{"id":861,"date":"2013-03-18T12:42:44","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T16:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=861"},"modified":"2013-03-18T12:49:55","modified_gmt":"2013-03-18T16:49:55","slug":"true-taco-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=861","title":{"rendered":"True Taco Night"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/The-Art-of-Cooking-Mexican.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-811\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" alt=\"The Art of Cooking Mexican\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/The-Art-of-Cooking-Mexican-265x300.jpg\" width=\"265\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/The-Art-of-Cooking-Mexican-265x300.jpg 265w, https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/The-Art-of-Cooking-Mexican.jpg 732w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 265px) 100vw, 265px\" \/><\/a>I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;d ever made real Mexican food. \u00c2\u00a0Don&#8217;t get me wrong. \u00c2\u00a0Box tacos are a guilty pleasure. \u00c2\u00a0But calling box tacos Mexican cooking would be like calling a jar of Ragu and boxed\u00c2\u00a0spaghetti\u00c2\u00a0Italian cooking. \u00c2\u00a0The closest I&#8217;ve probably come is fish tacos with a side of fresh guacamole. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe some of my enchiladas have gotten on the path. \u00c2\u00a0But, <a title=\"Truly Mexican: Essential Recipes and Techniques for Authentic Mexican Cooking\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=809\">with the purchase of a new cook book<\/a>, it was time to give it a real try.<\/p>\n<p>The new cook book (Truly Mexican) offers up recipes ranging from the simple to the devilishly complex. \u00c2\u00a0I decided to ease in with a basic <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adobo\">Adobo sauce<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0(recipe below). \u00c2\u00a0And the basic sauce was even easier than I expected. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe a few extra minutes (at max, 15 minutes of real cooking time) compared to the crappy slightly seasoned tomato sauces I&#8217;ve played with in the past.<\/p>\n<p>On my first go, I decided for pork (recipe below). \u00c2\u00a0After making the sauce and cutting the pork, a bit of hands-off cooking yielded\u00c2\u00a0delicious fall apart pork. \u00c2\u00a0With a little cilantro, Mexican cheese, and a small bit of sour cream I had some rock&#8217;n tacos. \u00c2\u00a0For a full meal, I added some <a title=\"Fast Mashed Canned Black Bean\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=862\">beans<\/a> and rice. \u00c2\u00a0So freak&#8217;n good!<\/p>\n<p>This last weekend I made the same meal with chicken and a few eggs on the side for an at home brunch. \u00c2\u00a0The chicken recipe tracks the pork with a reduced cook time (for sliced chicken it was about 20 minutes of stove top in sauce cook time).<\/p>\n<p>The cook book tells me the sauce can keep in the fridge for a week and on both cookings it seemed better the next day. \u00c2\u00a0(I&#8217;m eating Sunday brunch leftovers for lunch as I type.) \u00c2\u00a0I think I might next need to make the sauce a couple days in advance. \u00c2\u00a0Then I&#8217;ll be just 30 minutes away from my next taco night!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-864 alignright\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" alt=\"IMG_20130119_222751\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/IMG_20130119_222751-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/IMG_20130119_222751-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/IMG_20130119_222751-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/IMG_20130119_222751.jpg 972w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Basic Ancho Adobo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 13px; font-size: 13px;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><em>Ingredients:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2 1\/2 onces ancho chiles (5 individual chiles), wiped clean, stemmed, slit open, seeded and deveined<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup water for blending, more if necessary<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 cup Seville orange juice or distilled white vinegar<\/li>\n<li>2 garlic cloves, peeled<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 teaspoon fine sale or 1 teaspoon if kosher salt<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 teaspoon sugar<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 teaspoon dried oregano,\u00c2\u00a0preferably<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Directions:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Heat a heavy skillet over medium-low heat, and toast the chiles 2 at a time, turning them over frequently until they&#8217;re fragrant and they&#8217;ve developed light brown blisters, about 1 1\/2 minutes per batch. Soak the chiles in enough cold water to cover until they&#8217;re soft, about 30 minutes. Drain and discard the soaking water.<\/p>\n<p>Put the 1\/2 cup of fresh water in the blender jar with the chiles and the remaining ingredients. \u00c2\u00a0Blend until smooth, at least 3 minutes, adding a little more water in necessary to puree. \u00c2\u00a0For a silkier, smooth texture, strain the adobo through a medium-mesh sieve.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pork in Adobo (Cerdo en Adobo)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Ingredients:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">2 pounds pork shoulder or other pork stewing meat, cut into 1 1\/2-inch cubes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>1\/4 teaspoon fine salt, or 1 teaspoon kosher salt<\/li>\n<li>2 tablespoons<\/li>\n<li>1 1\/2 cup of Adobo<\/li>\n<li>2 cups of water or chicken stock<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Directions:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Pat the pork dry and season it with the salt. \u00c2\u00a0Heat the oil in a 4 to 5 quart heavy pot or skillet over medium-high. \u00c2\u00a0Brown the pork (us e multiple batches is needed&#8211;avoid having the pork pieces sitting on top of each other), turning occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes per batch.<\/p>\n<p>Reduce the heat and return all the pork to the pot. \u00c2\u00a0Carefully pour the adobo over the pork. \u00c2\u00a0If the adobo is in the blender, swish a little liquid around in the jar and add it to the pot. \u00c2\u00a0Simmer, stirring to coat the pork and fry the sauce, until the sauce is slightly thicker, about 5 minutes. \u00c2\u00a0Add the 2 cups of water.<\/p>\n<p>Cook the pork, covered, in an oven in an ovenproof pot in a 350 degree oven for 1 1\/2 to 2 hours. \u00c2\u00a0Season to taste, vinegar, and additional salt. \u00c2\u00a0(The recipe also instructs that you can reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, gently simmer the pork, adding a couple table spoons of water from time to time to maintain a silky texture until the pork is tender, 1 1\/2 2 hours)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;d ever made real Mexican food. \u00c2\u00a0Don&#8217;t get me wrong. \u00c2\u00a0Box tacos are a guilty pleasure. \u00c2\u00a0But calling box tacos Mexican cooking would be like calling a jar of Ragu and boxed\u00c2\u00a0spaghetti\u00c2\u00a0Italian cooking. \u00c2\u00a0The closest I&#8217;ve probably come is fish tacos with a side of fresh guacamole. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe some of my enchiladas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,17,60,187],"class_list":["post-861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cooking","tag-chicken","tag-mexican","tag-pork","tag-tacos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}