–First begin cooking the carnitas, everything else can be prepped while carnitas are braising–

Braising Carnitas

1)  In a medium stock pot, over high heat, heat up some manteca.

2)  Generously season pork shoulder with salt and pepper and sear both all sides of pork shoulder until browned and caramelized.  Sear in batches to avoid overcrowding pieces in bottom of pot or your meat will not brown properly.

3)  Once browned, remove pork from pot and reserve.

4)  Searing any sort of meat generally leaves a fond on the bottom of pot, remove the fond with addition of 4 roughly diced onions over medium heat using a wooden spoon.  If any fond is left on bottom of pan, it will burn throughout cooking process so it is important the fond be removed for flavor purposes.

5)  Add 2T of salt to release more moisture from onions and use this moisture to scrap bottom of pot. Use water or chicken stock to assist if moisture from onions is not enough to remove the fond.

6)  Then add 10 cloves of garlic roughly chopped, 1 T freshly ground black peppercorns, and 2T chicken base.

7)  Cook until the onions are translucent and tender and garlic is aromatic.

8)  Return seared pork to stock pot with onion mixture. Lay on top of onions, cover with manteca and put heat on high.

9)  Add to stockpot a small ½ bundle of thyme, the rosemary and 5 bay leaves.

10)  Once manteca is boiling, reduce heat to low, cooking at a bare simmer, where fat is barely bubbling.

11)  Cook for 2-3 hours until meat is fork tender while stirring occasionally to ensure nothing is burning on the bottom of pot.  Fork tenderness is usually determined when a fork can easily tear off meat from bone.

12)  Remove from heat, pull the meat out of the manteca and let cool.

13)  Once the meat is cool, with your hands remove any excess fat from meat and shred into large pieces, plate and cover with saran wrap and reserve.

Cooking Quinoa & Preping Nopal Salad Components

1)  While carnitas are braising in that 2-3 hour time period, cover corn in foil and roast in oven at 350°F oven.

2)  Remove from oven and cool after 45 minutes.

3)  Nopales can be boiled in salted water for about 30 minutes or until tender.

4)  When nopales are tender, rinse to remove sappiness. Repeat this rinsing process several times as they can release a lot of sap.

5)  To begin quinoa, in a blender, add 2 cloves of garlic, 1 onion medium dice and a little bit of the 4 cups of stock, just enough to cover onion and garlic in blender.

6)  Pulse until blended well, then mix with the rest of the stock.

7)  In a medium sauce pot over medium heat, add 2 T of olive oil and quinoa, mix quinoa with oil and cook until mixture releases nutty aroma, about 2 minutes in pot.

8)  Add the 4 cups of stock, blended with garlic and onion, and season with salt to taste.

9)  Toss in sprig of thyme, rosemary and bay leaf.

10)  Bring stock up to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover with lid slightly tilted to release steam through an opening.

11)  Once no moisture is evident on top, about 20 minutes or longer, completely cover with lid and continue cooking on low until all moisture is gone from bottom and germ from quinoa is on outside.

12)  Remove from heat, reserve and cool to warm.

Building Nopal Salad

1)  Once quinoa is cool, in a bowl combine with roasted corn, diced tomatoes, cilantro, cooked nopalitos, crumbled Los Altos Queso Cotija and diced avocado and thoroughly mix.

2)  Toss in large shreds of pork carnitas and serve with warm flour tortillas.