fall-apart pork, carnitas-style

I haven't worked much with pork before, but pulled pork is one of my very favorite dishes to eat. When I saw a recipe for carnitas while archive-binging through Homesick Texan's lovely blog (her delicious looking pictures, the simple if time-consuming recipe), I immediately bookmarked it for later use. And when 24 Hour Comics came along and GL asked me to feed folk, I jumped on this recipe as quick as I could think yum. (One, because I love my pulled pork; and two, because pork butt is a delightfully cheap cut of meat).

This recipe is about as simple as it looks. You put pork shoulder, orange juice, salt and water in a pot and cook it. It takes several hours, but whenever I have an excuse I'm spending several hours in the kitchen anyway, and it's not like this needs much watching. First the pork cooks and softens in the boiling water, then, as the liquid evaporates, the pork starts to fall apart in its own delicious fatty juices and cook and soften and fall apart some more.

I made two recipes of this (6 lbs of pork) and by itself (no tortillas or rice or other sides) would have fed eight people well. With sides, it probably would have fed ten or twelve.

Homesick Texan's Houston-style Carnitas
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2008/07/carnitas-houston-style.html
3 pounds of pork butt, cut into thick one inch strips (I forgot to do this, so I had to drag the big things of pork out of the water, cut them, and toss them back in again. Do not live (or cook) by my example)
1 cup of orange juice
3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of salt

Place all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered for 2 hours. (She says here not to touch the meat. Does anyone know why? I did move it around a bit, because there was far too much meat for my little pot and I wanted it all to cook evenly. Everything seemed to turn out fine).

Turn up the heat and let the liquids all evaporate. This took about an hour. Stir occasionally to keep things from burning. When it looks brown and delicious, you're done. I don't think the ending point of this dish is a very fine line, so don't worry about it.

These carnitas were so tasty and fall apart tender. All I had to do was stir a bit and they, as advertised, fell apart. The flavor was deep and deliciously porky. I am definitely making this again.

If you want to stay close to the culture this delicious pork comes from, serve with warm tortillas and one of Homesick Texan's tasty green sauces. I ate this particular batch on dinner rolls hot out of the oven; and then later on top of the Baked Sweet Potato and Asparagus Scramble and (later still) mixed in with my Pea and Sweet Potato Curry (both coming soon to a blog near you). 

I think this would also be delicious if you tossed in a few cups of chopped tomatoes a half an hour or so before you were done cooking, then squeezed on some lemon juice and sprinkled on some capers at the end and served it over thick noodles, like a variation of spaghetti alla puttanesca.

I'd also be made quite happy with a couple of carrots and pearl onions tossed into the pot to cook and then it all served with some mashed potatoes and sauteed greens on the side.

This is a fairy easy and very delicious platform for all you carnivores out there. How would you want to eat it?