Recipe: Banana Blossom No-Carnitas
Mexican cuisine has long been one of my favourite types of food to both eat and make, in fact we probably eat it at least once a week in our house. Being from the US, while growing up my family would often indulge in Tex-Mex cuisine, but these days I’m interested in more authentic Mexican food (though I would be lying if I said I don’t enjoy still the odd Tex-Mex dish). I feel like food is such an important part of culture that it can be a good gateway into immersing oneself into it, who doesn’t like sharing their traditions with other people? I’ve found this to at least be true of anywhere I have travelled, everyone loves to share tips and tricks on how to make things. While I love to learn traditional dishes, and that secret ingredient that makes them what they are, I also really enjoy experimenting and weaving traditional elements into new dishes.
Now that I feel like my corn tortilla skills have reached a satisfactory level, with me being able to gauge by feel rather than actual measurement (this took several attempts from using the wrong ingredients to making them too dry), I figured it’s time to start focusing on something else. I’m a big fan of trying to make delicious vegetarian/vegan alternatives to meat dishes (I have an ongoing shrimp project that’s focusing on this very thing), so I decided to come up with a vegetarian alternative to carnitas. My first attempt at this was folly, and I wasn’t particularly impressed with the outcome. It did however allow me to make note of what I felt was wrong and right with the recipe. This go around I felt like I really nailed it, and we consumed the vegetarian “no-carnitas” with gusto as a taco filling. Are they the same as regular carnitas? Absolutely not, nothing works quite as well as pork fat for making an unctuous tender topping, but they were quite delicious nonetheless, and if you are looking for delicious alternatives for cutting back on your meat intake or making the complete jump into a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle I’d say this makes a pretty good stand-in.
Without further ado here is a recipe for Banana Blossom “No-Carnitas”
First Part of Recipe:
2 tins Banana Blossom (if you want more filling you can add another tin to this recipe)
2 Guajillo Chiles
1 Pasilla Chile
(Note: If you have access to nice fresh chiles those are also a good option to add, especially if you like things spicy)
2 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Ground Coriander
2 tsp Oregano
8 Cloves of Garlic Roughly Chopped
1 Medium Onion Cut into Chunks
1 Vegetable Stock Cube
2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
Hefty Pinch of Salt
700 ml of Orange Juice (if you want you could add about ¼ cup of coke to this as well, but I would only suggest this if you have access to Coke made with real sugar, which without special ordering I did not)
Add all of these ingredients to a slow cooker and let cook for 6-7/8 hours (my cooker has an auto setting that lets me split the time between high and low settings)
After the Banana Blossom has become incredibly tender, using a straining spoon take out and set aside. Strain the rest of the chiles and garlic and onion reserving a bit of the juice and blend in a food processor until a paste is made.
Second Part of Recipe:
¼ tsp Ground Coriander
½ tsp Ground Cumin
¼ tsp Chile Powder
½ tsp Garlic Granules
1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
Salt to Taste
Prepared Chilli Paste to taste, roughly a Tbsp at a time
Juice of ½ a Lime
1 Tbsp of your preferred Cooking Oil (mine is Olive Oil)
Heat skillet with oil and then add banana blossom to pan, it should break apart really easily as you begin to stir it. Add the dried seasonings and your desired amount of chile paste cooking until some becomes a bit crispy (it is unlikely to go really crispy the way that true carnitas does), and then deglaze the pan with the lime juice.
Serve over rice with beans, in tortillas for tacos or however you wish. I found that two tins of banana blossom made enough filling for three tacos each for two people.
Hope you enjoy!