PULLED PORK TACOS with Tangy Cashew Cream + How to Make Corn Tortillas

Pulled Pork Tacos w/ Tangy Cashew Cream

This tender and succulent pork is the perfect introduction to cooking pork belly as you can't really get it wrong. I have included a slow-cooker and oven method below. Choose free-range meat where possible, I source my free-range pork from our local butcher Philippe so I can skip the packaging.

Ingredients

Pulled Pork

• approx. 750g free-range pork belly fat scored
• 1 tsp cumin seeds or ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp olive oil

Cashew Cream

• 1 cup cashews soaked for minimum 2 hours
• 1 garlic clove peeled
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup water + extra if needed to thin

To serve

• soft corn tortillas or small wheat tortillas
• red cabbage slaw - massage 1/2 tsp salt into shredded red cabbage for several minutes then dress with olive oil and lemon juice
• cashew cream/ sour cream
• Chopped coriander
• lime wedges

Instructions

• Preheat a slow-cooker on LOW* or oven 160C. Pat the pork belly dry with paper towels. Toast the cumin seeds in a dry pan then grind them roughly in a mortar and pestle. Add the paprika, oregano, salt and olive oil and make paste. Rub this over the skin side of the pork belly. Wrap snugly in a layer of baking paper and then foil. Place the pork into the slow cooker or in a tray in the oven. Cook for 4 hours. Remove the pork parcel from the slow-cooker/oven and sit for 10 minutes. Open the package and pour off the juices into a jug - these are delicious added to a lentil soup. Use 2 forks to 'pull' the succulent pork apart into threads. Serve as pictured, layering red cabbage slaw, pulled pork and cashew cream into soft tacos and garnish with coriander. Finish with a squeeze of fresh lime.
• Cashew Cream: Drain and rinse the cashews and place in a food processor/ blender with the remaining ingredients. Blend for several minutes until a thick cream is achieved, adding extra water if needed to thin.

Notes

*Our slow-cooker [Zip brand] runs particularly hot so if you have a true 'slow' cooker then setting to HIGH may be necessary or cooking for 6 hours.

How to make Tortillas

You will need:

2 cups masa harina – this is a traditional Mexican corn flour treated with lime, available from most supermarkets or Tio Pablo
1 1/2 cups cold water
pinch of salt
tortilla press or chopping board
baking paper
rolling-pin

In a bowl combine the masa harina, water and salt and knead with your hands in the bowl to create a smooth dough. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes.

Break the dough into 12 even-sized balls. Take one ball and flatten with your palm them place between baking paper. Use a tortilla press to press down firmly several times until flat. Or use a chopping board and put all your weight into squashing as thin as possible. I like to then finish off with a rolling-pin – keep the tortilla between the baking paper – to make them nice and thin, about 1mm think and 12cm round.

Heat a cast-iron or heavy-based frying pan over a moderate heat. Cook the tortillas for 1-2 minutes on each side until just starting to colour. Wrap in a slightly damp tea towel to keep them warm and the steam from the damp tea towel helps to keep them soft for serving. Store any leftover tortillas in a ziplock bag in the fridge and simply heat in a dry frying-pan as needed.

A weekly meal plan has become an essential part of family life. Although I don’t write down a physical list every week I certainly have a plan in my head for the coming week. Monday night is ‘Daddy’ makes dinner night and then generally the rest of the week is my domain. Before children I would have never had a meal plan as I loved the creativity of cooking a meal at the end of the day with what we had on hand. And it wasn’t really until our second child arrived, dairy allergy in tow, that I actually put pen to paper to write a weekly plan. I can plan the shopping, soak beans/ lentils ahead of time and defrost meat as needed. It really makes life easier for this busy Mama.

I also like to look at the meal plan as a way to balance our meals throughout the week. Instead of serving meat or eggs 3 nights in a row I like to mix it up, one night beans, one night fish, one night lentils, one night eggs. You get the drift. I like to base 3-4 of our weekly meals around vege-based dishes which can require a little pre-thought with soaking beans/ lentils etc. Particularly as I prefer to digest my beans comfortably rather than explosively. I will write a future blog post about correctly cooking legumes, however this week I am sharing one of our favourite weekly dinners. Infused with the subtle [not spicy] flavours of Mexican cuisine this simple pulled pork is easy to prepare and pulls apart like a dream. I use a slow-cooker rather than an oven – although you can use an oven, directions below – as it is way more efficient than heating the whole oven for 4 hours. I think a little bit of my Dutch heritage rubbed off here 😉

You are probably familiar with the crunchy taco shells from the supermarket. Soft corn tacos are a whole other experience and by far my favourite way to go Mexican. And they are really easy to make at home. I make a batch most weeks that will last us several meals and can also be used to make quesadillas – kinda like a gluten-free toastie sandwich. To make my soft corn tortillas I use a traditional tortilla press. No tortilla press? Didn’t think so. Not a problem, they can also be made by squashing a ball of tortilla mix with a chopping board followed by a couple rolls with a rolling-pin. This is how they made them in Colombia when we visited family last year and I learned how to make Arepas – a Colombian style corn and cheese tortilla. You can check out the Arepas recipe and some images from our Santa Marta trip HERE plus Cacao Chilli beans HERE.

Save

Save