Tacos de Carnitas

It's clear if you've read my blog that we love tacos. We eat them every chance we get when we're out and about whether in Mexico, California, North Carolina, Toronto, Niagara or here at home in London, Ontario.  And I love to make them at home too.

Tacos de Carnitas are time consuming to make, but not difficult at all. And while you're taking the time to roast pork shoulder in its own fat, it only makes sense to make enough to feed a crowd. 


Even if, like me, you know people who "don't like tacos", these carnitas are so mildly spiced, tender, crispy and delicious, I can't imagine anyone not falling in love at first bite. 

The recipe and technique comes from The Food Lab at Serious Eats. I didn't make their salsa verde, because I have my own, canned last summer. But I followed the rest of the directions pretty much exactly. 

Here's what you need for these amazing tacos.  This amount will feed 8-10 people but you can easily halve or double the recipe.  I froze half of the roasted pork and then thawed and crisped it weeks later.

Cinco de Mayo Mexican Food Roundup

We just got back from our first trip to Mexico! We had a relaxing beach vacation with some fun activities and amazing food and I'll tell you all about it soon. 

I was looking through my archives and I think Mexican food is the kind of food I cook the most. Matt loves it and so do I, so I have a lot of Mexican and Mexican-inspired recipes on this blog, and I thought I'd do a round-up for Cinco de Mayo this week.  

Salsa Verde

First a fantastic salsa verde that's great with chips but even better as a sauce or condiment with grilled or braised meats. We made our own from tomatillos in our garden, which grow amazingly well in our climate, but you can easily buy tomatillos in the summer, or even buy pre-made salsa verde for a tangy change from red salsa. 

Home Made Corn Tortillas

These tortillas are so easy to make, and masa is widely available now. It really makes sense to make your own tortillas if you like them as fresh as possible.

Fish Tacos

We have sought out fish tacos wherever we can get them on our travels.  They're a favourite of ours, so we decided to try them at home.  These are so easy and versatile,  You can use any kind of fish and an assortment of toppings.  

For our first try, we used tilapia.  It's a very mild fish that works well on the grill.  We sprinkled the fish with taco seasoning (cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, cayenne and salt), and grilled it for about 3-4 minutes per side until firm and opaque.

Rock Au Taco

Note: this restaurant closed a while back, but the owners have a new place in a new location in London, Ontario called Los Lobos.  Still excellent. Amazing cocktails too!

As you may have heard, we love, love, love tacos.  So we were very excited when we heard about a new taco place opening right here in London.  It's by the owners of The Early Bird diner and it's right next door/attached.  It's called Rock Au Taco (cute!).

The shop itself has counter service, but you can order the tacos next door at The Early Bird too.  We decided to order ALL of them!  It's a tough life but we did it for research.

Clockwise from the left, this is the Pescado (fish), Papa (potato) and Cachete (beef cheek).  The Pescado had crispy fish, guacamole, slaw, radish and a creamy sauce.  It was one of my favourites.  The potato is a great vegetarian option with little cubes of fried potato, cheese and veggies.  The beef cheek was so tender and delicious, I loved it.  

Then we had the other three options:  clockwise from top left, that's the Bean, Lengua (beef tongue) and Panceta de Cerdo (pork belly).  I didn't personally try the bean but it got great reviews.  Another good choice for a vegetarian, but try the meat options if you can!  The Lengua was great - tender with deep flavour.  But our favourite was the pork belly.  It came with a corn salsa and creamy sauce.  The textures and flavours were fantastic.  Matt likes things spicy and we were given 3 bottles of salsa to spice things up.  We also tried the chips with guacamole and salsa.  

Plus, we had cocktails!  They have a great selection of tequila and bourbon/whiskey based cocktails.  We tried a grapefruit-tequila drink that was delicious. Plus we had margaritas made with spicy tequila, and a version of an old fashioned with marinated cherries.  I love the huge ice cube!

We plan to return often.  It's a great place to grab lunch or a bite before a show.  Check it out!  

Beef Barbacoa Tacos

One of the best techniques I discovered this year is creating a rich, flavourful sauce from dried chilis.  It works beautifully with pork, chicken, and now here's a beef recipe that tastes incredible.  

The original recipe comes from Serious Eats.  I made a few adjustments based on the chilis and meat I had available.  Here's what you need:

Road Trip: Toronto Treats

Toronto is just under two hours away so we go there pretty often for concerts and events.  This time we pretty much just went for the food.  We normally stay at the Westin Harbour Castle on Queens Quay near the harbourfront.  It's a great hotel but the neighbourhood historically wasn't the greatest for food and drink.  It's a close enough walk to St. Lawrence Market though, and we'd usually stop into C'est What or the Bier Markt on the Esplanade for drinks.  

San Diego - Taco Wonderland

I'm not going to say tacos are the reason we went to San Diego, but they're definitely one of the main reasons we'll return.  Taco shops in San Diego are as ubiquitous as Tim Hortons in Canada.  

On our first night we lucked out with taco happy hour right beside our hotel, but the next day we went in search of authentic San Diego fish tacos and ended up in the Gaslamp Quarter downtown.  

