Pork Tacos, Mexican Rice, and Refried Beans.

Made up some pork tacos with some homemade sausage I made the other day. Decided I'd smoke it on Lil' Spidey and see what it tasted like, and man it was gooood.

Made some refried black beans with homemade taco seasoning, some rendered pork fat from the butts I processed into sausage, and some pork stock I had canned up:




On the grill for an hour, hour and a half, and here's what I ended up with:

Ground it down:


Made some red sauce for the refried beans and Mexican rice using ancho peppers, hatch peppers, some cloves, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Steeped the peppers in some water, ground the seasonings in my mortar and pestle, stuck it all in the blender, and then simmered on the stove:




Made some guacamole seasoned with some salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder, cumin, and some jalapeno brine:



Grilled some onions up for the tacos:


End results: Tacos, corn cooked in some butter and ground hatch chiles, refried beans and Mexican rice with red sauce. I could drink that red sauce by the gallon it's so good!



Thanks for looking.

motoeric said:

That looks great! Nice job. I tried making some pulled pork tacos this weekend and they didn't turn out anywhere close to that good.

ERic

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Yeah I've tried a couple of different methods with the pork tacos. First incarnation was pulled pork tacos, but my wife said she preferred pulled pork on a bun, not a tortilla. The second incarnation was pork that was cut down into chunks, but my wife said she prefers that when I do carnitas, and likes it in some green sauce, this is the third incarnation, and she said it was perfect. Ground is the way to go. I think I'm gonna take a Picnic or a butt and smoke that bad boy to about 170º and try cubing that up, mix it with some green sauce, and see how she likes that too. The fatty ground pork is definitely a keeper in either event though. Reminded me of my teen years of sucking down soft taco supremes during my shift at Taco Bell, but you know, tasty.

landarc said:

Why can't I get taco plates that look that good around here?

Nice cooking JG

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You know, I spent about six or eight months out in California for business purposes, and not once in that whole time did I even try a Mexican restaurant. :doh:

gtr said:

Homemade fatties, pork stock, the salsa - you complete me dude. :hungry:

I've been using smoked pork stock a lot lately - in sausage when distributing the spices, in beans, and I injected my last pulled pork with it, which I will most definitely be doing again.

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How do you do the smoked pork stock? You making the stock and then adding smoke to it in your pit? Or the bones are smoked? I've wondered about throwing the stock in there after I'm done making it for some extra smoky flavor, but worried about it not coming out the way I picture. Right now I take the bones from the smoked butts, or I smoke the bones after I cut them out of the butts when I'm grinding sausage, and then I make it all up into stock that way. I've been using my pressure cooker since I got it. Let it run for about an hour, and those bones become jelly mush. So awesome. Might have to throw it on the smoker after I strain that and see what happens.

Injecting butts with pork stock CANNOT be beaten man. I love that stuff so much. I've had a few people act completely shocked when I talk about pork stock. Can't disrespect those bones man! Especially when it tastes so good.

Fake Farmer said:

Badger,

You are sandbagging me! :shock: Thank you for your compliments on my fish taco cook. However...this is out of this world! I am so flattered you even noticed my cook. So much homemade goodness, tweaked and made to your liking. If you tell me you forged that CIS with your bare hands I'm not gonna be surprised. Great cook!

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:icon_blush: I thank you for the compliments good sir. You inspired me to take a crack at fish tacos some time down the road. I have never made any myself, only had em from some food trucks out in Houston. Your cook made me decide real quick I need to take a crack at it. Looked freaking delicious!