Pork Roast: Part Two

When faced with a whole pile of leftover pork roast, quite often, I don’t know what to do with it.   Many times, it just sits in the fridge until it turns grey,and then it gets tossed.  Other times, I’ll scoop some up, mix it with BBQ sauce and serve it up that way.  Pork fried rice always comes to mind, but the kids are not rice fans, and fried rice even less, so that’s kind of wasted effort on my part.   In this particular case though, I had it in my mind to use this delicious tender pork in a taco- similar to carnitas, but without the whole day cooking affair, seeing how my pork already had done that.

So I started with half an onion.  I chopped it up and set it in a saute pan to cook and soften, just a few minutes.  To that onion, I added about four cups of the shredded pork, which I ran through with a knife to chop up further, as well as two  minced cloves of garlic.  I let all that cook for about five minutes, and then I added seasonings.  I added 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, 1/4 cup mild taco sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, 1/4 teaspoon chili powder,  and salt and pepper.  It all simmered together for about twenty minutes, and by that time, I had the perfect taco filling, and it was very similar to the pork carnitas I usually make from scratch.

It was the perfect taco filling- full of flavor, and with a whole lot more texture than say, ground beef adds.  It made a delicious dinner paired with some beans, and Andy had it as leftovers topped with salsa and sour cream for a really tasty nacho topping.

And wouldn’t you know?  I still had pork leftover, so tomorrow, a third pork dish you can make from that one roast you cooked the other day.  Now that’s a budget friendly idea!

Leftover Pork Carnitas

3 to 4 cups leftover pork, chopped

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 an onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup plain tomato sauce

1/4 cup mild taco sauce

1/2 teaspoom cumin

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a skillet set over medium heat.  Add the onion, and cook about three minutes, or until softened, but not browned.  Add the chopped pork and garlic to pan.  Cook for five minutes, stirring occassionally.

In a measuring cup, combine the tomato sauce, taco sauce, cumin and chili powder.  Add to the skillet and stir to combine.  Cook for ten minutes, stirring every once in a while.  Check for seasoning, and add salt and pepper if desired.

Cook for an additional ten minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the pork.   Serve the pork on soft flour tortillas with traditional taco toppings.