Wednesday Dinner

Pork Carnitas with Pineapple-Avocado Salsa

I feel like flinging myself through a doorway and yelling dramatically, "I'm back!"

I honestly don't think it would be possible to make a better meal, for less money, than the one I made tonight. It would have been wonderful at 2 or 3 times the cost, but for as cheap as it was it was truly astounding.

It started with a pork shoulder - the other half of a larger piece purchased 1/2 price ("buy 1, get 1 free") at Lowes Foods. I'd had my butcher cut in half for me. We had the first half in Spicy Asian Pork on a snowy January weekend, and I froze this one. First, I made a rub out of Kosher salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and a few drops of liquid smoke. I rubbed it all over the roast and let it stand for about 2 hours. Then I dropped it in the crock pot, poured over 1/2 cup cider vinegar, and let it cook on low overnight. This morning the meat was falling-apart tender. I took it out of the liquid and let it cool to room temperature before shredding. Meanwhile, I refrigerated the liquid so the fat would rise to the top and solidify. Once I could spoon off the fat, I poured the liquid into a saucepan, added another 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup tomato sauce (1/2 of an 8 oz. can), 2 T. brown sugar and a few more drops liquid smoke. I brought to a boil, let reduce by about 1/3 until thickened, then strained to get any little bits out. I passed this sauce at the table - a sort of South of the Border BBQ sauce.

I can't take any credit at all for the Pineapple-Avocado Salsa recipe. It was 100% Melissa d'Arabian from Food Network's 'Ten Dollar Dinners.' She used hers on marinated fish, but I'd seen similar fruit salsas served with pulled pork, so I decided to give that a try. I used fresh pineapple instead of canned because I ran across a great price on fresh at Aldi, and I added a teaspoon of minced garlic, but otherwise I went straight off her recipe.

juice of 1 lime
squeeze of honey
drizzle canola oil (about 1 Tablespoon)
2/3 fresh pineapple, cut into small chunks (The Kid commandeered the rest)
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 small fresh jalapeno, seeds and white membrane removed, finely diced
1 tsp. minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
1 avocado, cubed
1 small bunch cilantro leaves, chopped
salt & pepper

Mix lime juice, honey and oil together, add pineapple, onion, garlic, jalapeno, and salt & pepper. Mix well. Let stand at least 15 minutes. (I made mine the night before). Just before serving, gently fold in cubed avocado and cilantro leaves.

To assemble, I spooned the heated pork over heated flour tortillas, drizzled with a little of the sauce, and topped with a generous scoop of fruit salsa.

Totals (you won't believe it):

$2.30 - pork shoulder
.25 - dry rub + additional sauce ingredients

$2.55 for pulled pork shoulder for 8+ (we only served about 1/2 tonight)

$1.29 - fresh pineapple
.78 - avocado
.35 - 1/2 red onion
.09 - 1 jalapeno
.10 - cilantro
.33 - lime

$2.94 for big batch of salsa (we used about 1/3 of the batch tonight)

If I added in the cost of a full package of flour tortillas ($1.79), I could have served 8 people easy for under $8. Add some sides of rice and black beans (at pennies per serving), and a pitcher of Margaritas, and you've got a party. (You can put the money you've saved on the food toward a bottle of the really GOOD tequila.)

NOTE: I've found that WalMart is the cheapest option for specialty produce IF (and this is a big if) it's used in Mexican cooking. I think that's because Harris Teeter and Lowes Foods cater to an upscale clientele that occasionally dabble in ethnic cuisine., but WalMart caters to working-class folks who cook with it daily. A very small bunch of cilantro was $2.29 at Lowes Foods, and if I wanted to buy the cilantro concentrate in a tube (so it would go bad so quickly, I presume), I could have spent $3.99. I've seen similar prices at Harris Teeter. But WalMart sold HUGE bunches of cilantro for 79 cents. I couldn't possibly use it all before it goes bad, but at that price I don't care. (Although I have another dish using cilantro planned for later in the week.) Also, Lowes Foods didn't sell loose jalapenos at all, but WalMart had them for $1.38/lb. It's amazing how cheap this ingredient really is when you consider that you'll probably only need 1 or 2 peppers at a time - I paid 9 cents for mine.