Taco Night!

Welcome back, my friends! I hope all of you out there had, or are having, a great holiday season. In case you are wondering, no, this will not be a holiday themed post. In fact, I don't think I've ever done a holiday themed post. Hmmm....I've never really given it that much thought until now. Well, before I get to those tasty little tacos, let me address this holiday issue first.

To start, let me just say that I do like and enjoy the holidays. Or, at least, the ones I choose to celebrate. One of the main reasons I don't create posts centered about the holidays is the fact that everyone else is doing it! Really, you could spit and hit 1,000 blogs all doing holiday themed dishes or reviews. I've never been one to fall in line, and that would put me right in the middle.

Another reason is that the time I spend with my family, holidays or not, is something very personal to me. I don't always want to share that with the world. In fact, I don't exactly share much to begin with. I tend to keep a lot to myself. It was a big decision to start this blog, because I knew I was going to have to share a bit of myself with total strangers and friends alike. While I have opened up some, there are still places I won't go on here.

With that said, lets talk about making some tacos!

What you see above is something I would make in the middle of the week. While it does take a good amount of time to braise the meat, you don't really have to exert too much energy to make it. The oven is really doing most of the work.

To begin, I prefer to go with pork when it comes to making tacos. That's just me, though. You can use whatever the hell you want!

In this case, I went with a cut of pork close to the shoulder. It had a good amount of fat marbled in and didn't cost me an arm and a leg.

I chose to braise the pork, because....I like it like that! For real, I love braising meats. It requires a little work at the beginning, but the end results are soooo good! Usually you end up with incredibly tender meat that will cause your eyes to roll back into your head.

First, you have to sear the meat. High heat, to get that color on there.

I chopped up some onions, garlic, and added carrots to a big roasting tin. Really, if you have a dutch oven or deep roasting pot, use it. For the amount I was making, the tin was my choice.

From here, I laid the seared meat on the bed of veggies and added a can of diced tomatoes and enough chicken stock to go a little less than half-way up the sides of the meat.

This is the stage where you can really get your flavor in. You can add wine, spices, herbs, or anything else you can think of. I can't even remember all the seasonings I put in the braising liquid.

At this point, you cover the tin and roast away! I usually set my oven at about 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Half-way in, I'll turn over the meat to make sure all of it spends time in the liquid.

Now that the meat is in the oven, you've got some time to kill. I tend to finish all my prep right away so I can chill the rest of the time. I chopped up some tomatoes and serrano peppers. After that, it was TV time.

To make sure you don't keep peeking in the oven, keep yourself busy. Read a book, exercise, shag your spouse, pleasure yourself while spying on that cute neighbor, WHATEVER! Don't worry, I won't judge you. Just make sure to flip the meat half-way through cooking.

When the meat was done, I took some of the veggies out of the tin and pureed them with a bit of the liquid to create a salsa-esque topping.

At this point, while the meat was resting, I prepared the corn tortillas. I heat them up in a saute pan with a small amount of vegetable oil. I'm not trying to get them crisp, just soften them up some and get a slight amount of color.

Now it's time to eat. I personally like tacos with a little cheese and sour cream on them. But you can add as much or as little as you want. If you only want hot sauce on there, go for it. If you want everything but the kitchen sink, by all means do it!

That's it. There's not a whole lot to it. You just have to plan for the long oven time. Everything after that is easy.

I hope you enjoyed this one. You have probably guessed that this is the last post for 2012, and you are right. Don't fret, because I have some great stuff lined up for 2013. I am gonna have you saying "This guy is either a genius or completely fucked in the head!"

Yeah, 2013 is gonna fuckin' rock!

Have a (mildly) safe and happy new year!

J. Miller