Pork Tacos | Carnitas and Pico de gallo | Salsas

https://dawns-ad-lib.com/2018/05/15/slow-cooker-pulled-pork-dawns-ad-lib-com/

Made this AGAIN 😁 but added a small can each of salsa verde and diced green chilies.

NOW, hopefully I got this right, 😁😆😅😂 after packing too much into one post.

I promise you … this is damn delicious! 😘 The FLAVOR is the bomb 💣🐷🐖🔥

Heads up: just chitchat follows BUT good photos!

That means a bit of other people's opinions ~

What goes between your tortillas?
Mexican food is regionally diverse and flavorful, with origins dating back to the Aztec Empire.
Many of the so-called Mexican foods we love — like hardshell tacos, burritos, and nachos — are Tex-Mex inventions. Though they have their own interesting history (and are obviously tasty), calling them Mexican is as accurate as saying General Tsao’s chicken is Chinese.
Instead of hardshell tacos, make soft-shell tacos:

9 Authentic Mexican Dishes You Should Eat Instead Of The Tex-Mex Knockoffs:

Vegetables like avocados, home-made salsa, and chopped onions are added, and garnished with fresh lime juice and cilantro. If cheese is used, it won’t be the shredded “Mexican” cheese commonly found at U.S. grocery stores, but fresh white cheese.
And don’t add a dollop of sour cream on top. Instead, try crema, which is less sour and runnier than sour cream (similar to authentic French crème fraîche).
Instead of buying jars of salsa, make your own pico de gallo.
Carnitas, Al Pastor, Barbacoa:

Here’s the 411 on Mexican Meats:
The beer-drinking backdrop of a hot afternoon or evening would pair perfectly with a festive Mexican feast of tacos and grilled meats. But with a menagerie of Spanish monikers from carnitas to carne asada, taco meat terminology can get a bit confusing. Here’s the breakdown of Mexican meats:
Carne asada: Grilled, marinated pieces of beef (typically sirloin or rib) served inside burritos and tacos.
Carnitas: Shoulder of pork that’s been seasoned, braised until tender with lard and herbs (oregano, marjoram, bay leaves, garlic), pulled apart, and then oven-roasted until slightly crisp, then eaten alone or used as a filling for tacos, tamales, tortas, and burritos.
Al pastor: Crisp-thin shavings of vertical spit-roasted pork, marinated with guajillo chiles and achiote, then served on tortillas. Pastor means “shepherd,” the name given to Lebanese merchants who immigrated to Mexico City in the early 1900s, bringing the concept of shawarma with them.
Taco Al Pastor is a traditional Central Mexican staple made with adobo chile-marinated pork and pineapple. The pork is slow-cooked on a vertical skewer and served in thin slices, topped with pineapple, cilantro, avocado, onions, and lime. The dish was influenced by shawarma, which was introduced to Mexico by Lebanese immigrants.
Cochinita pibil: Whole suckling pig or pork shoulder that’s marinated in citrus with achiote, then wrapped in banana leaves and roasted. Historically, it’s buried in a pit with a fire at the bottom.
Barbacoa: Traditionally, beef cheek and head that’s covered in leaves from the maguey plant, then slow cooked over a wood fire in a pit in the ground. In America today, it also refers to spicy, shredded, slow-braised beef that’s been made tender, then pulled apart.
WHAT ARE STREET TACOS?
Street tacos are the smaller cousin of the hard-shelled taco, and it’s a staple in American kitchens. Though the hard-shelled taco does have plenty of fans, street-style tacos offer more variety. These soft tortillas are served from taco trucks and stands throughout North America. They can be filled with either pork, beef, shrimp, or fish and are commonly topped with cilantro, onions, and lime (often with an extra tortilla underneath for less mess).
THAT’S what goes between your tortillas!

Making mango salsa or more appropriately called mango pico de gallo and regular pico de gallo.

So many recipes; choose your favorite or choose based on ingredients you have …

I posted a couple/few here below; followed by some beautiful images regarding mango, salsas, pico, etc..

Tortilla info at bottom 😀

Mango salsa

If you’ve never tried Mango Salsa on a taco, then I recommend you do. I have to with Mexican Pulled Pork Tacos! Or Pork i < I’ll. r Carnitas tacos. Juicy, tender pulled pork.
Having a sweet salsa or pico (like mango &/or pineapple) with “pork” is common; pork tacos, carnitas; the way apples/applesauce goes with pork – chops or roast.
What goes best with a well seasoned, savory meat? Something a little on the sweet side… am I right? Mango Avocado Salsa pairs absolutely perfectly with a yummy pork!
Of course, let’s not forget all the great sweet and savory combos you can make with chicken, steak, and pork. A good salsa can easily be used as a garnish or a tasty side.
And to top it all off, this salsa can also be served as a dip!
Mango salsa makes for a great appetizer or snack food, just like guacamole.

