but absolutely-worth-the-work version. After the jump I'll spell out a couple of fairly easy ways to make this delicious dinner or breakfast if that's what sets your hair on fire.

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