Food; carnitas

Tonight was carnitas.

Buy some strips of belly pork. Be sure to pick over the selection for the fattiest if you're in a supermarket. Any time from lunch time onwards stick them in a large sauce pan and just cover with water. Add salt and pepper, a chopped onion and a whole root of garlic, cut in half horizontally. Two bay leaves are essential. Buy a bay tree if necessary. Dried might be okay, dunno, I've got the tree.

Cover tightly, bring to boil, turn heat very low and forget about for at least 3 hours. Five hours is fine. You can do this the night before, but the smell is so good I prefer to eat them on the day.

Pick out the strips (gently, they tend to break up) and cut up in to chunks about 2 inches long. I don't use the stock for anything. Transfer the meat pieces to a non stick heavy frying pan and cook them slowly in their own fat. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, chili powder, some cumin and some more chili powder. Flip the pieces once. You're aiming to have a crispy outside and the fat within fully softened. If you over-fry them all the fat runs out and you end up with hard meat in lard. Avoid!

That's it. We had them with sweet potatoes. They should absolutely melt in the mouth. They did.

Peter