When it comes to tacos, Pork Carnitas (often referred to as pork tacos) are among the best of the best; which includes carne asada – of course! When I’m in Mexico, I hunt down the BESTjoints that the locals go to.

Mexicans take their carnita tacos (okay, their food period) seriously because it is so mouth wateringly delicious. Succulent, slow cooked seasoned pork, shredded and stuffed into tacos among them!

From the simplest:

Salsa

1 medium mango, cut in half lengthwise, seed removed, peeled and chopped (1 cup)

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh or 1 teaspoon dried cilantro leave

1 small jalapeño chile, finely chopped (2 to 3 teaspoons)

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/8 teaspoon salt

To the > Delicious, fresh, and easy to make mango-lime salsa

Ingredients

1 ripe mango, peeled and diced

1 ripe avocado, pitted and diced

1/2 cup red pepper, diced

1 tablespoon jalapeno, finely diced

1/3 cup red onion, diced

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

1/3 cup cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped

Optional: 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and pepper

Instructions

Combine the mango, avocado, red pepper, jalapeño, red onion, lime juice and cilantro leaves and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste

Author: Layla Pujol at Laylita’s Recipes

Delicious and colorful mango salsa recipe made with ripe mangoes, red onion, orange bell pepper, red Fresno chilies, cilantro, and lime

Ingredients –

1 medium red onion

2 tsp salt

2 firm mangoes

1 orange bell pepper

4 red Fresno chilies

2 tbs finely chopped cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

Juice of 1 orange

1 tsp cumin

Instructions –

Dice the red onion very finely and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt, let rest for about 10 minutes

Peel the mangoes and dice the flesh into small pieces

Dice the bell pepper very finely

Dice the hot peppers or chilies very finely. I removed the seeds and membranes to make the salsa mild since the kids love it, but if you would like it spicier the you can leave the seeds/membranes.You can also use a spicier hot pepper such as serranos or habaneros.oi>

Rinse the onions with water

Mix all the ingredients together, taste and adjust seasoning/salt as needed. For the best taste, refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

LOVE and LEMONS ~

Another > Mango Salsa:

1 large mango, finely diced

3 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

2 green onions, finely diced

small bunch cilantro, chopped

juice from 1 lime

salt and olive oil, to taste

For > Guacamole

2 ripe avocados

juice from 1 lime

2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

salt and garlic powder to taste

1/4 cup sour cream

Optional sides:

jalapenos, sour cream, Chipotle sauce

♡
Pico de gallo is super fresh.

The store-bought, jarred salsa we all eat with Tostitos chips pales in comparison to spicy, fresh, and flavorful Mexican salsas.

The most common Mexican salsas are salsa roja, salsa verde, and pico de gallo. Though all three are fantastic, we recommend trying pico de gallo — it’s a raw, salad-like tomato salsa with diced and chopped vegetables mixed with cilantro that will be the biggest change from your prepackaged salsa.

Should you use flour or corn tortillas?

Today, the border is the only part of Mexico where the flour tortilla still dominates, while different types of corn tortillas are the de facto choice as you move southward. Americans tend to prefer flour, but corn is gaining ground.

(Imho it’s a non-issue; both are well liked & well used, it’s simply personal preference)

I know that when I get street tacos from the many typical taco stands or trucks, especially if pork…they’re small “street taco” size flour.

That being said…

Sometimes, you’ll have to make a choice between flour and corn. But there are certain foods that should only ever be constructed with one or the other. Here are a few examples: breakfast tacos – flour

Here’s a good rule to live by: heartier tacos require flour tortillas. And breakfast tacos, moreipujjppbo so than others, definitely require the strength of flour tortillas. While breakfast tacos can take on a wide range of ingredients, from potato, bean and cheese to chorizo and egg to migas, each of them needs the support of a flour tortilla as it’s less likely to collapse under pressure. The moisture from the eggs, coupled with the barrage of salsa that breakfast tacos require, can turn a corn tortilla soggy.

Al Pastor Tacos: Corn

Al pastor might just be the definitive taco of Mexico City, where trompos of spinning meat draw customers from blocks away. As such, this wonderful blend of spit-roasted pork, onion, cilantro, lime and pineapple should always be served on a corn tortilla as is tradition in Mexico’s capital. Also, fun fact, al pastor came about after Lebanese immigrants arrived in Mexico during the 19th and 20th centuries and started selling shawarma on the streets.

Baja Fish Tacos: Corn

Burritos: Flour

The small homemade flour toritillas sold all over Mexico

Others insist that they’re inferior to corn. Jinich, who grew up in Mexico, couldn’t disagree more: “Flour tortillas are very Mexican,” she says. “I don’t choose one over the other, at all, just like any Mexican.” (well THAT matches my “imho”…no wonder, I’ve lived near the border long enough to come to same conclusion)

Flour tortillas are certainly more common in the northern part of the country, where the territory is more suited to growing wheat than corn. But they’re both integral to Mexican cuisine.