Homemade Corn Tortillas with Puerto Rican Shredded Pork with Pico de Gallo, Guacamole and Black Beans
Usually on weekends we love to cook dinner with the whole family. I think it’s a great family tradition, and benefits all of us, parents and kids. And with big pleasure everything is eaten 🙂 This past weekend we cooked together again one of our favorite cuisines, Mexican! We decided to make tacos, it’s a perfect choice for dinner since everyone can make them to their individual tastes and the flavors can be changed so easily. You can buy ready made corn tortillas of course, but lately we have been making them ourselves and the flavor and texture is so much better than store bought tortillas. Another plus of this dish is that the meat is cooked in a Crock- pot for the most part, leaving you time during the day to do something else while the meat cooks to perfection. While its cooking you can prepare the side dishes like pico de gallo and guacamole. Instead of guacamole you can just slice an avocado and lay on top of the tacos as well, sometimes I prefer this much actually.
The nice thing with this beans recipe is that you can keep the cooked but not fried beans in the refrigerator and they cook up very quickly. My kids don’t like beans (especially the refried beans at most Mexican restaurants) but this is one recipe they both enjoy.
On cold and snowy winter days is always nice to remember about summer.
Homemade Corn Tortillas with Puerto Rican Shredded Pork with Pico de Gallo, Guacamole and Black Beans Recipe
By Published: January 27, 2017
- Yield: 6-8 Servings
Usually on weekends we love to cook dinner with the whole family. I think it's a great family tradition, and benefits all of us, …
Ingredients
- 1.5-2 kg (3.3-4.4lbs) pork shoulder boneless, in one piece
- 5-6 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 0.5 tbsp coarse salt
- 2 tsp oregano dried
- 0.5 tsp hot red pepper or to taste
- 1 cup orange juice freshly squeezed
- 4 limes juice
- 1 large onion
- 1 cup black beans dried
- 1 small white onion
- 5 cloves of garlic
- salt to taste
- garlic powder to taste
- queso fresco shredded
- cilantro finely chopped
Instructions
- Crush 3 cloves of garlic. Poke the pork with a sharp knife and stuff them with ​​crushed garlic. Season all sides of the pork with salt and pepper. Preheat a frying pan with the olive oil and fry the pork on all sides, about 8 minutes.
- Mix remaining ingredients in a blender, except onion, until smooth.
- Cut onion into large chunks and put it on the bottom of the Crock-pot, put pork on top and pour the marinade in the pork. Turn Crock-Pot on low temperature, cover and cook about 10 minutes, then flip the pork to the other side, cover and cook for another 8 hours. Usually while its cooking I'll open it every so often and pour the juice over the pork or rotate it.
- To cook the beans, first rinse the beans in a saucepan, then put in a saucepan with the whole peeled onion and garlic. Add water and be sure it covers the beans 1-2 inches. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more water, if necessary.
- After cooking the pork 8 hours, remove from the crock pot and shred it using two forks. Drain the liquid from Crock- pot and strain about one cup. Return the pork back to Crock- pot, add the reserved cup of juice, mix and cook for about 20 minutes on low heat.
- Remove the onion and garlic for the bean pot and preheat a saucepan to cook the refried beans. Remove the amount of beans you plan to cook with a strainer and add to the saucepan, then add about a quarter cup of the bean broth back to the beans. Cook the beans at medium to low heat and mash with a potato masher to give them a smooth consistency. Sprinkle with salt and garlic powder and mix. The beans will cook fast but if they start to overcook and get dry, just add some more of the bean broth and mix again. Finally plate the beans and top with grated cheese and a bit of chopped cilantro.
- For the tortillas, its best to use fresh masa but what we use is the corn flour from Maseca. Its very easy to make and has the basic instructions there so I won't repeat them but the key that I've seen is to use warm water when making the masa and to be sure to let it rest at least 30 minutes before cooking.
- Our stove has a griddle that covers two burners which is helpful since I've found it better to heat one side higher than the other but its not completely necessary. After you press out the tortillas using a tortilla press, heat one side for about 30 seconds and then flip to the other. The key is you want to get the tortillas to puff up, this can be tricky. Some techniques to try if your tortillas won't puff is to keep flipping every 10-20 seconds, press the tortilla down with your spatula (I know this sounds counter productive but it does work), or when they start to form some small air pockets to press next to them to encourage the air bubble to spread. It can be tricky but after awhile it's easy. If you can't get your tortillas to puff they will still be tasty but puffed tortillas tend to fold easier and are light and tender.
- Serve pork in corn tortillas, top with pico de gallo and guacamole.
- Skill Level: Easy
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