Pulled Pork Carnita Tacos

One of my blogger friends, Laurie, is doing a winter revolt and what better way to revolt against winter than a plate of fresh carnita tacos. Summer to me is about simple and fresh ingredients, and great, authentic taco's scream summer.  Please follow Laurie's Winter revolt at: http://foodslove.blogspot.com/2011/02/summer-in-kitchen-update.html    

In  response to Christine Riojas, @BellaCouturista on twitter for a pulled pork recipe (If you watch Top Chef...you will get this!) Here is my simple and fresh Carnitas. For those of you that follow this blog, or follow me on Foodbuzz or twitter, you know that I love to use a pressure cooker. Why you ask? Time. It allows you to cook food with all of the flavors and complexities you would expect in much less time. Carnitas can take hours to cook. Not this recipe, 1-1 1/2 hours max.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons kosher salt (I know, Kosher salt on Pork...sounds odd!)
• 4 -5 lbs Pork Picnic Cut Shoulder
• 1 -10.75 oz can of beef consomme
• 1 cups of beef stock
• 2 pounds refined lard
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed
• 1 tablespoon of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 3 springs of fresh cilantro (more for serving)
• Crumbled Queso Fresco for serving
• Shredded Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese for serving
• Warm tortillas, for serving

Directions

I use a Calphalon Nonstick Sear Grill Pan to sear the meat first. Heat your pan on high heat, add 2-3 tablespoons of lard and sear till completely caramelized on each side.

In your pressure cooker, heat up lard till melted, then add in beef consomme and beef stock. Add in the Pork Shoulder and sprinkle meat with all of seasonings. add Cilantro and onion to pot. Seal pressure cooker and put on medium high heat till you hear pressure being released, then reduce heat to medium. Cook for 35-45 minutes. remove from heat and relieve pressure. remove pork shoulder ( it should be pretty tender by now)

Cut meat into large chucks off of bone and return back to pressure cooker. Add additional water if needed and heat on high heat again, returning back down to medium heat. Cook an additional 35-45 minutes.(the pressure cooker should be making very little "noise"....this is not a high heat recipe, the pressure cooker is simply condensing the flavors and reducing cooking time)

By the time this is done, all the water will have evaporated/steamed from the pot, and what is left at the bottom of the pan is the rendered fat and lard that the meat has been cooking in....meat should be falling apart and caramelized completely.

Let meat rest , pull apart what has not already fallen part and serve with warm tortillas, cilantro, cheese and onion.