Mexican Pulled Pork with tortillas

In preparing this dish of Mexican Pulled Pork with tortillas, my mind flew back to the time I visited Mexico many years ago. It was an excursion during a tour of the USA, and we did a day trip to Tijuana, from San Diego.

I honestly can’t remember what we ate, probably something in a café – we did eat a lot of ‘soup and salad’ while in the US, and I recall drinking some 7UP in Tijuana. I was pretty excited about the duty-free shopping there and picked up some Estee Lauder perfume (!!!) because, at the time, the Aussie dollar was hopeless against the greenback, so Mexico was fairly cheap in comparison. I also bought some little handcrafted dolls from a street vendor, as souvenirs.

Well, Tijuana was hot and dry and a bit grimy, and it was a relief to get back onto our pink tour bus/coach for the journey back. The most exciting part of the trip was having the coach searched at the border, with the armed guards looking at the underside of the bus and in the hold for any stowaways. When they realised it was just a bus full of gawking, English-speaking tourists, they lost interest and waved us through without even checking our passports. So much for any hoped-for intrigue, because there was none, so it was a rather sanitised visit, as far as I was concerned.

This recipe can also be made in a pan on the stove – just simmer for 1½ hours and you too can experience the flavours (though slightly restrained) of Mexico.

Mexican Pulled Pork

serves 4

Ingredients

2 tblsp olive oil

500g piece pork scotch fillet

2 medium brown onions, sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tblsp ground cumin

2 dried bay leaves

400g can diced tomatoes

Flour tortillas or rice

Avocado, green chilli and lime wedges, to serve

Method

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Sear the pork on all sides until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the pork to a slow cooker.

2. Heat the remaining oil in the pan and add the onion, cooking until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, cumin and bay leaves and cook for another 1 minute.

3. Stir in the tomatoes plus ½ cup of cold water. Season with salt and pepper, then bring to the boil. Remove from the heat.

4. Pour the tomato mixture over the pork in the slow cooker and cook on Low for 6 hours.

5. When ready to serve, remove the pork from the cooker and shred the meat using 2 forks.

6. Heat the tortillas, if using, and top with the pork and some of the tomato sauce. Serve with sliced chilli and lemon wedges. Alternatively, serve the pork and sauce with rice.

recipe adapted from taste.com.au

Ingredients, including tomatoes, onion, cumin, bay leaves and pork, and a lime, green chilli and avocado for later.

The pork is shredded with forks ('pulled') after it's cooked, and just look at that luscious meat.

Serve the pork and its sauce on warmed flour tortillas with the chilli and lime.

The avocado ended up being hard as a rock, so I didn't use it in the end and replaced it with some salad leaves.

Make like Speedy Gonzales (who is from Guadalajara, Mexico) to get your hands on this delicious dish.