Mexican Pork Tinga Tostadas

Would you believe me if I told you that in Chile – the country that’s shaped like a pepper! – it’s nearly impossible to find spicy food?  I really don’t understand it, but for whatever reason Chileans hate spicy food, and absolutely love mayo.  Go fig.

This is rather unfortunate for a girl (me) who grew up in the southwest of the states.  I’ve lived in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Cruces (NM), and Dallas – all places where you can get awesome mexican food!  Really, mexican food is my comfort food.  I’ll take a spicy enchilada over fried chicken any day!  (Fried chicken is pretty good though…)

I can’t find any good mexican food in Chile, let alone a hot pepper.  Most of the peppers here are mild at best.  (Isn’t that crazy for a country SHAPED like a chile pepper?)  There is one spicy pepper here, though.  It’s called the rocoto, or more appropriately – locoto.  It’s hot.  It’s crazy hot.  You might even say it’s loco, it’s so hot!  😉

So be careful if you’re looking for chiles while in Chile.  The rocoto looks sneakily like a small red bell pepper.  I even thought it was a red bell pepper when I first moved here, but the black seeds inside threw me off.  When a pepper has black seeds (and makes you cough when you cut it!), you know you’ve got a damn hot pepper.  My dinner that night was a little spicier than I had intended.

This weekend, Ryan was craving mexican food even more than me.  So he made Pork Tinga – mexican pulled pork!  Cook’s Illustrated has a very manageable recipe in their April 2010 issue.  Set atop crispy tostadas, and garnished with fresh guacamole, lime, queso fresco, and cilantro, this makes an amazing meal.  It’s so good, we made it for breakfast the next day, with a fried egg on top.  It was bliss.

In case you’re curious, we also had to make the tostadas from scratch.  And when I say scratch, I mean I rolled the corn flour into tortillas, fried up tortillas, and then deep-fried the tostadas.  Have I mentioned how much I love mexican food?  Love makes you do crazy things.

Since I’ve really been missing spicy mexican sauces, I whipped up a rocoto-infused “green” enchilada sauce.  It’s great alone as a salsa, but we put it on top of our Tinga-Huevos-Rancheros.  The recipe is adapted to the chiles I can find in Chile, but you could sub any similar chiles that are more local to you.

Spicy Mexican Shredded Pork Tostadas (Tinga)

adapted from Cooks Illustrated, April 2010
2 lbs boneless pork butt, trimmed of excess fat, cubed into 1-in pieces (1.5 lbs after being trimmed)
2 medium onions, 1 quartered, 1 chopped fine
5 garlic cloves, 3 peeled/smashed, 2 minced
4 sprigs fresh thyme
salt to taste
2 T olive oil
1 T fresh oregano
14.5 oz tomato sauce (pomi + chopped tomato works fine)
1 T chopped chipotle (from the adobo sauce can)
2 bay leaves

• Bring pork, quartered onion, smashed garlic cloves, thyme, 1 t salt, and 6 cups water to simmer in large saucepan over medium-high heat, skimming off any foam that rises to surface.  Reduce heat to med-low, partially cover, and cook until pork is tender (75-90 min).  Drain pork, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid.  Discard onion, garlic, and thyme.  Return pork to saucepan and, using potato masher, mash until shredded into rough 1/2-in pieces.  Set aside.
• Heat olive oil in 12-in nonstick skillet over med-high heat until shimmering.  Add shredded pork, chopped onion, and oregano; cook, stirring often, until pork is well browned and crisp, 7-10 min.  Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 sec.
• Stir in tomato sauce, chipotle, reserved pork cooking liquid, and bay leaves; simmer until almost all liquid has evaporated, 5-7 min.  Remove and discard bay leaves and season with salt to taste.
• To fry tostadas: Put a bunch of vegetable oil in a deep pot (creuset works well here!) – there should be about 3 in of oil.  Get the oil up to 350 degrees F, then put in a corn tortilla.  Anchor it down with a potato masher, and fry in the oil for 1-2 min.
• GARNISH with queso fresco, cilantro, diced avocado, sour cream, lime wedges.

“Green” Enchilada Sauce (Orange Enchilada Sauce)

This sauce is “green” because it’s based on a true green enchilada sauce, but I use rocotos (a red pepper) to kick up the heat, and tomatoes in lieu of tomatillos (which are nonexistent in Chile). In reality, it’s more of an orange-tinged enchilada sauce, with the heat of green chiles.
2 med tomatoes
10-12 green chiles, 8-10″ long (in Chile, the light-green variety)
1 rocoto (small red chile that looks like a red bell pepper)
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves, minced
1 t fresh oregano
~3/4 C veggie/chicken stock
salt/pepper
1/2 C chopped fresh cilantro
fresh squeezed lime juice to taste (~1/4 C)

• Heat oven to 450ºF.  Put the tomatoes, green chiles, and rocoto on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt.  Roast for about 20 minutes, or until the skins are browned.  Put the everything in a zip-lock bag, and let the tomatoes & chiles steam in the bag for about 10 minutes.  Then peel the tomatoes (set aside), and peel the green chiles and rocoto.  Discard the seeds, and wash your hands!  That’s a lot of capsicum!  Chop up the chiles & rocoto.
• In a large deep skillet, heat ~2T olive oil on med-high.  Through in the onion and garlic, and cook until soft, stirring occasionally (about 10 min).  Add the oregano.
• Add the chiles (& rocoto), and cook for a few minutes to bloom the flavors.
• Add the tomatoes, stock, and salt & pepper to taste.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens slightly (10-15 min).
• Stir in the cilantro and lime juice, then purée in an immersion blender.  Correct the seasoning to taste, and enjoy!