I love Mexican food. When I was pregnant with Griff, I craved it to such a degree that I was dragging people out for Mexican 2-3 times a week, whether my poor husband and coworkers wanted to go or not. One of my favorite meals during this period was the carnitas at The Federal. A pile of tender, delicious pork, the best guacamole in the Triangle, and fresh pico de gallo and cilantro, all ready to be wrapped up in warm tortillas and gobbled up as quickly as possible.

Well, I gotta say, The Federal ain’t got nothing on the carnitas I made this evening.

After obtaining a big ole pork roast on sale at The Teet and cutting off a 2.5lb chunk, I did a little poking around online and picked a recipe that looked simple and straightforward. I was a little nervous about the lack of seasoning, so I added 4 chopped cloves of garlic and some ground cumin to the pot at the very beginning; those were the only changes I made to the recipe as written.

Here’s 2.5lbs of pork shoulder and a measuring cup full of orange juice and water. Mmm mmm.

And here’s a bunch of pork chunks boiling away in orange juice and water. It didn’t smell too great, and at this point I was wondering if I’d made a mistake in choosing this recipe.

Things started looking up after an hour or two.

Definitely smelling good now.

I think it was at this point that I started muttering things like, “Oh HELL yes” while looking into the pot.

And here is the final glorious porkscape: shreds of tender pork, rendered in its own fat, crispy at the edges and tender and juicy and awesome.

Meanwhile, I was trying my hand at making corn tortillas with the new tortilla press I got for my birthday (thanks, Robin!). For something made with only two ingredients (masa harina and water), corn tortillas are pretty tricky. It took a few tries to get the dough to the right level of moistness, and then there was some tinkering with the size of the dough balls to put into the press. I had good luck using some cut-up plastic baggies inside the press; the flattened tortillas mostly peeled right off the plastic for me.

And here is an example of my raggedy-ass corn tortillas. But oh my, they tasted good. I don’t think I’ve ever had fresh corn tortillas before, and it was a revelation. They’re so toasty, soft, warm, and, well, corny. Just completely night and day from the pasty, sour, stiff, preservative-laden corn tortillas you get from the grocery store. They kept very nicely wrapped up in a kitchen towel until we were ready to eat them. And Griff loved them.

And here’s the final product: pork carnitas on a fresh corn tortilla, with a slice of avocado and a little cheese. Total bliss. And we have leftovers for tomorrow!