If you’re looking for Mexican-themed recipes to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, try these tasty tacos from the MOB Kitchen cookbook – the mango salsa cuts through the rich pork like a dream.
SERVES 4
4 hrs 10 mins
INGREDIENTS
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) sliced pork belly
1 red onion
2 garlic cloves
ground cumin
smoked paprika
1–2 bottles of beer
olive oil
salt and pepper
THE SALSA
1 mango
cherry tomatoes
fresh coriander (cilantro)
4 spring onions (scallions)
1 red chilli
1 lime
THE BLACK BEANS
2 garlic cloves
1 x 400-g (14-oz) tin of black beans
TO SERVE
8 mini tortillas
fresh coriander (cilantro)
1 lime
Preheat the oven to 150°C fan (170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3).
Place the pork belly slices in a roasting pan along with a quartered red onion and the whole garlic cloves. Add 2 teaspoons of cumin and 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over 400 ml (14 fl oz) of beer and add enough water to cover the pork.
Cover the roasting pan with foil and cook in the hot oven for 4 hours.
In the meantime, make your salsa. Chop a mango into cubes and add to a bowl along with a handful of quartered cherry tomatoes, a handful of chopped coriander, chopped spring onions, chopped chilli and the juice of a lime. Add a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt. Mix together and chill in the fridge.
After 4 hours, remove the pork from the oven but leave the oven on. Take off the foil and break up the pork with a fork. Place back in the oven for 20 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated and you have your dark, sticky pork.
Black bean time. Fry the chopped garlic cloves in some olive oil. After 20 seconds, add the black beans but don’t throw away the water in the tin. Coat the beans in the garlic and oil, and then mash them up. Add the water from the tin, and reduce down until you have a black bean mush.
Once everything is ready, heat up the mini tortillas, add a dollop of black bean mush, then your pork, and then the salsa.
Throw on some coriander leaves and squeeze over some lime juice. Heaven in a mouthful!
The featured recipe is from MOB Kitchen: Feed 4 or more for under £10 by Ben Lebus.
