FLOWER POT KITCHEN: MEXICAN ALL CHEESE TOSTADA BASKET WITH BARBECUE PULLED PORK

7 Jul 2023

MEXICAN ALL CHEESE TOSTADA BASKET WITH BARBECUE PULLED PORK

GLUTEN FREE

Wonderful crispy cheese tostada basket stuffed with crunchy ice berg lettuce, refried beans, more cheese, succulent barbecue pulled pork finished off with fixings of pico de gallo, sour cream, guacamole, red jalapeños chillies and fresh lime.

When I make slow cooked pulled pork I always make extra to be efficient with the use of my oven for 3-4 hours, this also gives my family lots of variations for the week, stuffed tacos, crispy chimichangas, burritos, wraps, sliders and sloppy joe’s. This freezes well too.

Slow Cooked Pulled Pork 3-4 hours

Ingredients

(makes 2)

Cheese Tostada Basket

500g Mexican mix grated cheese

(equal mix of mild cheddar, Red Leicester and mozzarella)

(reserving 100g for later)

Pulled Pork

1 kg pork (butt) shoulder

1.5 ltr coke cola

Water

5 tbsp bbq spice rub

(make your own rub recipe below)

Barbecue Rub Spice

4 tbsp molasses dark brown sugar

1 tbsp chipotle dried chilli flakes

1 tbsp sweet paprika

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

2 tsp sea salt

Fixings

Re fried beans

Guacamole

Sour cream

Iceberg lettuce chopped

1 lime halved

Red jalapeños sliced

Pico de gallo

2 tomato finely diced

1 small red onion finely diced

1 jalapeño finely diced

1/2 lime juiced

1 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander

1 pinch sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

Cheese Tostada Basket

Pre heat your oven 160 C / 315 F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper, place 200g of cheese in a level circle twice place in the oven to melt and get a little crispy around the edges approx 15 minutes. Take a muffin baking tray and turn it upside down using a spatula lift up the circle of melted cheese and lay over the raised muffin tin encouraging the sides to hug the muffin tin shape to create the basket, leave to cool and set. Once set your are ready to layer in the fillings.

The Pork Butt

Pre heat the oven to 160 C / 315 F. Rub the pork generously all over with the BBQ rub, place the pork in a deep roasting tin pour in all the coke cola, top up with water to cover the meat and then cover the tin with foil, place the roasting tin in the oven and slowly cook for approx 3 1/2 hours.

When your cooking time is up to check that the pork is super tender, take a fork and push in to the shoulder then pull down if the pork gently pulls away with ease, it is cooked. Remove the pork from the cooking stock and place on a large plate, keep the pan with all the stock to one side for now, take the pork, remove the skin and fat and discard, break down the pork slightly with your hands and pop back in to the roasting pan with all the BBQ stock and leave the pork to absorb the gorgeous braising stock liquor for ten minutes or so, drain the stock off through a sieve in to a fat separator jug this stock is ready to make the barbecue sauce to coat the pulled pork in.

Homemade BBQ Sauce

500ml coke a cola rib stock

1 1/2 cup tomato ketchup

1/4 cup soft brown sugar

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tsp chipotle powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan combine and bring to a simmer, adjust the seasoning and chilli powder to taste, simmer gently until thickened, toss the pulled pork in the barbecue sauce.

To assemble the tostada basket heat the re fried beans and place in the bottom of the basket, sprinkle over a little of the reserved cheese, next add the iceberg lettuce another sprinkle of cheese, some jalapeño slices, lime juice, pulled pork then finish off with sour cream, guacamole, more jalapeños and pico de gallo.

No comments:

LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.