Food Truck Road Trip! (Guest Post)

We're in sunny California right now eating fish tacos - posts to come. Meanwhile, here's a guest post by Matt from his Niagara road trip.  

When I decided to visit the Niagara region to check out the emerging beer scene, I knew exactly what I’d be checking out for lunch. In her online food reading, Jen had stumbled across Gastronomo Vagabundo, which is a food truck in the St. Catharines area that specializes in fish tacos. Remember the “I believe...” speech from Bull Durham? Well, the way Kevin Costner feels about kisses is the way I feel about good fish tacos.

If you follow Gastronomo Vagabundo on Facebook, you can find out where their food truck is going to be. It is usually at Montebello Park in downtown St. Catharines, which, as luck would have it, was only a few minutes from my base of operations for my weekend road trip.

When I arrived with my brother-in-law Mike, we were greeted with this menu:

I decided to have the prawn tacos and the pork tongue fritters and in the name of research for Jen’s blog, Mike ordered one of everything. While we waited, we noticed everyone else who had ordered was also snapping pictures, so I didn’t feel too silly taking pictures of the menu and truck either. I’m sure they are used to the cell phone paparazzi by now.

So, how was it?

Carne Adovada (Pork with Red Chilies)

This recipe comes from The Food Lab on Serious Eats.  I love this column; it has illuminated so many cooking techniques for me. The author tries many different methods until he gets the perfect result.  This might not be a 100% authentic dish, but it is 100% delicious.  

Carne Adovada is a dish from New Mexico.  It's pork stewed in a sauce made from dried chilies.  It's not terribly spicy but you get such a rich, warm heat from the chilies and spices.  The combination of chilies actually makes it taste a little chocolatey.  

Pork "Mole" Tacos

This is a completely inauthentic dish but it tastes delicious and is pretty healthy.  Mole pablano is a complex Mexican sauce generally made with chilis and spices and often chocolate and nuts.  A true mole has dozens of ingredients and takes a long time to make. This recipe takes the basic flavours and simplifies them into a rich, flavourful sauce.

Here's what you need:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1-2 chipotle chilis in adobo
• 1 fresh chili (optional)
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter (or canned pumpkin)
• corn tortillas
• sour cream 
• 1 head napa cabbage
• 1 lime

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pan and add the ground pork.

Break it up and cook over high heat for about 3 minutes...

...until browned.

Meanwhile, peel and dice the sweet potato into small chunks and dice the onion. Mince the chili and garlic.

Add to the pork.

And cook, stirring for about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle in the cumin and cinnamon along with some salt and pepper.

Add in the cocoa powder and chopped chipotle peppers.

Stir and cook for 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes and juice and the peanut butter.  We can't have peanut butter at my house so I substituted canned pumpkin and it seemed to work pretty well.   Cover and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make your slaw.  This is napa cabbage which is mild and less tough than traditional cabbage.  

Thinly slice the cabbage.

Zest the lime and add the zest and juice to the cabbage and toss to coat.

Warm your corn tortillas.  You can do this by heating them in a pan one at a time or wrapping them in foil and putting them in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. 

By now the pork mixture should be thickened.

To assemble the tacos, place the corn tortillas on a plate.

Add the pork mixture to each tortilla.

Top with sour cream.

And then add the cabbage-lime slaw.  This was a nice, flavourful, healthy dinner.  

Chili Chicken Tacos

Sorry for the lengthy hiatus. I have lots more to say about Iceland but lets break for a spicy, hearty, healthy recipe.


This recipe is adapted from one in the wonderful Clean Eating magazine, but the recipe is unfortunately is not available online.  Dried chilis used to be hard to find where I live, but the little gourmet market around the corner has started stocking some so I was excited to give this new technique a try!

You need boneless chicken thighs, dried ancho or other mild chilis, garlic, tortillas, black beans, a tomato, an orange, carrots, mint, and an avocado.

First seed and stem the dried chilis. I used scissors to cut off the tops and cut them open, then banged the seeds out. 

Then add the chilis, tomato, garlic, the juice of the orange (zest it first and set the zest aside), a cup of water and some salt to the blender.

Blend until smooth and bright orange.

Now dice your chicken thighs and brown them in a bit of oil. Leave them alone on one side for a few minutes to get a nice brown crust before flipping them over.

Once the chicken is browned on both sides but not necessarily cooked through, add the 1 cup of the chili sauce to the pan and scrape the bottom to deglaze.  

Drain and rinse your canned black beans...

...then add the rest of the sauce and the black beans to the pan with the chicken.

Simmer for about 30 minutes, partially covered until the chili sauce has thickened.

Meanwhile, make the carrot slaw by grating up carrots

and chopping the mint.

Mix together with the orange zest for a nice, refreshing slaw to top your tacos.  

By now the chicken's chili sauce should be nice and thick.  

Once it is thick and the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the heat and assemble your tacos.  

On warm flour tortillas spread some chicken-bean-chili mixture, some carrot slaw and some avocado wedges.

Fold up and taste the delicious, warm flavour dried chilis bring to the chicken.